The only woman I know in this photo (as was noted on it) is my great-grandmother, Emily (Troka) Zalewski, in the middle. I’m not sure who the other two women are since it’s not noted on the photo. This photo, again, is in my grandmother’s collection.

I never got to meet Emily, though neither did my dad. Emily passed away in 1941. My grandfather was only 20 at the time, so I know it must’ve been really hard on him. Not only did he lose his mother, he lost his grandfather (Frank Zalewski) later in 1941 and his grandmother (Anna Lindner) in 1939. I imagine it was also very tough on my great-grandfather, Joseph. I’m not sure what the cause of death was, but it must have been unexpected since she died at only 45 years of age.

At least in the photo she looks to be ready to go out on the town (or to church, I guess.) I can only assume that this was taken in Milwaukee, Wisconsin somewhere since Emily was born there and lived there her whole life.

Well, I was going to write an article asking for some help, but I think I found my answer. When I was a kid, we used to visit my great grandmother (or who I thought was my great grandmother at the time.) As far as I can remember, we always called her “Tanta.” I always thought this was her name, but was told later on that this meant “Grandma” in German. My dad also used to call her this.

It turns out that Tanta was not my actual great grandmother, but my step-great grandmother. My real great grandmother had passed away in the early 1940s and my great grandfather remarried later on. Tanta was Agnes (Pulchinski) Zalewski.I was going to ask if anyone could verify that Tanta meant “Grandma.” I did a Google search a bit ago and found nothing of interest, but right before writing this post I had an idea. I did a search for “Tanta” on the German Google, google.de. The first few entries were for a city called “Tanta,” but then I found a few entries using Tanta to describe a family member. It looks like Tanta is also used for Aunt along with Grandma. I also found entries for the male version, Tante.

Now, is there anyone out there that has better verification than a few people using it on their websites? I’d like to know, since I was using it for most of my childhood. Thanks.

I’d thought I would try a weekly photo post since I have a good collection of photos and it may help spur a research idea. I got the idea from Miriam over at AnceStories.

This week’s photo is from my Zalewski collection. The original photo is my grandmother’s collection. I’m not 100% sure who everyone in the photo is exactly, though I do know a few. The tall man on the right side is my great-grandfather, Joseph Zalewski and  I think that is his wife Emelia (Troka) Zalewski next to him. The man on the left with the cigar is my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Troka and his wife Clara (Szulta) behind him. I don’t know the others, but some of them look familiar. I assume this photo was taken before of after church, which means it was probably at St. Casimir’s church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I saw a post over at The Genetic Genealogist about this and I thought it’d be interesting to check my information.Though, it’s kind of a downer since I don’t really know exactly where my Y-DNA or my mtDNA was in 1808. I can only trace my Zalewski line back to about 1858 with Frank J. Zalewski, in what I think is Prussia (which could be many things.) I’d guess it was in the same general area, so it turns out to be about 4487 miles away traveling at about 22.5 miles per year.

My mtDNA line only goes back to about 1852 with the birth of Ida Schwinte, also in Prussia. I’m guessing the German part of Prussia on this one compared to the Russian/Polish part for my Y-DNA. I can really only assume it’s about the same distance, give or take a few hundred miles.

Well, this didn’t turn out to be as exciting as I though, but it’s still interesting to think about. I have many other lines traced back much further, but just not these two. Maybe it will help spark me to work more on these lines (though I’ve always had an urge to research my Zalewski line more.)

So, how about you? Where was your Y-DNA and mtDNA in 1808?

Sorry for the low post count. Haven’t had a lot of time lately for Genealogy research. Should be back soon enough. For now, I wanted to make sure all new visitors see the Zalewski-related projects I’m working on in case they want to help out. Info linked below.

• Working to compile the largest database of Zalewski family trees this side of Poland. - Zalewski Family Tree Project
• Want to find out as much information as you can about the Zalewski surname and where it comes from? Is your Zalewski ancestor related to one of the many Zalewski families being researched by others? Zalewski DNA Project

Feel free to contact me about anything and everything, either in the comments or using my contact form. I’ll respond to everyone. Thanks.

As the news mentioned last week, Ancestry has opened it’s DNA area. I’ve been a user on Ancestry for many years and I also have become involved in Genetic Genealogy via the National Geographic study and also Family Tree DNA. So, I was more than happy to test our Ancestry’s system.

It was easy to transfer my data over from FTDNA to Ancestry. Currently, they can only transfer from FTDNA or National Geographic, though I imagine if you have your data handy you can convert it yourself. You just need to bring up your DNA data and type in the values into Ancestry from one of these two companies.

It took a few minutes after I entered it for it to find some matches, though unfortunately there are none before 26 generations out. They show you your matches in a nice graphical format including a map. They also give you an estimate of the number of years, along with generations, that this person and you may have a common ancestor.

If you have an Ancestry.com account and also have received your DNA info, I would recommend trying this out. Any and all data can help everyone!

Link: Ancestry DNA

Ok, I did a little work on starting the Zalewski Family Tree Project this weekend. I went through a bit of the 1860-1900 Census records and added the “Zalewski” (and other variations) to one family tree file. It’s just a start, but hopefully this will become the largest collection of Zalewski family trees around. Also, hopefully we can connect the families to each other and help all of the researchers out there. I did notice some interesting things when I was entering some of this data:

• Most of the Zalewski families seemed to have immigrated within the years 1889-1891, as did my Zalewskis.
• They seemed to have collected mainly within the Great Lakes region (Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit.) There were some outside of there and I’m also just starting.
• They usually lived within the same area, but then again most ethnic groups tended to do this.

You can browse the Zalewski Family Tree Project on my site now. If you find a family member in there, let me know and we can “connect the dots,” if you will.

As always, feel free to send your Zalewski information in.

Well, I’ve begun the starting work on my super Zalewski Family Tree project. Unfortunately, I haven’t received many Zalewski trees after I requested them. I’ll have to start marketing it on message boards and mailing lists. Though, I did browse through the documents on I found on footnote.com regarding the Zalewski name. I ran across a document from the “Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation” about a Charles Zalewski in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The document is basically a declaration of intent to be American and not Pro-German. Interesting stuff over there. I have the document linked on my footnote Story Page that I created for some Zalewski stuff (enjoy his hairstyle.) Once I found that document, which includes his parents, siblings and children, I found him living in Milwaukee in the census reports from 1900-1930 along with his brother Frank (not mine, unfortunately.) No connections yet, but it’s still fresh.

Again, all of you Zalewski researchers out there, send in your Zalewski Family Trees. If we get this all put together, hopefully we can find many connections.