I know it sounds like a show on National Geographic, but it’s not. I’m not sure why I didn’t this earlier, but it’s never too late to try. After finding my ZALEWSKI family’s passenger record, I originally decided to see if I could find them in Baltimore city directories since it seems like they spent a few years there. This finally took me back to the Milwaukee City Directories since there are no online versions for Baltimore from 1889-1892.
Ancestry has a lot of Milwaukee City Directories online scattered from like 1880 to 1939 with most of 1880-1900 available. I started with 1889 to see if the ZALEWSKI family made it there yet, but they did not. I first found Frank ZALEWSKI in the 1892 (well, two actually, go figure.)
I first thought that the Frank ZALEWSKI at 28 Wright St was my Frank, since that is in the same area that the family finally settled throughout the next 50 years. I then remembered a post I made a few weeks ago about finding another connected family that came to visit “Franz Zaleski.” That post had some pretty good first-hand evidence that my Frank ZALEWSKI was living at 902 Pulaski St. I also traced the ZALEWSKI list in the directories up until 1900. While the Frank ZALEWSKI on Pulaski seems to move to 900 Fratney St in about 1898, the “butcher” at 28 Wright moves down a block at at earlier point. Long story short, it points to the Pulaski Frank ZALEWSKI being my great-great-grandfather.
One interesting piece of information I see in this listing, and a few others, is the mention of a Jacob ZALEWSKI also living at 902 Pulaski St. Frank did not have a son named Jacob (not even a son, period, in 1892.) My (first) guess is that Jacob is at least family, maybe even his brother. I found Jacob and his family living at 900 Pulaski St in the 1900 Census, incorrectly transcribed as Jacob Falewski (see what I have to deal with.) It lists his birth year as 1863, which matches up as a possible sibling of Frank (born 1858.)
Now, it’s just a possibility. I have a lot more research to do, but it does open up a whole new avenue of ideas. Another moral here, check all types of records. Even these small ones can do wonders.
Ancestry has the 1890 Baltimore City Directory kind of “hidden” in the 1890 Census Substitute database instead of the City Directories database: http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=4630. There is a Jacob Zaleski living at 1402 Thames, a laborer. No images are available, and no other similar names for the Baltimore directory. In the same database, there was a Frank Zalewski, laborer at 305 Cedar, Scranton, PA in 1890. Probably the same guy at 435 Willow, Scranton, PA in 1891 (also a laborer). Also found Frank Zalewski at 28 Clarke in Milwaukee, 1889-90, a butcher.
Footnote.com has Baltimore City Directories for the years 1863-1865, 1867-1868, 1871-1903, 1905-1918, 1920-1923. The Zalewskis I found were there from 1905 forward, but I did not check spelling variations.
Let me know if I can look up anything else!
Thanks. They would possibly be there from 1889-1891, but there are rumors of an Ohio stop and Chicago and maybe a Nebraska one, too. It was a far reach.
The Frank at 28 Clarke is the one I talk about in my post. He moved from 28 Wright to 28 Clarke, which is about a block away.