Month: December 2012

CategoriesFamily Tree

December 8th

Posted on 15 December 2012by Brian Zalewski

Xander LeeAs I did with our daughter when she was born, I like to see which other ancestors or related individuals our newly born son, Xander, shares his birthday with on December 8th.

According to the “Dates and Anniversaries” page on my family tree site, these things happened on December 8th.

Born

  • Johanna THOMPSON – 1852 – She is his paternal 5th great aunt, the daughter of William & Francis (QUINET) THOMPSON.
  • Leocadia SZULTA – 1886 – His paternal 4th great aunt, daughter of Ignatz & Nepomuncena (SYLDAKT) SZULTA.
  • Charles M LAST – 1894 – His paternal 3rd great uncle, son of Carl & Augusta (LUEDTKE) LAST.

Died

  • Elisabeth FLECK – 1769 – His maternal 7th great aunt, daughter of Johann & Elisabetha (UHL) FLECK.
  • Mehitable NEWBURY – 1787 – His maternal 8th great grandmother, married to James ROGERS, III.

Married

CategoriesBig NewsFamily TreeFeaturedPersonal

Keepin’ The ZALEWSKI Line Going

Posted on 8 December 2012by Brian Zalewski

20121208-162158.jpgThe day finally came after a bit of waiting. After taking his sweet time and not being sure when he would decide to make his grand entrance, we welcomed Xander Lee Zalewski into the family. He was born at 3:15pm on December 8th weighing in at 7lb 4oz. His middle name, Lee, is taken from his grandfather’s (my father-in-law’s) middle name, like Aerissa’s middle name, Jean, is from the middle name of her grandmother (my mother) and great-grandmother.

Aerissa is excited to have a little brother. She wouldn’t stop talking about it in the days leading up to his birth. I’m excited to have a son to go along with my daughter. It will be a sort of new experience raising a boy (though I have some first-hand experience.) Up until now, raising Aerissa was pretty neutral in terms of gender as she is still quite young and hasn’t yet got into her “girly things” stage.

It’s nice to add another branch to my own family tree that will hopefully extend for many more generations. It’s also nice to keep the Zalewski name going down the line. I wrote a bit more about the next child on my wife’s website, if you want to read it.

CategoriesFamily TreePersonal

Memories of Tanta

Posted on 7 December 2012by Brian Zalewski
Tanta, 3rd from left. Click for larger.

The first funeral I remember attending was 25 years ago when I was 7 years old on December 7th, 1987.

My real great-grandmother passed away in May 1941 when my grandfather was only 20. My great-grandfather remarried a few years later to Agnes Pulshinski. I’m told she wasn’t much of a fan of the “step” prefix and since she wasn’t a true blood relative, she told her kids and grandkids to call her Tanta. From a previous post, commentors on the site helped me figure out that “Tanta” usually means “Aunt” in German, but is also sometimes used the way she used it.

I knew Tanta pretty well in my 7 years. I remember her as being a petite, white-haired old woman. She was very nice and I remember her small apartment having plastic on all of her furniture. I don’t remember really being that sad when she passed away as I was not extremely close to her and since I was 7, maybe I didn’t process it. It is interesting that I remember the date of her funeral 25 years later.

Rest in Peace, Tanta.