First, I'm going to try and break down the surnames in my family. Obviously the main ones are Persing and Bieda but theres more in there. On the Polish side theres also Lapinsky (+ other spelling variations), Jedryka, Klaus, and a few others. Some major ones from my Persing side include: Pitner, Hauck, Kase, Hungerford, and many many others. (It is literally insane how many people are on that side of my tree).
Now we get to the good stuff. First I'm going to tell a little about the Biedas.
In Polish Bieda means 'poverty'. Doesn't sound to pretty when looking back, but hey.
My grandmother's dad was Louis/ Ludwik Bieda. He arrived in Ellis Island in March 1913 when he was 91/2 years old.
He came over with two older brothers, Alexandor (18) and Jozef (11), and his parents Jakob and Anna. (There was another boy "Walter" but he was already married and he stayed in Poland) They settled in Shamokin, Pa and the boys became coal miners. At some point, they all changed their names to Biedzinski(e), except for Louis. Louis later married Mildred Lapinsky and they remained in Shamokin. Jozef and Alex both married. Jozef did not have any children. Alex and his wife moved to Philadelphia
The Bieda's came from Galicia, or what is now Malopolski, Poland. The last recorded place before boarding a ship in Bremen, Germany was Okocim.
They probably resided in Tarnow at some point.
I have baptismal records for Jakob and Louis. I also have a marriage certificate for Jakob and Anna. All the records are in latin and have bad handwriting. I think I have all the names sorted out, except for one. The good think about these Polish church records? They list the parents name, AND the names of the grandparents. So boom. Two generations.
I'll get to those later. What else will I blog about if I post everything now? If anyone decides to read this why not leave them in suspense?
After Louis died in 1968/9, Mildred went to Poland to visit "Walter" in Krakow. I'm still gathering details on that.
Unfortunately we had one family member that decided to throw out a bunch of things when Mildred passed away, so that makes it very hard to find anything on my Polish roots. Gotta love family! *sarcasm*
Jakob Bieda + Anna Klaus
-Walter
-Alexandor
-Jozef
-Ludwik + Mildred Lapinsky
--My grandmother + my grandpa Persing
---My mom
----Me
Hey I have always wondered where my last name came from and the history behind it. My last name is in fact Bieda. We have always assumed it was Polish/German. I have only been able to trace my family history back to my great grandpa! According to ancestry.com he came straight from Germany which I'm not too sure of...I have very little information. When my great grandpa was still living he wouldn't share anything about himself that we didn't already know. I love to know more. I don't recognize any of the other names posted above but like I said I know very little.
ReplyDeleteMy great grandfather went from Poland to Bremen, Germany to board a ship to America. Also, depending on the time period, the country's boarders could have been changing or different then they are now. I would suggest looking at the ancestry.com message boards. There are some postings for the last name Bieda. I haven't found any connections but you might have better luck. The Ellis Island website is also very good for looking up ship records (and its free!). Good luck with your research and let me know if you find a connection to my Biedas :)
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