What's in a name? (Part 2)

It occurs to me that I should have split the last post into two sections and just stick the Bieda family by itself. And I have to say this again. They are driving me crazy.

Today I started looking in directories again thinking the name changes I found yesterday will make a difference. I even looked in one with Lewis Bieda that I already saved. And then I saw it. Bigenski. Oh but isn't that the same one I found yesterday? Nope. The ole switcheroo with an i and an e. Well that's ok I thought. Not too bad I can deal with one more. So I go to another one. And again. Biegnski. Ok just put the i and e together now and slide the gn together. Sure.

Before today I had no record of my peeps in the 1930 census. After looking in all these directories I think to myself "Self!"... Sorry I had an Emril moment.. if you don't get that don't worry. Anyway I did a search in the 1930 census and found Joseph and his wife, Jakob and Anna, and Alex and his wife. With yet another spelling. So at this point I'm getting kind of ticked off. Not to mention that Alex, who already has several variations to his first name, is spelled Elex in this census. AH! I believe it was at this point where I wanted to crack open a bottle of vodka at 10:30am. But I digress. The last name this time was Bignskie. See it's not major differences but if you try to search for them, even using the soundex or whatever it's called on ancestry.com.... it's just annoying. I also want to add that Alex or whatever the hell his name is eventually moved to Philly with his family. Philly is a whole hell of a lot bigger than Shamokin and with this many name variations, and possibly more... how will I ever find him?

A brief note on the 1930 census, I actually did find some helpful info. For example Joseph's wife Mary (not to be confused with Alex's wife Mary) and her parents were born in Germany. Yet the language in the home was Polish. But go back to thinking about the crazy borders back then. It also said they arrived in 1908. That could be helpful, but then again for the Biedas they said it was 1912 and not 1913. I also saw Alex's children in the 1930 census: Joseph, Eleanor and Angela. Now I called my busia to confirm about Angela and she wasn't sure. She gave me the name Marie before, so I don't know. The last thing I found was that Joseph, Jakob, and Anna couldn't speak English. I can kind of see Jakob and Anna but Joseph? He was only 11 when he came over, and this was 17yrs later so he should have picked up something. Anyway.

Lewis was living in a different ED. So again I had to fiddle around to find it but it wasn't that bad. I had the address which helped me before. And when I got to 1212 Hemlock... dear lord I almost had a fit. Borzinskie.  Its not even a mistake in the indexing. Its clearly a cursive 'or' on the sheet.

So here they are:
Bieda
Biedzinski
Budzinskie
Beginskie
Bigenski
Biegnski
Bignskie
Borzinskie

And I thought the Lapinsky's were bad! I still haven't found Jakob. I know in 1936-37 he was living at 440 s. Pearl and in 1948 he was at 34 s. Franklin. I checked both on the 1940 census. So I don't know where the guy is. Or was I should say. Hopefully I won't have to do a part 3 for this name thing.

That's all for now!

Waiting.... Waiting... Still Waiting...

NARA is clearly friends with the FGCU internets people. It's like deja vous. really hope that's spelled right. Anyway. Every semester FGCU students log on to gulfline at 12am hoping to get their pick of classes. The lower down the food chain the less chance you'll get that class. Most of us wouldn't get in until 1am. Freshman year I just said screw it, went to bed, and woke up a few hours later to try again. The 1940 census seems to be going the same way. This time instead of complaining to room mates or people on facebook I can complain with people on twitter. 

Right now Ancestry.com doesn't have the Pennsylvania records up yet. So I sit and wait. And wait.

But it's not like I haven't been through this before. I shouldn't be surprised but all the genealogy peeps on twitter are very mature about it. All you would hear on FB about FGCU was cursing and complaining. On twitter people are giving tips and good luck and congrats for getting in! 

In other news. I went through some photos yesterday. Some of my moms photo albums and pictures when I was little and blah blah blah. Tried to organize some of the stuff (the one album was a mess!) My mom told me to look through and throw out any blurry ones or doubles. Now, as a borderline hoarder/pack rat/photo nerd this was... difficult to say the least. I still have photos on memory cards from a few years ago because I thought "I might need that one!!!" or "oh, its blurry but maybe I can touch it up somehow" Anyway I did get rid of quite a few pictures. 

All this blabbing and still no progress. *sigh* Well, I'm going to pick my mom up from work to go for lunch today so maybe when I get back something will change.