The Lapinsky Curse

Let me just get this out there... the curse isn't any spooky voodoo stuff. Nothing paranormal. Just genetics.

The Lapinsky women all have one thing in common (excluding maybe 1-2 females per generation). We used to all joke about it. But now I'm determined to beat it. Lets look at a photo to see if you all can guess what the common feature is.



These are the Lapinsky women (and Stanley in the middle). My great grandmother Mildred Bieda (Lapinsky) is in the greenish brown dress.

Now I'm going to go out on a limb and say potato pancakes, pierogies and kluskies and bacon *might* have been a contributing factor. Perhaps. Milly is the smallest of the others but she's not a skinny minny either. *pauses, waits for lightning strike or similar sign....*

In any case, most of the women on the Polish side of the family have a little extra weight particularly around the mid section or that little pooch. Annoying as hell.

Obviously I'm not going to show photo proof that we all have it. I value my life too much.

Anyway I've been working on that and so far so good. Lapinsky curse is slowly disappearing. But it got me thinking about family genetics and similarities. There may be a genetic tendency but thats no excuse. I'm going to kick the Lapinsky curse in the bum.

That's all for now folks. I'm toying with an idea for the next post. If you watch Who do You Think You Are on NBC you may or may not know there is a drinking game. For all interested you can go here. On a separate note, last week I was watching Harry Potter 3 and found a Harry Potter workout. Example: Harry faints from a dementor- 20 jumping jacks. And for everyone who has seen #3.... thats quite a bit. So I was toying with that and WDYTYA... What about a WDYTYA workout? Take some of the ideas from there and just switch out drinking for crunches or something (yes not as fun as alcohol... but healthier!) I'll work on the idea a bit more and hopefully post it before next week. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If no one's interested then hey I'll do it for me.

Until next time

Back to Bieda

This past week I noticed that I've had a lot of blog views from Poland. Particularly to the Bieda pages of my blog. It's been driving me crazy. I keep thinking "oo is it a relative?" So I thought I'd post some more stuff on the Bieda family. Or perhaps repeat some stuff. Who knows.

I have some documents that I need some help decoding. I can figure out the general stuff. Sort of. Its in Latin and Polish and the dreaded 18-1900s cursive writing.

Jakob Bieda's baptism record

So I know where Poreba Spytkowska is on a map. It's between Krakow and Tarnow and right next to Okocim. This is good. I know there are the parents listed and their parents. Also good. They're in my tree already. Don't know what the B name is under father though. And I don't know what the "Patrial" part is. Or what the stamps or signatures are.

Next up we have the marriage certificate for Jakob Bieda and Anna Klaus

Sponsas I'm guessing means parents? since... Those are the same names. Once again don't understand the box on the right.

Ludwik's Baptism record

Ok so he was born in 1902 BUT the bottom of the paper says 1913. I think it's March. That's when they got on the ship and came over to the good ole USA. So why would they wait to get the paper until then? Why wouldn't they have it on hand?

Ok next up we have a screen shot from the Ellis Island site. The ship manifest from the Kronprincessen Cecile (slightly edited in paint to point out my peeps)



Ok so this needs some translating. Luckily I know what it says. I just don't know what it means.

Jakob is on line 5. First red dot. Followed by Anna, Alex, Jozef and Ludwik

The area with the red ( and arrow is the "Whether going to join a relative or friend, if so their name and address"

It says "br. in law Wojciech Niemiec 412 Harrison St. Shamokin, Pa"

the br. in law is on 2 lines. Not sure about the numbers for the street.

Anyway, like I said in an earlier post, I did some digging and found a Wojciech and Petronella Niemiec in the same cemetery as Jakob and Anna. (Just realized "digging" may not have been the best word choice here... but it's gonna stay). Now I know, Wojciech and Petronella are such common names *eye roll*. Based on the manifest it means Petronella is either Anna or Jakob's sister. Probably Jakob's. Dunno why but that's what my brain says.

Anyone with suggestions about the documents feel free to comment because I sure wouldn't mind the help. 

And to those people from Polska looking at my blog posts... PLEASE COMMENT! If you know anything I'd love to hear it! Thanks in advance! I know you're out there somewhere.

“He who has no fools, knaves, or beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning.”

 Recently I've been into castles and the UK and such. Last night and today I've been going through a list of English castles to see who I'm related to. So I reached Herstmonceux castle and read that construction began in 1441. The man behind it was Sir Roger Fiennes. Now, if you've read my previous posts, particularly the one with Bellatrix Lestrange and the Peverell family, you know I'm into Harry Potter. Just a little bit. So when I see the name "Fiennes" I think of Harry Potter. Why? Because Ralph Fiennes plays Voldemort in Harry Potter (he also plays Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon... you all know I majored in Forensics and LOVE Hannibal Lecter right?) 

So I see the name Sir Roger Fiennes and I think to myself... "hmmm I wonder." So I plug it into geni.com and I find out he is my third cousin 20 times removed. Very cool. I'm related to another person who lived in a castle. At the same time, I wander over to wikipedia and type in Ralph Fiennes. Usually for actors it just gives the parents but it also lists his grandfather Sir Maurice Fiennes with years for birth and death. Plug that into geni. While geni was doing its search I see that Ralph is the 8th cousin of Prince Charles of Wales. Well I'm distantly related to the Prince of Wales. So I open up another geni tab on my computer and search for Prince Charles. Then I pushed the little pin to see if Sir Roger and Prince Charles are related. Prince Charles is Sir Roger's 16th great grandson. Yadda Yadda Yadda I keep going and see that Ralph is Roger's 18th great grandson. See my brain did know there was a connection between the two! 

So Ralph Fiennes is my 16th cousin once removed. I'm related to the man who portrayed Lord Voldemort and Francis Dolarhyde. Both psychopathic serial killers. Ah I love it.

Which brings me to my next point. In every family tree there the potential for that crazy one person. Well my tree is full of them. In the WSJ article it said I was related to Charles Manson but I could't remember how. Well of course I wouldn't find the answer until AFTER the article is published. Anyway, on the online version of the article there's a video with the editor talking to a woman. She says "the one woman interviewed is related to Charles Manson" and the other woman was like... and she brags about this? Truth is... I'm a forensics nerd. I love criminal minds. I love Silence of the Lambs. I read Kathy Reichs. Bones. Murder. Love it all. 

So here are some of my creepy relatives:

Charles Manson: 18th cousin once removed

Vlad the Impaler (Dracula): first cousin 21 times removed's wife's second cousin once removed 

Countess Elizabeth Bathory (bathed in blood of the girls she killed): 12th cousin 19 times removed

Herman Mudgett (built a "castle" for torture): 12th cousin 6 times removed

Lizzie Borden (murdered father & stepmother with hatchet): 10th cousin 7 times removed

Ivan the Terrible: 8th cousin 17th times removed

I'm sure I'll find or remember more crazy people that I'm related to. But I'd say that is plenty for now.

Extra Extra!

Ok I'll warn you, I am very excited right now. Like that one person in the SNL skit "Surprise Party". Haven't seen it? Well you should. But right now I'm just so FRIGGIN EXCITED.

No, its not a huge genealogical discovery. I haven't found the long lost Polish relatives. I haven't found any new documents. I haven't seen new pictures of my relatives.


BUT

My ancestors are in the news.

From the itty bitty towns of Elysburg and Shamokin.... The Bieda and Persing families are in the news. The coal miners that came from Poland and left a brother behind. My nana in a tree. Even a picture of my pap's dad in a video.

Not just the news mind you. The Wall Street Journal.

Not just a local paper. THEEE Wall Street Journal. Excuse me whilst I squeal in excitement.

Theres the article, an interactive graphic, and a video!

Here is the link

November

I've been a fabulous failure at blogging this month, and last month. I haven't really been able to focus for whatever reason.

Since this is a very short post and nothing worth while will come of it, I'll just suggest some lovely sites for you all.

First of all, History Pin is AWESOME. You basically pin your old pictures to a map with the year they were taken. Pretty cool. I've only posted about 6 but hey, that's all I have to work with. And it's free!

1000 Memories is pretty cool. I haven't done too much with it but you post  pictures and can see your family tree yadda yadda yadda. And it's free!


Anyway. There should be some interesting stuff coming up in the next few weeks so I will keep you all updated. I'll just say... I'm not sure how it happened. Considering there are more experienced genealogy peeps out there. I know, I follow them on twitter. All of them have better blogs than me too. I don't even use proper punctuation half the time. I'll keep you all updated though.

Ok thats all for me. Later peeps!

1 year Bloggerversary!!

Wow! One year since my first genealogy blog post! I currently have 7 lovely followers and for this month so far I have 119 page views. Do you know how many I had last year for October? 19. Thank you all so much!

In the past I've discovered so much thanks to geni and ancestry.com. Love those sites. (I'd love them even more if they were free but hey.) I was introduced to findagrave.com and have contributed to it. Here is a list of my most exciting genealogy moments.

-My grandma sent me a photo album full of pictures taken in Poland <3
-And finding out the location where they were taken (since the writing on the back was Polish)
-Finally finding out the owner of the civil war sword.
-My first genealogical cemetery visits.
-Learning so much more when I was on vacation.
-Finding albums and photos of relatives. Along with old old documents.
-My aunt sent me an old broach... there will be a blog post devoted to it I'm sure

And of course, finding people I'm distantly related to (gen_freak and chickgonebad on twitter). Also also... finding awesome peeps on twitter who are as crazy about this as me. Maybe even more so.

So what's in store for my blog? My mind isn't completely made up but here's a few things I'd like to include:

-My sword pictures. My uncle pointed something out for me
-The broach.
-Perhaps the Polish documents I have. For whatever reason I haven't included those yet.

That all I can think of for now.

Thank you all for visiting! Now have some cake :)

Pictures in Boxes- Part 6

Last blog post with family pictures. Almost finished with vacation photos. Ok lets get going.

My Busia at about 6 mons?

Pretty sure this is in Elysburg looking up Market Street.

No idea. But look at the clothes!

Eleanor

More Eleanor

I'm pretty sure this was on my nana's porch. 

Eleanor/ Nana and Walter, My pap's on the right... I think.

Mildred and Louis with all their kids. My Busia is in the black dress.

Lapinsky... or Lapinski. Mildred in the back on the left. Stanley in the middle.

Marion Hauck in the 1970s

Mildred I think

Love this picture! Eleanor in a tree.

On the back of this theres some writing

Ruth something or other holding Eleanor only 4 months old. Or maybe it says wks... 

No idea. But a pretty cool hat.

Well, thats all folks! I hope you've enjoyed looking at the pictures I've posted :)

 Next time I'll post some pictures of the civil war sword that I took myself.