Mapping the Ancestral Home

It all started with a simple question: When did Anton Washkowiak die? I looked in all the obvious places: the social security death index, the church death records, the church cemetery index. Nothing. Sure he was born in 1863, but I still didn’t think it would be that hard to find out when he died. I had figured out the dates of death for the rest of his family who made the journey to the U.S. including his mother and  five of his siblings (his father and three other siblings had passed away in Poland). Why could I not find the date for Anton?…

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The Ancestral Landscape

In trying to better understand the life of my ancestors, I usually study maps from different time periods of the area in which they lived. Knowing how the landscape changed over time can offer clues to choices the family made such as relocating or marrying someone from another village. I also like to have this background information in case I ever visit the area because what I would see today might not have been what was there during my ancestor’s lifetime. For example, this was what I discovered when I recently found myself browsing the Military Survey maps linked from the…

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