Mother's Day

My Experiences with Mother's Day
Every year on Mother's Day, and the few days leading up to it, my Facebook news feed gets loaded down with Thank You Mother notes. I can understand for the majority of people, this is a normal every year occurrence. I admit I never used to think of this day as something horrible and with dread. When I was growing up, I even went and made my own cards to give to my mother on this day.

One of my Mother's Day cards growing up

Then I moved from the US to Australia and I was so busy with the move, I didn't realize the day I picked, May 9, was Mother's Day. I remembered earlier that day, but between getting to the airport and my mother's "Well are we done yet? Can I leave?" mixed with with "If you get into any trouble over there I don't want to know" type of statements the statement for Happy Mother's Day just withered away along with my positive attitude on that day.

Then after we married and started to try for children, each step got a little harder during certain days and holidays. This was one of them. Now? Now, after over 15 years of trying to have children, and still no live birth, during these days, I just try and stay away from anything to do with the day because I do understand people being happy about it, but it just makes me feel like crap and a loser as a woman and wife.

How Genealogy helped me
In saying this, I was grateful this year too. Huh? How can you still feel like crap and a loser as a wife and woman?

This year I found ancestors - past women - who I am related to and am thankful they were so strong and together have made me who I am. If these women didn't have the courage and guts then I wouldn't be who I am today.


My Mother

My mother and I

My mother is very strong. Back when she gave birth to me, my father, who was in the US Navy, was out to sea when she went into labor. She was helped by my paternal grandmother to be driven to West Point but then also had to deal with having 4 children at home waiting for her while taking care of a newborn (me). This is the woman I am named after - only because she lost the bet and I'm a girl.

My Maternal & Paternal Grandmothers

My Paternal Grandmother

My Maternal Grandmother

Both of these women were very strong and brave. 
My paternal grandmother, Jean/Geneowfa, who was in my life until my teens, survived Russia, Poland during WW1 and the fighting before WW1. Later, she moved to the US at the age of 10 and learned English and about America. Later, she married, had children, and owned businesses in Newburgh, NY. Everyone loved and respected her and knew better than to try and take advantage of her.

My maternal grandmother, Janet (whom I'm part named after), I only had met a few times in my life. She was born in Pennsylvania,USA. She had many brother's and sisters, but sadly lost a few siblings before they turned 5 due to diseases. Later, she met my grandfather, married and moved to New York to be near his family. They struggled as employment wasn't the best, but she always had her mother and sister's nearby in Newburgh, NY.

My Great Grandmother's

Maryanna Ślepowron Wojtkowska

Geneowfa/Jean's mother was Maryanna. She grew up in Russia Poland among fighting and unrest. However, she married and had my grandmother while going through this. Then her husband went to the US while her and my grandmother stayed behind. After World War 1, they were finally able to leave Russia Poland on the last ship out before they closed the boarders. She arrived in the US without knowing how to speak the language and had to go through a short interview before being allowed into the country. Once inside, she was able to find relatives and set up a life for her and her family.

No known picture of Anna Klepperich

My paternal great grandmother was Anna Klepperich. She was born in Germany. I'm still looking for information on her.

No known picture of Bronislaw Ostrzycki Jagodzinski

 My maternal great grandmother was Bronisława Ostrzycki Jagodzinski. She, too, was born in Russia Poland, but left with her father and some siblings when she was around 14 years old. Her father changed her name to Bridget when they first arrived. However, when her and her husband split, she then changed her name to Bernice and moved to Newburgh, NY to be near her daughters. 

Ane / Annie / Anna Hansine Larsen Gauquie

My maternal great grandmother was born as Ane Hansine Larsen but was known later in life as Annie Larsen Gauquie. She was born in Alrup, Denmark. By the time she was 17 she was a servant on a farm like her brother and had no mother, father or grandmother. At the age of 19, she left Denmark for St. Paul, Mn.in the USA. When she was 24, she met her husband and moved to NY where she was a dairy farmer's wife and mother. She lost one child to drowning and another caught Polio. She milked cows and was even known to been injured by them. She was very loved and well thought of in the community. 



My 2x great grandmothers

 

No known picture of Hansine Emeline Nielsdatter

My maternal 2x great grandmother of Ane (or Annie), was Hansine Emeline Nielsdatter of Denmark. I am still
researching her but I do know she was 42 years old when she passed away according to documents I had found so far.

No known picture of Florentina Van Rompaye

My maternal 2x great grandmother of Joannes Julius was Florentina Van Rompaye Gauquie of Wiekevorst, Belgium. She was a very strong woman as she was a servant when she met her future husband. She got pregnant and was let go of her position, so lived with her widowed brother in-law when she had my great grandfather Joannes Julius. My 2x great grandfather was drafted into the service and it wasn't until he returned home after serving that he found he had a child. Unfortunately, I do not know where she died or is buried.

Walerja (Valerie) Rutkowski Ostrzycki

Another of my maternal 2x great grandmother of Bronisława Ostrzycki Jagodzinski was Walerja (Valerie) Rutkowski Ostrzycki. She was born in Russia Poland where she married and had children.
In fact, when she was 16, she knew who she wanted to marry, but needed special permissions. After going to the church 3 times for bann's or released in the church, her parents finally relented and let them marry. After she had children, the whole family (herself, husband and children) all left Russia Poland for Pennsylvania USA. Where she worked in many positions (including nurse) and lost her 3 youngest children to diseases. She ended up dying from Hodgkin's Disease.

Other Notable Women

On my maternal Jagodzinski's side, I do not know any further information.

On my paternal side, I do not know any further information.

I do have other great's I can go back to but there's only a few lines I can go back that far unfortunately. However, I am still not done looking...and learning.

These are the women that made me who I am, even though I have never met some of them. Each one, a you can see, had a strength in their own way to be proud of and I am proud of them and to be a related to them. If they could do what they did their much different world than what we know of today, then I can surely do the same in today's world. These women give me strength and courage to go on and try things I never would have otherwise.


In fact, I think the women's restroom sign is correct - that its NOT a dress - when you look at this strong line of women I come from.
 

Taken from http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/bathroom-sign-gender-equality-it-was-never-a-dress-tania-katan-1.jpg

To go through what these women have all gone through, they must have been super women.

As 2014 closes and 2015 Opens Genealogy reflection

Usually as each year goes by, things are pretty stable when it comes to my family. Usually I have a number of members who are fighting, other that are getting along, and some are just completely ignored. This is within a normal year.

2014 was so very different.

Refinding Family
I found a whole group of cousins and other relatives on two different continents I didn't know anything about. Stunned as one of the bigger group lived only minutes away from where I did most of my growing up before I moved to Australia in 1997. This stunned me as I thought my mother's brothers were both gone forever when I was young. Only to find, one had died, but the other was very much alive and living not far from where I used to live.

Even after getting used to this idea for months, I'm still appalled I didn't know him or any of his children growing up. How could anyone blank out a whole sibling for some reason?  I know siblings fight and don't get along - I've had 2 sisters have haven't gotten along in over 30 years - but we still acknowledge the one sister even though she's a pain in the butt. Further, I do know if she ever needed anything, we would all be there no matter how mad we are at her, but to just blank someone out completely? Wow. I couldn't ever think how or why this would be done.

Sounds like a great thing - National Red Cross Societies in Europe are publishing 180 photos of people looking for their missing relatives in the hope of reconnecting families.

Thankfully, I have now connected with my maternal paternal (my mother's father's side) cousins and am getting to know them even if its slowly. Hopefully one day we will be at the point where we can meet when we go over to visit face to face.

I have also, connected with the maternal maternal (my mother's mother's side) cousin as well and again am getting to know her slowly too. This area is a bit more complicated as she speaks Polish and I only speak English. I can see me trying to learn Polish somehow which would make better communication for us.

For those new cousins I have found, I am very grateful that we've had the chance to meet and I can't wait to know you even better over the next amount of years. 

Information Waterfall
I have started to learn more about my ancestors (as you can tell by the above reconnections) as the information is now starting to come online and is very helpful. In fact, what was once a drop of water here and there is now a full blast waterfall. This is one reason why I haven't posted here for some time. I'm trying to capture as much information as I can.

I can imagine I would have looked like this earlier this year

Not this is bad at all. In fact, the slow drop of water was one reason why I shook my head and put away my researching for years. Sometimes its better to admit the time isn't right and set it aside to restart later. My later came this year after I finished one of my certifications and I found myself looking up some information and actually finding some good information.

In fact, I've tried to step back from this for the past few weeks now because it was starting to consume my life. Have I stopped completely? Nope, I'm just getting my paperwork in as much order as I can, so when I start to go forward again, I'll have direction.

Education for all
In the last bit of the year, I was asked to write up a short course for doing genealogy. Wow. There's so much information that you have to know and know how to do.  Then how do I explain it to everyone? That's another hurdle in itself. I sat down and thought of things from scratch and outlined things quite a bit and came up with an 8 week course, and then a 5 week course.

Then I delivered the 5 week course. People liked it, but I know it can be done better. The question is what do I leave out and what do I leave in? I do have to cover the parts beginners do by mistake only because they don't know any better. Thing about it what's the sense in doing family history if the people you are teaching are going to be making those same mistakes that annoy those of us who have been doing this for years? Better to nip them at the start rather than try to get them to stop later on.


Where can I see 2015 heading?
2015 is going to be another busy one for me.

Direct Family
Gauquie's & Rampaye's
There's the family I'm determined to find out how the Gauquie's and the Rampaye's are connected. I mean really determined. My game plan is this:

Fan tree

1. In the last few weeks, I've taken to start going through each of these names and writing down the relatives information on FamilySearch. I will keep on this until I've exhausted this research tool.

2. There are a few other sites I've found these families in, and I will add these to the information in step 1.

3. I will then try and connect all the names as much as I can. This is all called the fan method I learned the other day.

4. If all else fails, I will contact others directly asking them about people. I've already posted on a forum about my ancestors and so far I haven't had any responses back and its been about 2 weeks.

Wojtkowski's & Ślepowron's
This is a bit more difficult than the one above. This is because they are in Poland (along with all the different languages) but also because the communities are small and I think whatever relatives where there have either been murdered by the Russians or have moved to other sections of Europe.

DNA
Because of this, I've asked my father to do a genealogy DNA kit. He has agreed and as I am writing this it is on its way to him in the USA. I will then be able to see what DNA is his and what DNA is my mother's. I'm hoping to have some hits with his DNA - if people will email me back that is.

Ostrzycki
This is one of the maternal maternal (my mother's grandmother) families I found this year. One of them is my great cousin in Poland I mentioned above. However, there are other relatives in the US we both want to reconnect with. Hopefully, this year I can find out more about them and contact them. It would be great to get to know more about them too.

The Jagodzinski brick wall which will take bricks out of eventually - just give me some time

Jagodzinski's - Brick wall
This is another family with is out there some place. I know there are others due to some slight research I have done. I have called in my maternal grandfather's alien paperwork and found out some interesting information. However, this is still one of my main brick walls that are out there. I keep telling him I will find his family - somehow.

Classes
I have been asked to do a few smaller classes on searching family history websites. It should be interesting to see what I come up with there. Further, there is talk of a group meeting in a community space to talk family history.

The community space in Knox City, Victoria Australia in 2014.

Then there is the longer class information I will have to go back and tweak to get it to flow better.

I will have to look to see if I can find anywhere that teaches Polish. Last time I did this a few years ago, there was no one that currently did this.

Giving back
In 2014, I learned how to do what we call indexing. Not only did it help others in finding information, but it also taught me what information could be found in some of the documents. For anyone reading this, please give it a shot and give back. Its free through FamilySearch and one batch takes less than an hour to do. I would recommend it to anyone.

I will need to get back into do this as life has taken over some aspects of things and indexing was one such thing.

Family Growth
As much as I love reconnecting and growing my family through research, we have also been trying to grow our tiny family at least one more tiny person - a baby. This past year we've done 3 rounds of IVF and with still no positive outcome.

After a transfer in 2014

In 2015, we are looking at doing at least one more round. I think the specialist is throwing everything she has at it this time. Hopefully, round number 5 will be for us.

As I close this post, please keep in mind, those relatives around you won't be there forever - cherish them no matter how angry and upset you get at them. One day, they will no longer be around for you to feel that way about. Besides you can never have too much family. Think of those people out there that have no family whatsoever - you don't want to become one of them due to things you have said and did.

All the best & stay safe in 2015!