10. Shellie’s Family History and Tour to Ancestral Places. Was my Great-Grandfather a gambler?

When the death record microfilm arrived at my local LDS family history center, I searched for my grandfather’s oldest sister Anne, whom Dutchie said died of Diptheria when she was around 5 years old. There were no other Kulawiak families in this parish, so it didn’t take long to find a Kulawiak death in the index. The full record was in Latin, but something didn’t look right. As I slowly deciphered the information, I realized that this 1909 entry was not for a child, but for a 76 year old man…..my great-great grandfather Andreas Kulawiak! But my family was from Odrowąż, why wasn’t he there?

Andreas Kulawiak Death 1909 (click to enlarge)
Andreas Kulawiak Death 1909 (click to enlarge)

If I read the entry right, his wife Rosaline Stafira preceded him in death. Stafira? There was that surname again. We always thought her surname was Pagac. So, did my widower g-g-grandfather die unexpectedly while visiting his son’s family, or did he move with his son’s family to Lusławice while my g-grandfather was over in America? And what happened to his wife Rosaline Stafira. Did Andreas have a 1st wife named Rosaline Pagac and a 2nd wife, also named Rosaline? Here is my wild guess: I think both names belong to Rosaline and one name was her father’s surname and the other name was her mother’s surname. I can’t wait to get to Odrowąż with Zenon and find out!

Although the church records didn’t help me figure out why my Kulawiak family was in Lusławice, they did give some clues about when they moved there……probably around 1907 or 1908. I just can’t figure out why! Some family members told me that our family owned a hotel somewhere in Poland, while others said that Aniela ran a hotel (but may not have owned it). Other family legends suggested that our family did own a hotel but my g-grandfather gambled it away. Dutchie said that she didn’t believe that one and she never saw or heard of her father gambling. However, she never mentioned her great-grandfather and I bet she never knew that he was living with her family in Lusławice (she died before I received the microfilmed records). Was he the gambler in the family? Was this hotel in Lusławice or Odrowąż? If the hotel was in Odrowąż, did my family leave because of this gambling incident?

The LDS family history center microfilm was so helpful and saved me several hours of searching church records in Lusławice. Now I have more time to look for other clues on my tour with Zenon. By the way, I can renew my “rental” of the microfilm at the LDS family history center and after the 3rd renewal, the films then stay at that location where I can go to them again and again. This will be very helpful in case I find some names in Lusławice that I want to explore when I return from my tour. My tour beings in 3 days!

Shellie

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