Burdziak Surname Poland

[Dburdziak]

I am trying to research my family on my father's side, though I seem to have ran straight into a brick wall with my great grandfather, it's almost as though he didn't exist. his name was Wasyl Burdziak, though I heard he went by Basil and Bazyli as well. Bazyli was the name he listed on his daughter's wedding certificate.

I know he came over from Poland alone, leaving his parents and siblings, and that he NEVER talked about them to anyone.

I would love to find out about him, as well as find out his fathers name, and his mothers first/maiden name, however I can't even find a death certificate for him (he died in Michigan).

If anybody could help me it would be very very much appreciated!

[LangleyValeSue]

Hi Dburdziak and welcome to FTF

Do you have any dates for your great grandfather? As you probably know, Polish records are notoriously difficult to research.

I haven't found any reference to him on Ancestry - I'm assuming he went from Poland to USA, but there are similar names in the USA censuses for example a

Wasyl Burtyk that died in Michigan in 1971.

I have just found a Naturalisation record on Ancestry for a Will Burdziak with a birthdate of 12 Jan 1892. This is from Detroit District Court dated 24 Jan 1934 I think .

[Dburdziak]

The only thing I am 100% of as far as information from his daughter was that he came across on the Augusta or Auguste Victoria when he was 18 or 19. However searching the lists on ellisisland.org I couldn't find him. She said it was listed on his naturalization paperwork.

[kylejustin]

is the info sue has correct? or do you have his natralisation papers? i realise not all of the ships are on ellis island. have you tried castle garden?

[naomiatt]

Hi, have you looked in this site? http://home.comcast.net/~mdemkowicz1/dobra/index.html

[Dburdziak]

The Will you found in Detroit could possibly be him, as I believe she said his birthday was around Jan 12 1892. As far as dates for him, I don't have any at the moment. His daughter has his naturalization paperwork, but I just met her for the first time the other day and I guess she gave them to someone to get them put in plastic as they were falling apart.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some of the information tomorrow. It's so frustrating to me, as I know his wife's name was Eleanore Baniel, yet I cannot find anything about her either. I've been able to get back as far as the 1100's for every other part of my family except this one, and this is the most important to me as my last name is Burdziak, and I'd love to know more about the name, and my family who had it before me.

[Elaine ..Spain]

There is an entry on the 1850-1934 Hamburg Passenger Lists on Ancestry for a Wasil Bundiak

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&ti=5538&r=5538&db=HamburgPL_full&F52=&F12=Kaiserin+Auguste+Victoria&F48=Bundiak&rank=0&gss=angs-d&pcat=40&fh=0&h=2217154&recoff=2&qid=62743bdce66e4d89a4b40bc957099371

Not a very good image - it is the first entry on the top right hand side of page.

Wasil Bundiak - born c 1892 - single
Residence: Supczyce,
Occ, Landmann, Tagelöhner

Departure - 17 Sep 1910 from Hamburg
Name of ship - Kaiserin Auguste Victoria

No other family members shown as travelling with him.

[Dburdziak]

I found him and his wife!!!! I happened to search through a million pages of the 1930 census and found him listed as Basil Burdzak, his wife as Eleanor Burdzak. I can't find them before then though :( or their parents.

The reason I know it's them is due to the children listed as being in the household.

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1930usfedcen&indiv=try&h=17612414

[Elaine ..Spain]

Sorry, have had to remove the image from your previous post. If you want to post a copy of the census you need to crop it so that it only displays the relevant section. Copying a complete census page violates copyright. Have replaced the image with a link, but if you wish to crop the original image and post it again then you can.


Dburdziak - have a look at this one for the 1920 census - transcribed as Walter Burdziel

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=1920usfedcen&indiv=try&h=26043827

[Vivienne]

You can only see the link if you have Worldwide Ancestry!;)

[Elaine ..Spain]

You can only see the link if you have Worldwide Ancestry!;)

Not a lot I can do about that! ;)

A link to Family Search if anyone wants the details
1930 census details

https://www.familysearch.org/search/recordDetails/show?uri=https://api.familysearch.org/records/pal:/MM9.1.r/1LF5-L99/p_10329336645

with this as a possible for 1920 census

https://www.familysearch.org/search/recordDetails/show?uri=https://api.familysearch.org/records/pal:/MM9.1.r/M8G1-96B/p_248552365

- although the names differ slightly to the 1930 census, the places of birth seem to match.

[Dburdziak]

Sorry Elaine, I didn't know about posting the image. It does seem like that is him on the 1920 census. It is getting really frustrating seeing his name change so much. I'm starting to think I'm not going to find his father/mother (her maiden name). Thank you for finding that for me though, I appreciate it!

[Elaine ..Spain]

There are quite a few records for Michigan on the Family Search website but I am struggling to find anything for this family.

[Dburdziak]

I am struggling as well to find anything. However I looked into the ship record you posted earlier and that is indeed him:

Wasil Bundiak - born c 1892 - single
Residence: Supczyce,
Occ, Landmann, Tagelöhner

Departure - 17 Sep 1910 from Hamburg
Name of ship - Kaiserin Auguste Victoria

According to my great aunt (his daughter) His brother (not sure how many siblings he had) was killed somehow and he was blamed for it, which ended up with him leaving his family behind and coming to America. I heard he himself didn't kill or murder his brother, but pretty much caught the blame for his death. Which is why she says he never talked about his parents, or siblings.

I'm guessing the variations in spellings of his name come from those recording it not understanding his speech or accent maybe?

[Dburdziak]

oh also the residence listed: Supczyce seems to be spelt wrong as the only thing close to that I can find is Ropczyce. Maybe they got the first two letters wrong?

I also heard he died in Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn Michigan. Going to call tomorrow and figure out where I can look up death certificates.

[naomiatt]

There is/was a place called Sufczyce..120+ miles south of Warsaw...if you look at this site, gives you other variations as well

http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~shtetlexp5

If it is Sufczyce, it's a village in the admin district of Gmina Oleśnica, within Staszów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland.

[Dburdziak]

Wow thank you very much for finding that Naomi!! Everytime I searched Sufczyce in google, it came up with Rofczyce only. I wasn't familiar with the jewishgen website, so thank you as well for introducing me to that. Looks like I have some research ahead of me!! You guys and your help have definately helped keep my interest in pursuing this side of my family, it has been great help so far!

[Elaine ..Spain]

I'm guessing the variations in spellings of his name come from those recording it not understanding his speech or accent maybe?

...or even from him trying to anglicise/americanise his name.

[naomiatt]

Hi - not sure that he was Jewish?, but this site gives the options for the surname spellings:

http://www.avotaynu.com/csi/csi-home.htm

Jewish Gen also has a database with surnames on it.
There is rumour that surnames were changed at Ellis Island etc, apparently this isn't true as the names were taken on the ship.
As Elaine mentioned, they might have wanted the name to fit in, or as you said, he was misunderstood. Also, he wouldn't have spoken English probably, or very little. If he was Jewish, good chance he spoke Yiddish.
Have you looked through this site?

http://stevemorse.org/

[Dburdziak]

Anyone have any idea on how to contact Sufczyce, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland? I see it has only around 300 residents, and I was hoping to contact them and see if he did in fact come from there, or if any of his relatives still reside there.