Galicia--Austrian Partition of Poland

The current definitive English history of Poland is a two volume work entitled "God's Playground" by author Norman Davies, published by Oxford University. I've been interested in understanding exactly where the borders were between the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian partitions of Poland. This can be important for identifying the correct villages of origin, and locating vital records.

Here is the map of the Austrian partition (also referred to as "Galicia") as well as accompanying text below. This all comes from pages 103-104 of "God's Playground", volume 2.

And here is my re-creation of the map above in Google Maps. I included Swierczow, which is where the Piorek's came from, as well as Walke/Walce (west of the Galician border) because it is my only lead on where the Gemza's came from right now.

"Walki", Poland---Possible Origin of the Gemza Family?

On his naturalization documents Peter Gemza (my great-great-grandmother's brother) noted that he was born in "Walki, Austria". Of course back then the historic Poland had been divided into Austrian, Russian, and Prussian partitions.

I was able to identify a city in SW Poland (modern day) called "Walce", which, according to Wikipedia, was called "Walchi" in some books in the early 1800's. This is my only lead for the identification of this city.

I need to dig into this more, because "Walce" appears to have fallen outside of the Austrian partition, but not by a lot.

English Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walce

Translated Polish Wikipedia (much more information): https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walce

Kissing Cousins

At a recent Trapp Family Christmas party I was told several times that James D. Trapp and his second wife, Mary Doolin, were first cousins. I already know that James' brother Eugene (Tank) Trapp married Mary's sister Bertha, so that means he married his first cousin as well.

I'm leaving this post here as a reminder to myself to investigate this story and try to find supporting documentation.

More Gemza Names: Great News and a Little Bad News

As I described in this post, I wrote to the Bridgeport, Connecticut Vital Records Office to request death certificates for Stefan Ramik and Peter Gemza (Stefan's Uncle). Those came today! The reason Peter Gemza's death certificate was important to get is because neither of Stefan's parents came to America so we don't have any records for them, but his mother's brother --Peter-- did come to America. His death certificate contains information about *his* parents, who would be Stefan's grandparents.

New Names:

• Stefan Ramik's Mother & Father:
• Joseph Ramik (my great-great-grandfather)
• Anna Gemza (my great-great-grandmother)
• Anna Gemza's Father & Mother (via the death certificate of Anna's brother Peter Gemza):
• Jacob Gemza (my great-great-great-grandfather)
• "Unobtainable"  (my great-great-great-grandmother)

Death Certificate for Stefan Ramik, my great-Grandfather:

Death Certificate for Peter Gemza, who was Stefan Ramik's Uncle:

Unfortunately it appears that Eva Gemza (Peter's wife) did not know the first or maiden names for her husband's mother. So we don't know Jacob Gemza's wife name, my g-g-g-grandmother. It says "Unobtainable".

The tree looks like this now:

Peter & Eva Gemza--Stefan Ramik's Aunt & Uncle: A Step Closer to Solving the Ramik Mystery

UPDATE: See the post immediately following this one. I now have the names of Stefan's parents, and of his mother's father.


I have been at a dead end on the Ramik line. I don't know Stefan Ramik's parents names, or anything about them at all. I have a feeling that is going to change soon!

In an earlier post I mentioned that my great-grandfather Stefan Ramik immigrated to America in 1904, at the age of 17, with someone named Piotr Gemza, but that I didn't know who Piotr Gemza was. I suspected that it was an uncle based on their age difference (32 and 17).

Then, in October 2015 Suzanne O'Connell (my mother's cousin, daughter of Aunt Ann Jaroszewski) wrote me the following in an email with important information I had somehow overlooked. I stumbled upon it this week and suddenly things clicked for me. Here is the email:

"My mom spoke to Aunt Cecele.  All she could remember was that Walter Gemza's mother was named Ava Gemza but it is spelled Ewa in Polish.  Walter Gemza is Stepahn Ramil's first cousin.  Stephan's mother and Walter's father were sister and brother.  She remembered the sister - in- law's name because she was the one around and Walter's father was dead.  Stanley Gemza was Walter's younger brother.  The reason I am mentioning him is because he and his wife, Anna, lived in my mother and father's neighborhood in Trumbull."

Suzanne has been incredibly helpful and kind to me in my research. She is my link to Aunt Ann's and Aunt Cecele's living memories. In the above paragraph she confirms a few things I had already worked out, namely that Walter Gemza was Stephan's first cousin. The additional detail of his Aunt Ava Gemza, though, is a small breakthrough that I had previously overlooked until now.

So, on a hunch, I did a search for Peter and Ava Gemza and I struck gold. Peter and Eva Gemza (née Wojcik) and their children are in the census for 1920 and 1930, living in Stratford, Connecticut. They had at least five children: Walter, Mary, John, Stanley, and Nellie. My g-grandpa Stefan Ramik seems to have been close to Walter, because Aunt Ann previously mentioned that he worked in Walter's (illegal) restaurant at one point. Aunt Ann's memory checks out: Walter's naturalization papers state that he works in a "lunch and pool room", and the address directory records his profession is "billiards".

A year later, in September 2016, Suzanne wrote me the following:

"Mom says that Peter might be a younger brother of Stephan's mother or an older cousing but she really doesn't know because no one ever mentioned a Peter Gemza."

She was right in her guess that Peter was Stephan's mother's brother. It makes sense that she wouldn't remember him because Peter Gemza died in 1937, when Aunt Ann was only about 11. Furthermore, Ann's family lived on New York island between at least 1928 and 1940 (based on newspaper reports; see Stephanie Ramik's Ancestry profile) while Peter Gemza was always in Connecticut. So between the ages of 3 to 15 Ann lived quite far from Peter Gemza, and he died while she was still living in New York. Plus, it was her father's uncle, so probably not someone they talked about a lot.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this brings me a huge step closer to finding more names in my direct line. I don't know Stefan Ramik's parent's names, but I will soon because I just sent off for his death certificate (something I should have done before). However, Stefan's parents don't appear to have immigrated to the U.S.A., so finding *their* parents' names would be difficult. Fortunately I now know Stefan's Uncle Peter Gemza, who did come to the USA (he's the brother of Stefan's mother), and so he should have a death certificate stating his parents names. I'm going to request that death certificate this week, and hopefully both certificates will arrive in the mail shortly.

In summary, This is what I now know:

Soon we'll know the names of Stefan's parents, and the name of Stefan's mother's (and Peter Gemza's) father and mother. Then, from there, on to untangling the Polish/Russian vital documents.