New Names!! Mary Stompar and Peter Piorek's Parents, and a Mystery

This week brought the biggest discovery I have ever made in my Genealogy search to date. Upon the suggestion of a genealogist who has been helping me, I wrote to the city of Stratford, CT to request copies of the death certificate for Peter and Mary Piorek. It paid off big time. I know have the names of both of Mary's parents, and additional information to help me identify Peter Piorek's parents. As far as I know I am now the only living person to know these names! (Except of course I'm sharing it with you now).

I have a few observations to make. First, we now know the names of Mary Stompar's parents, Michael Stompar and Anna Jakubiec. They don't appear to have ever moved to America. Having their names is absolutely vital to helping me track down their vital records in Poland. It may lead to identifying any other children they had, and of course finding more ancestors further back. Secondarily, this death certificate confirms Mary's date of birth, which until now I was a little unsure whether I had it right or not. I did.

Regarding Peter Piorek's death certificate, it sets up a very interesting mystery. He died at the young age of 49, and his wife is the informant for this death certificate. SHE DIDN'T KNOW HIS BIRTHDAY OR HIS MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME. How could that be? What wife doesn't know her own husband's birthday, or the maiden name her mother-in-law?

The obvious answer is that Mary never knew those things because Peter never knew those things. Any why would Peter have never known his own birthday or his mother's maiden name? The best idea I can think of is that she died when he was very young, and whoever raised him also didn't know Peter's birthday or his mother's maiden name. So who raised him?

She did know his father's name, John Piorek. If Peter and/or Mary knew John Piorek, why didn't they know Peter's mother's maiden name or Peter's birthday? Presumably John Piorek would have known those things, and Peter would have grown up also knowing those things from his father.

One idea is that John Piorek didn't know the maiden name of Peter's mother, or Peter's birthday. How could that be?

OK, enough questions and speculation. Here is an interesting bit of extra data I found. This is a baptismal record that I found on microfilm for a "Petrus" (Latin"Peter") in the right month and  year (Mary knew that much, at least, if not the day) and in possibly the right place (the family relocated to America from the Kolbuszowa, Poland area):

Zoom in of Petrus' baptismal record.

Petrus' baptismal record, found at bottom of page.

Record from Dolna, Kolbuszowa

In this record, there is a Peter born in a place called "Dolna" which is somewhere within the Kolbuszowa Parish ( I haven't located Dolna yet), and he is born in June of 1863. The right time and place. However, the parents for this Peter are named:

• Joanes (John) Kurda, child of Jacobi and Hedvigis Bresiadecki
• Victoria, child of Martini Maruc (?) and Maria Smolen (?)

Some of those names are hard to read, so this is my best guess at this time. Immediately note the fact that nobody here is named "Piorek".

However, this Peter has Godparents, in the far right column, named:

• Joanes (John) Piorek and Maria A---as (?) Jacobiux.

So all of this leads to the following hypothesis: Peter's parents died when he was very young, too  young to know his own birthday, and he was at least partially raised by his godfather John Piorek. Peter took the surname of his godfather, "Piorek", and was raised with little to no knowledge of his own biological mother (and probably also of his biological father). His godfather, John Piorek, was probably able to recall being at his godson's baptism in June of 1863, but wasn't sure of the exact date.

Thus we have Peter Piorek being raised by his godfather John Piorek, not knowing the exact date of his birth, and not knowing his mother's maiden name. Peter's original surname was Kurda, and his parents were named John and Victoria.

I am obviously not 100% sure of all this, but it is the best guess at this point that ties together all of the data. Further digging through the microfilm of Kolbuszowa may yield more information.