Truitt, TX: Burial Location of Lou Tatum (Part 1)

I had a "hint" on my Ancestry.com family tree for the burial site of Lou Tatum (nee Small), my great-great grandmother (Me-->LeeAnn Trapp-->James D. Trapp Jr-->Ella Mae Tatum-->Mary Louana Small).

She was buried in a (now) abandoned ghost town called Truitt, Texas, which happens to be only 2 1/2 hours away from where I live. I intend to try and visit this location sometime in the next few months. It may be on private property, and it might be behind a locked gate, but it is worth a try.

Here is her "Find-a-Grave" record.

A picture of the location:

Her obituary:

There is as sign on the highway north of the location with a sign confirming that I've correctly identified the location:

Here it is on the map:



One website described Truitt this way:

Truitt was located ten miles east of Winters off Highway 1770. The town was named for the baby son of one the merchants, Truitt Billups. A post office was acquired March 21, 1904, with the appointment of John L. Golden. John Golden’s store was on the east side of the one street running north and south, and the Billups General Mercantile was on the west. The mail was delivered from Winters by John Brown the son of the justice of the peace. The post office was closed in 1912. Doctors Ash and Pool had their offices in the Branham drugstore. A Dr. Watson came in 1909 but moved to Crews two years later. A Telephone system was installed in 1904, with the office in the Billups store. There was also a hardware store and blacksmith shop on the east side of the street.
Arthur Nichols started a gin and store in 1906. School was in a one room building, but with two teachers. It was consolidated with the Meadows School in 1915. Elmer Burke the Baptist minister held services at the schoolhouse. At one time there were eleven dwellings in Truitt. When the railroad was laid through Winters instead of Truitt, the town was doomed. All the buildings were moved away the next few years and there is nothing to show where Truitt was located except the cemetery. 

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.

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.