In 1912, my great-grandfather, Dominik Kowalski, immigrated to America from Poland and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Like several of my other immigrant ancestors, I found his Oath of Allegiance certificate and Naturalization Card from April of 1932: With my other immigrant ancestors, finding these forms has been the final step in learning about their citizenship process. However, thanks to GenealogyBank, I found out a little bit more about Dominik's citizenship experience. On July 4, 1932, Dominik's name appeared in The Cleveland Plain Dealer as one of 1,500 immigrants who were to receive citizenship diplomas at Cleveland's Edgewater Park. I like to think that Dominik DID attend the ceremony, but there is no way to know for sure. Maybe his wife and children even came with him to watch. In any case, after a lot of searching, I'm pretty sure it was the only time he ever made it into the 'big city' newspaper, and it's just another great reminder that MY citizenship as an American really began the moment he received his citizenship in 1932.
0 Comments
A collection of photos celebrating all of the fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers in our families! Enjoy!
June 8th is my Dad's birthday, so to celebrate I am posting a couple of photos from one of his childhood birthdays.
Today, May 30th, is my younger brother Mike's birthday. We are only 18 months apart in age, so Mike was my first friend and playmate. We played with Matchbox cars together, made pillow slides down the stairs, threw toys down the laundry chute, jumped on our parents' bed, rolled around in appliance boxes in the basement, and played video games together on our Atari 2600 and (later) the original Nintendo Entertainment System. We played checkers on this big blanket-sized checkerboard with checkers the size of our hands. We were also fans of board games like The Game of Life, Clue, and Midnight Party. We listened to Michael Jackson, The Cars, and Huey Lewis and the News cassette tapes on our mom's tape player that she kept in the kitchen.
Today, May 15, is the United Nations International Day of Families. Some of these family photos I have posted before, and some I haven't. I hope you get to enjoy the day with your family members! Just thought I would post some favorite pics of the mothers in my family: This is the funeral card of my great-grandfather, Dominik Kowalski. Dominik immigrated to the United States in 1912 and settled in Cleveland. His wife, Wladyslawa, came over the following year with their three young sons, Stanley, John, and Joseph. For a several years, Dominik worked as a laborer in the steel industry, but by the mid-1920s, he had established a neighborhood hardware store. He and his second wife, Lucy, retired to Arizona sometime in the mid-1940s, and they stayed there the rest of their lives.
So, in case you didn't know, Ancestry.com has a nice collection of school yearbooks in its database. Sometimes the yearbook results do not automatically show up when you do a basic search through their engine, so make sure to click the 'Schools, Directories & Church Histories' category on the left-hand side of the screen to narrow it down. I found this photo of my Uncle Dan (standing, third from left) pictured with the 1968 Cleveland State University baseball team: I've also found Uncle Dan mentioned in CSU baseball stories and box scores published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer from 1968-1969: Random fun fact: The 'Dick Globokar' who is mentioned several times above (and who is also pictured in the team photo - kneeling, last guy on the right) ended up being my high school geometry teacher in the mid-1990s.
This is me (on left) with my brother, Mike (center), and my cousin, Phil. (Don't ask me why he's holding a syrup bottle.) I was about two and a half years old in this picture. Here we are again, except now I am holding my baby cousin, Steve, and the other two have passed out.
|
Emily Kowalski SchroederArchives
April 2017
Categories
All
|