Need Help Translating Great Grandmothers Baptismal Certificate

♀

Sep 6, 10, 07:13 #1

Hi,

I have been trying for at least a year to get this Baptism Certificate from 1847 translated without success. I am praying that someone here will be able to help me.

I can't tell where she was from, the village, the house number, the date (think it's May though) OR what the "full" names of her parents and possibly her grandparent's names as well as her Godparents names that are listed. What would the name of her county and/or village be called today?

I have a copy of the image in bmp format which is the best copy I have, but, I'm afraid they don't accept that format here. I could email that copy which is so much easier to read, but, for now I will attach the jpg scan.

I know her name was Victoria Zbylut and her father was "Jan" and her mother was "Josefa" (Godek) Zbylut. Would Jan actually be "John?"

Also, her immigration record and other records state that she was from Galicia, Austria and Poland...very confusing.

The record was on a long page and had to be scanned twice in order to get what the bottom of the page might say. Some information from page one is also on page two.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.
Heath er

MagdalenaThreads: 5 Posts: 1,389 Joined: Aug 15, 07 ♀	Edited by: Magdalena Sep 6, 10, 10:44 #2
The certificate is in Latin. So you need either a classical scholar or a Roman Catholic priest to help you. Galicja was the name of a province in Austro-Hungary, technically located within the territory of Poland (Poland as a country did not exist at the time). Her place of birth, parish, diocese etc are shown at the top of the document. Hope this helps a bit.

OlafThreads: 8 Posts: 1,369 Joined: Oct 29, 09 ♂	Sep 6, 10, 12:34 #3
Hi there, This is very interesting as it's old, but shouldn't be very hard either to find additional information. If you want, I can try to do it but I'd need a good scan of this document. cheers

JK_TXThreads: - Posts: 34 Joined: Aug 27, 10 ♂	Sep 6, 10, 15:09 #4
It is from Parish Brzeziny in Lodz Voivodeship- 1874. Religion Roman Catholic The Priest- Josepho Radomiwicz Victoria was Baptised, surname Zbyłut Father- Joannes (John, Jan) Mother- Josepha daughter of Catherine Sokołowski What else were you wanting to know?

♂

Sep 6, 10, 15:21 #5

This document cannot be easily read, I admit. But for sure it has nothing to do with Lodz Voievodship as that city belonged to another empire (Russian) in 19th century. The document originates from Galicia (city name Kraków can clearly be seen on top of the document) which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time.

In fact what I can see there is:

Imperium Poloniae (Polonice?)- the polish clergy were quite frivolous to state that :-), since the area clearly belonged to Austria-Hungary, albeit by then it was under polish self-government indeed.

Regnum (Regionum?) - Kraków, probaby equivalent of voievodship
Districtus - district of Ropczyce
Dioecesis- diocese of Tarnów
Doecanatus- a subdivision of diocese named Wielopole
Parochia - parish of Brzeziny

JK_TXThreads: - Posts: 34 Joined: Aug 27, 10 ♂	Edited by: JK_TX Sep 6, 10, 15:22 #6
btw- 12th of May is the date of Baptism...

ZedThreads: - Posts: 304 Joined: May 25, 10 ♂	Edited by: Zed Sep 6, 10, 15:30 #7
You should check the polish version of Wikipedia: there are sooooooo many cities with such name in Poland, one of them in Ropczyce area. http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brzeziny_(ujednoznacznienie)

JK_TXThreads: - Posts: 34 Joined: Aug 27, 10 ♂	Edited by: JK_TX Sep 6, 10, 15:32 #8
cool thanks.. ya, there's like 50 of them~

♂

Sep 6, 10, 17:09 #9

JK_TX:

cool thanks.. ya, there's like 50 of them~

The one you are looking for is this one
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brzeziny_%28wojew%C3%B3dztwo_podkarpackie %29

Researchmyfamil:

What would the name of her county and/or village be called today?

Today it's still the same name. Brzeziny

Voivodeship – (województwo) Podkarpackie
County – (Powiat) Ropczycko-Sędziszowski
Municipality – (Gmina) Wielopole Skrzyńskie
Postal Code –(Kod pocztowy) 39-111

♀

Edited by: Researchmyfamil Sep 6, 10, 21:58 #10

Hello Everyone!

Thank you SO much for everything and the time you took to review this and provide me with what I have been longing for!

I don't know if this could help nail down where she was actually from, or not, but her immigration record has her last residence of as being Frystak. The record states that she was going to her sister (not sure of name) in New Jersey. I have no idea who this sister is, but there is belief that she had at least one sister.

We (my Sister's etc.) have heard that we are Polish, Russian, Lithuanian and German. Now I wonder if this is because at some point, my Grandmother (Victoria's daughter) didn't even know what she was with all the geographical lines changing :-)

I will now take time to respond to each of you who were so kind in helping me. I just wanted to give a general reply first.

Thank you!

Magdalena

Thank you for your reply.
I just don't know how to say, or spell, those towns listed at the top of the document.
Yesterday, I read an article "Catholic Vital Records of Galicia/Halychyna" on feefhs.org where it explains some latin and "what is what." Through that, I was able to determine that there is a house number listed, and possibly the name of the persons house she was born in (possibly a midwife or neighbors). Unfortunately, I cannot read or write in anything else but english.

Olaf
Thanks so much! I have a better scan of it, but it's in .bmp format which is not an accepted format on this board. Is there anothe way that I could get it to you?

♀

Sep 6, 10, 22:28 #11

JK_TX
Thank you SO much!
I had no idea how to read the mother of Josepha; Catherine Sokolowski. I appreciate that you could confirm my thought that Jan could also be translated at "John" and determining for me that Joannes was, in fact, Victoria's father. That was very confusing to me! As far as what else I wanted to find out was the Godparent's names, last column on the right, and above, if an address could be read/translated.
I can tell you that Victoria's immigration record states that she was from Galicia, her last residence being "Frystak." I understand that she could have lived in other places too.

Zed
AMAZING translation! Thank you so much!
Would Frystak be close to or a part of any of these places you mention in your translation? I have searched, but everything I've come up with, it's in Polish which I can't read. I'm very curious to know, and I don't know if you could help; If I were to say where my family is from in Poland and were to visit today, what part of Poland would I say? The districts, dioceses and parish names have all got me confused! I did look at that wiki link you posted, I'll have to find the english version of it. Thank you again!

JK_TXThreads: - Posts: 34 Joined: Aug 27, 10 ♂	Sep 6, 10, 22:36 #12
You're quite welcome! I am not as good geographically in this area as I am in the north, my folks came from Poznan District, Pommerania, and Pomeralia... The sponsors name I am struggling with but I would guess: Valentine Slasck Sophia Kut? Thanks to Zed and Short Hair Thug for helping me out with the geography! I'd say your family is from Galicia.

♀

Edited by: Researchmyfamil Sep 6, 10, 22:52 #13

Shorthair
Thank you also! It all leads me to what I never had and I really do appreciate your time!

JK_TX
Ah yes, you all work very well together!
Sophia would make sense as a name. My Grandmother (Victoria's daughter) had a sister named Sophia who we called "Aunt Zushie!" I have no idea why we called her that though :-)
I am going to run all these names past my Father to see if something will finally ring a bell to him from old stories, if he was ever told any. He's more familiar with pronunciations than I would ever be.

Some documents (census, marriage and birth) say Poland. So...am I not Polish? I can make an amazing Pierogi though...Babcia's recipe!

I went to the Wikipedia site through the Google translator. It translated the town? Breziny as "Birch!"

Again, thank you all!

JK_TXThreads: - Posts: 34 Joined: Aug 27, 10 ♂	Sep 6, 10, 23:01 #14
Researchmyfamil: So...am I not Polish? Quite Polish, this area was under the Austro-Hungarian Empire for some 120 years but the folk here are ethnically Polish!

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 ♂ [Suspended]	Sep 6, 10, 23:41 #15
JK_TX: Quite Polish, this area was under the Austro-Hungarian Empire for some 120 years but the folk here are ethnically Polish! Polish, but not from Poland.

inkrakow	Sep 6, 10, 23:58 #16
Researchmyfamil: My Grandmother (Victoria's daughter) had a sister named Sophia who we called "Aunt Zushie!" I have no idea why we called her that though :-) That's easy - Zosia (zo-sha) is a diminutive of Zofia (Sophia or Sophie).

♀

Sep 7, 10, 02:09 #17

JK_TX
Oh good! I have my Grandmother's cook-books that are all Polish and I started to think it was just all for no reason! :-)

delphiandomine
Now I'm really confused! I think I need a history lesson, sadly.

inkrakow
In the time since my last post, I found Aunt Zush's birth record here, (Massachusetts) and her birth name was actually Zofia! I know my Grandmother also had a Polish name when she was born, I want to say it was something that sounded like "Wysladia?" I don't know if her name was ever legally changed, but she was "Louise" on everything.

Thank you all! This is so eye opening and very informative.
I just came back from the UK and got to walk down the street that my great-grandfather lived on. It took my breath away to see what he would have seen with his own eyes on the hillside...very surreal. I would love to do the same over in Poland if I could narrow things down.

ZedThreads: - Posts: 304 Joined: May 25, 10 ♂	Sep 7, 10, 02:30 #18
Maybe..... Wiesława??? Honey, you have all pertinent documents and data on hand. Just find a polish speaking priest to translate all you need from said document and then get your a....s to Poland and explore :-)

♀

Sep 7, 10, 19:56 #19

Zed:

Maybe..... Wiesława??? Honey, you have all pertinent documents and data on hand. Just find a polish speaking priest to translate all you need from said document and then get your a....s to Poland and explore :-)

Zed

Could be...I will have to search vital records here with that spelling, thank you!

Ah...easier said than done with finding a priest here!

I wouldn't even know where I would fly into that would be close to where Victoria was! I have to find some more information on her family. Now I just need to find a researcher...

POLAND . The Unofficial Guide	Unanswered \| Archives
POLAND . The Unofficial Guide	Poland for Expats and Tourists	Witamy, Guest \| PF Members \| Gold Members

Home \| Unanswered \| Archives \| Random \| Statistics	Time in Poland: 13:22 / May 26
About Us \| Contact Us \| Rules, Privacy \| Poland Advertising	© 2005-12 PolishForums.com