Fortunately, there is non-profit group focusing on indexing records from the province of Podlaskie. It is from that yet uncompleted work that I was able to obtain the information of aunts and uncles of Mikolaj (Nicholas) Puhacz (Pugacz), the husband of Jozefa who emigrated to the USA in the first decade of the 1900’s. At this time no records are shown for Jozefa (Tyminski). We do know she had at least one sister as a picture of her exists although no name is indicated on it.
Wojciech Puhacz and Petronela Bazelowna are the grandparents of Mikolaj
Their children:
Jan (b.1804)
Franciszek (b. 1807)
Franciszka (b.1809)
Jozefata (b.1813)
Rozalia (b.1814)
Benedykt (b.1817-1876?)
Jozef (b.1817)
Leon (b.1820)
Notes;
Benedykt is a twin with brother Jozef. There is a record of a Wojciech shown having children with Anna Kunikowna after 1820. Is it the same Wojciech signifying the death of Petronela? More mysteries to be uncovered.
Benedykt Puhacz from above marries Lucia Węgrzyniak. Their children are:
Mikolaj Puhacz (1865-1910) who weds Jozefa Tyminska (1864-1958)
Aleksander (d. April 21, 1864) surely died in infancy
Our Lichota and Puhacz ancestors left Poland at a time when Poland did not exist as a country but their villages were under the domination of Russia. As a help in understand the geography of our ancestors we should know that Poland’s current governmental divisions were established in 1999. It is based on three levels of division. First we have a voivodeships (provinces); then further divisions are powiats (counties or districts), and these in turn are divided into gminas (communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both gmina and powiat. Poland currently has 16 voivodeships. For genealogical record purposes we may also include the parish where births/baptism, marriages, and deaths take place. Thus when we say Stanley Lichota was born it was at the parish of Dobrowoda, it means the church in that village, town or city. The name of the church is usually not listed but in villages there would normally be only one. Dobrowoda is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Busko-Zdrój, within Busko County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeshipa. Similarly Puhacz ancestors come from Ciechanowiec and/or Grodek, in Gmina Ciechanowiec, Wysokie Mazowieckie County, Podlaskie Voivodeship. It should be recognized that these divisions are relatively new but in the search for records it is important to know. Poland has established a central archive in every province as the repository for records. For Świętokrzyskie it is in Kielce and for Podlaskie it is in Bialystok. The best way to search and see original documents is to go to these archive repositories. For those of use trying to search remotely, we are dependent on online sources that have digitized records. While many records exist we are dependent on someone digitizing and uploading to a number of paid or free internet sites. One of the frustrations that come for life event records searched is the huge gaps in record years. One is left to guess whether the record was destroyed over the years or is still awaiting digitization. Also, there may be a record of a birth, marriage, or death but no parents listed so one is unable to connect siblings or another generation. The answer to many of these questions will probably await a next generation of family genealogist.
