I am looking for people researching families from Odrowaz. My family names are Kulawiak, Kadlub, Gal, Pagac, Pagacz, Stafira, Kasina, Glowacz, Bleka, Blenka. I visited the village in July 2009 and recorded the following names. If you ancestors are from this village, I might be able to give you some information. I posted some photos at www.PolishOrigins.com

Antolak, Babicz, Bala, Bartyzał, Bielak, Bielanski, Bienias, Biernat, Błachuta, Błęka, Bobek, Bokdal, Brękus, Brzeźniak, Cholewa, Chowaniec, Cieślak, Czepiel, Czyszczon, Dobrzański, Dobrzański, Domalik, Dudziak, Dusza, Dziąba, Dzielawa, Dzielski, Figura, Fitak, Fudala, Gal, Galenski, Garb, Gąsior, Głowacz, Gober, Gonciarczyk, Gubała, Gwiżdż, Jasień, Jaskowiak, Kadlub, Kaściak, Kawula, Kieta, Kocańda, Kojsz, Komperda, Kowalczyk, Krzysiak, Kuczek, Kulawiak, Kusper, Kwak, Łabuda, Łach, Lapyta, Łaś, Lasinski, Lenart, Ligas, Liszka, Łyszczarczyk, Magdziak, Majchrowicz, Makacz, Marszałek, Maśnica, Matyja, Mikoś, Niemczura, Nuś, Ogrodny, Otręba, Pagacz, Pawlikowski, Pęksa, Pitoń, Płoskona, Podczerwiński, Sarnecki, Siepak, Skawinski, Skupień, Sobczak, Sproch, Spyrka, Spyrła, Sral, Sroka, Stoch, Stopka, Strama, Suwada, Swajnos, Szczurek, Szczypta, Trojana, Ustupski, Wciślak, Widzisz, Wojdyła, Zachemski, Zając, Zązel, Zmuda

My paternal grandfather's maternal ancestors (Bryjak, Kowalkowski) were from the village Dlugopole close to Odrowaz. One of my Dlugopole ancestors, Pjotr Bryjak (son of Andrzej Bryjak and Anna Kowalkowska) married Rozalia Matyja (daughter of Joannis Matyja and Agnes Las) on May 08, 1906 at St. Adalbert Church, Chicago. Pjotr and Rozalia Bryjak traveled to Poland in 1908, Pjotr (Peter) returned to the United States on board of the steamship 'Kronprinzessin Cecilie' that left Bremen, Germany, on October 10, 1908 and arrived in New York on October 20, 1908. According to the ship manifest, he was 24 years old at the time, married, farm laborer, his last residence abroad was with his wife Rozalia Bryjak in Odrowacz - Dlugopole. Do you have any information on the Matya family in Odrowaz (Rozalia Matya and her parents Joannis Matyja and Agnetis Las)?

I will check and get back to you asap. In the meantime, if you go to polishorigns.com, I just posted a message on their forum about an old birth certificate with the name Matyja. You can also find that message quickly of you go to google and search on the words Odrowaz and Matyja.

Did the marriage record from 1906 include Rozalia’s age? I have one record that matches the name, but the parents names don’t match. 20 AUG 1863 Rozalia Matyja daughter of Andrzej Matyja and Anna Kawula. My records are sporadic and include people who’s names appeared near my ancestors when I was searching for information. The parent names you gave (Joannis Matyja and Agentis Łaś) seem to be Latinized versions of their names. Did you get those names directly from a birth certificate, or a church record?

This might be Rozalia’s mother: 27 Jan 1868: Agnieszka Łaś daughter of Jozef Łaś and Katarzyna Bielak. Paternal grandparents: Jan Łaś, and Rozalia Maśnica. Maternal grandparents: Jan Bielak, and Tekla Goczek.

I didn’t see any Joannis or Jan Matyja’s that were born in that time-frame, there were 2 born in the 1820’s and a few born after 1896.

Hope this helps,
Shellie

What do you know about your Kowalkowska family? I have Anna Kowalskowski in my family tree, daughter of Jan and Agnieszka Kowalskowski. Anna was married to Wojciech Kadlub and had the following children:
06 Jun1906: Bronisław (died 27 Sep 1976 in Odrowąż)
30 Dec 1907: Bronisława (died 04 Sept 1933)
29 Nov 1904: Franciszek
21 Jan 1903: (Twin) Jan (died 10 Feb 1903)
21 Jan 1903: (Twin) Maciej (died 08 Nov 1987)

I’m not sure where Anna Kowalskowski was from – her family name does not show up anywhere else in my records, so perhaps she is from your village?

Can you tell me anything about the Szczurek family???

Thank you for the information on Rozalia Matyja. According to the marriage licence issued on May 2, 1906 Rozalia's age was 19 years, which means that she was born in 1887 or 1888. This matches her age given in the 1930 US Census. I got the name of her parents from the church marriage record that I'm going to attach for you. As far as the parents' names are concerned, it is possible that Rozalia's father's first name Joannis is wrong in the church record, I received several genealogical records that were incorrect regarding names of parents, age, place of birth, spelling of names and places of origin, and so on. But the Agnieszka Las you found might indeed be Rozalia's mother. I'll try to find out more if I can. Unfortunately, I have no further information on Anna Kowalkowska, but I have a Jozef Kowalkowski from Dlugopole in my family tree.

In Odrowaz, house #33, Jozef Szczurek and Katarzyna Brzeźniak (who was daughter of Wojciech/Adelbert Brzeźniak, mother not listed) had Jozef Szczurek (b. 30 March 1827) and daughter Anna Szczurek (b. 16 Feb 1825). I have no other info about Jozef (jr or sr). Their daughter Anna (b. 16 Feb 1825) married Kazimierz Łaś, who also had Szczurek's in his family. Kazimierz was the son of Jozef Łaś and Regina Szczurek. I have no information about Regina Sczurek, her parents or what village she was from.

Now, getting back to Anna Szcurek Łaś and her husband Kazimirez - they had Bronisława on 26 AUG 1864 and Wincenty Łaś on 19 July 1866 in house 33 in Odrowaz. Zofia Łaś (daughter of Kazimierz Łaś and Anna Szczurek) and Franciszek Kowalczyk (son of Jan Kowalczyk and Anna Stopka) had a son Jan Kowalczyk on 29 OCT 1903. I don't have a birthdate or marriage date for Zofia. That is all I have for Anna Szczurek's family.

The Szczurek surname shows up agin in my files for 2 paternal grandmothers:
In 1898 Józef Łaś was born to Jan Kanty Łaś (son of Jakob Łaś and Rozalia Szczurek) and Marianna Wrobel (daughter of Jozef Wrobel and Maria Stasik).

In 1905, Stanislawa Bobek was born to Maciej Bobek (son of Jozef Bobek and Anna Szczurek) and Katarzyna Skupien (daughter of Andrzej Skupien and Anna Dusza).

Please let me know if this helped you. I would love to hear more about your family - Do you have other family in this village?
Shellie

Thanks for sharing your image of the church record. I see that yes indeed it was written in Latin. I am sorry that I couldn't give you more definite info. We must be in the same boat, limited to using other's findings or going to Poland to gather the information ourselves because the church records from this area of Poland did not appear to be available on microfilm. I am trying to find other people with ancestors from Odrowaz and nearby villages to join me in a discussion group. If we can all "meet" online and share our information, maybe we can break through some of our brick walls. Would you be interested?
-Shellie

Yes, I would be interested! Over the last years I have focussed my family research on my paternal grandfather and his ancestors in Podhale. My grandfather’s mother, Rozalia Bryjak, was from Dlugopole, his father, Jakub Rol, was from Banska (now Szaflary-Banska). I have the following Podhale surnames in my family tree: Antol, Babel, Babiarz, Bak, Bednarz, Bierniak, Bobak, Bryjak, Bukowska, Bzdyk, Chrobak, Chudoba, Cizek, Czajka, Czop, Dlugopolska, Dlugopolski, Dziadkowiec, Hornik, Jakubiec, Kowalkowski, Krolczyk, Kulach, Kwak, Madaj, Matyja, Opacian, Palka, Piton, Piszczor, Rol, Roll, Siedlarczyk, Sikon, Stopka, Szczurek, Tylka, Wojciak, Zapotoczny, Zwijacz, Zygmuntowicz.

Since you are researching the surname Gal from Odrowaz – I came across a possible connection between Ludwik Gal from Odrowaz and Pjotr Bryjak. Pjotr traveled to the United States on board of the steamship ‘Albano’ that left Hamburg, Germany, on March 31, 1903 and arrived in New York on April 15, 1903. According to the ship manifest, he was 18 years old at the time, single, laborer, his ethnicity was Polish, his place of birth and last residence was Dlugopole, his destination in the United States was Hastings, PA where he was going to join Ludwik Gal. He was accompanied by Stanislaus(?) Jakubiec who was going to join Ludwik Gal also (it looks like he said that Ludwik was his uncle).
A Ludwik Gal, 28 years old, laborer, from Odrowaz traveled to the US on board of the steamship ‘Friedrich der Grosse’ that left Bremen, Germany on May 25, 1901 and arrived at the port of New York on June 5, 1901. His destination was Hastings, PA where he was going to join his brother Jozef.