Last Name First Name Middle Name Sex/Race Age Cert # Death
Date County City Date Filed
GAWEL ANIELA F/W UNK 6033553 1933-12-21 COOK CHICAGO 33-12-22
GAWEL ANTONINA F/W UNK 5170060 1925-03-20 COOK CHICAGO HEIGHTS 25-03-23
GAWEL BARBARA F/W UNK 0016564 1940-06-02 COOK CHICAGO - -
GAWEL BLAKE M/W UNK 0023795 1945-08-21 COOK CHICAGO - -
GAWEL BLAZEJ M/W UNK 0023795 1945-08-21 COOK CHICAGO - -
GAWEL BLAZEJ M/W UNK 0026472 1948-09-14 COOK CHICAGO - -
I'd try for his death certificate first. If you go to:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcook/research.htm#Obituariit will take you to all kinds of info including how to get vital records.
Dziennik Chicagoski Death Notice Index 1930-1971: Results Surname Given name Record Type Notes Date of Notice
Gawel Blazej d 9/14/1948 15 Sep 1948
www.pgsa.org also has lots of useful info, sorry but the above appears to be the wrong Blazej. But this may help:
Marriage Index for Polish Parishes in Chicago through 1915: Results Name Spouse Date of Marriage Parish Volume Page Film Item
Gawel, Anna Piechocinski, Michael 10-15-1906 St. Mary of Perpetual Help Church 2 82 1763432 1-5
Gawel, Anna Pawelek, Peter 1-29-1913 St. Michael Church 2 59 1579565 7
Gawel, Antonina Sochacki, Joseph 2-25-1908 St. Michael Church 1 225 1579565 6
Gawel, Antonina Dziczkowski, Julius 1-26-1913 St. Hedwig Church 2 85 1674147 2
Gawel, Blaze Zmuda, Veronica 6-17-1913 Holy Trinity Church 4 27 1703800 6
Gawel, Frank Sobarnia, Victoria 11-17-1913 Holy Innocents Church 2 80 1704698 1
Gawel, Frank Pasowicz, Valerie 7-16-1906 St. John Cantius Church 2 438 1704114 5
Gawel, John Nowak, Helen 6-2-1915 St. Mary of Perpetual Help Church 3 54 1763433 2
Also the wrong Blazej again but if you can match a bride's maiden name you can probably locate one of Blazej and Aniela's children's marriage records which often gave where the parents came from. The purpose of Banns was to ensure that too closely related people didn't marry so for immigrants knowing what village your people came from was important as church records of birth couldn't be checked so knowing that at least you came from a different part of Poland was comforting. I had an uncle and aunt who were second cousins but they never knew it. Blazej should show up in the 1930 census index but I can't find him - Gawel must be misspelled or misread. Your Blazej came to the US in 1895 but his Ellis Island arrival record brings up a wrong page, but Aniela's 1911 record did. It shows that Blazej lived at 8870 Houston Ave, the family came from Palikowka, Austria. Go to
www.mapquest.com for maps and
www.yahoo.com yellow pages to find church addresses. Aniela was accompanied by Maria 11, Franz 9 and Jan 4. Obviously Blazej went back and forth a couple of times. If you get lost and need a hand finding your way through the internet maze, email me. One last, your Blazej had an insurance policy with PRCUA (see the PGSA site for info) but the file is not accessable. Maybe you can find another relative, sometimes they have the application which has a lot of info, at the least the file has a death certificate.