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descendants of John T Pierzina Snr and Hattie Turner

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descendants of John T Pierzina Snr and Hattie Turner

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 7:42PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Pierzina Turner
John T Pierzina Snr (1875-1957) and Hattie Turner (1875-~1920) were married in N Dakota USA around 1915. Hattie may be my Great Aunt. More detail below
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Descendants and relatives of John T Pierzina Snr (1875-1957) & Hattie née Turner (1875-1920) - I would appreciate your help!
John T Pierzina Snr (JTP Snr) was married to Hattie née Turner, whom I strongly believe to be my Great Aunt. I therefore am hoping to confirm that JTP’s Hattie is the same person as the Hattie who appears to have been my Great-grandfather’s child, and to confirm that relationship as well. Also to find out (if possible) any details of my great-grandfather’s life in America.
[My information in this note comes from US federal and state censuses, accessed through Ancestry.com. However there are gaps which I am attempting to fill].
My mother was a Turner and her grandfather (my great-grandfather) was Charles Herbert Turner (CHT), b. 1844 in Derbyshire, England. He left England for USA via Canada in 1870, and it would seem he married Harriet K McCowan (b. 1855 Ohio) at Leake, Mississippi in 1872. Their (apparently only) child Hattie K Turner was born in Wisconsin in 1875. Both CHT and Harriet are included in censuses up to 1920 most recent research (FindAGrave) shows they lived their final years at Winter Haven, FL, he died in 1924 and she in 1926.
In later years, Charles Turner appears to have used ‘L’ as his middle initial, for no known reason – certainly ‘L’ is what’s on his headstone. I cannot find a Charles ‘H’ Turner later on, and although ‘L’ could be a separate person, there seems enough corroborative detail to tentatively assume CLT and CHT are the same.
So much for the Turners – now for the Pierzinas.
A Hattie Turner married JTP Snr around 1915 – she was certainly shown as Mrs Hattie Pierzina, John’s wife in the 1915 N Dakota census. Regrettably, by the time of the 1920 federal census, JTP is listed as ‘widowed’ so presumably Hattie had died in that 5 year period.
In fact JTP was married 3 times, first to Hedwig Gienaya before Hattie, and lastly to Mary A. (née???). As a result, there appear to be lots of descendants – so I am hoping that someone will have some information about their [Step-] Grandparents or Great-grandparents. Between 1896 and 1909 (approx.) he appears to have had 6 children by Hedwig – namely Mary, John Jnr, Benjamin, Ignatius, Laura and Jerome, plus a possible still-birth or early-death infant. He had two more, Alfred (b. 1915) and Ralph (b. 1917), who may have been Gienaya’s but seem more likely to have been Hattie’s. He and Mary A. don’t seem to have added to that large family, however.
Reverting now to CHT, according to his English granddaughter (my Aunt) he moved around extensively in the USA and wrote numerous kind and happy letters home to his family, before the correspondence ceased and they never heard from him again. It was always suspected that he had found a new partner, and that this was the reason he stopped writing. CHT was described by his (English) contemporaries as a giant of a man. He could ride any animal, or at least those that could bear his weight! He was a keen and very successful amateur boxer and was thought to have considered turning professional.
I’d love to hear more about CHT and his descendants and of course would be happy to share my information about his UK family background.
Thank you, and all best wishes for 2014
djo_power

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