Our History in a Nutshell

"TREASURES FROM OUR BASEMENTS" | home

For Family members, please contact me for your personal copy of our family Tree. As mentioned in my home page, I have withheld some specifics from the general public for privacy purposes, such as your birth place etc., to protect our living family members.

I will begin here........

You will notice different spellings of "Our Family" name. This is due to several reasons, yet none that I can specifically give you an exact answer for. From what I have learned originally, perhaps centuries ago, the name may have started with the spelling of Gonciarczyk. I was told that at one point, the German's forced the Poles to "Germanize" their names. From there I have seen several variations of the name, that may or may not have been related. When Immigrants came over on ships, sometimes the information was written in the ship's manifest by someone else. (This fact is very obvious with some manifest's you may encounter). And other's would allow the passenger to fill the information in for themselves.

My grandfather, Stefan Gonciasz, was born Dec. 26, 1879. He states on one document, (his Social Security), that he was born in Kielce Village, Poland. Then I discovered that on his second wife's "Declaration of Intention" papers (Bronislawa Sobkiewicz Gonciasz) she wrote that Stefan Gonciasz was born in Krasna, Poland. This fact was also confirmed again when I found Stefan (Stepan) Gonciasz (Gonciars) aboard the ship "The Pennsylvania". He departed from Hamburg, Germany and arrived in New York, March 8, 1913. The information he supplied at that time was that he was born in Krasna, Poland. The ship "The Pennsylvania" was a cattle boat, and he was listed on the manifest, in the section for passengers of steerage, he was the second passenger on the list. And with the help of Alicja Gonciarz, she explained to me just how far these two towns were apart. This also led to other "Gonciarz and Gonciasz" discoveries, whereas there is still family of our namesake, also living in Komorow, which is also a neighboring town to Kielce, and Krasna. She graciously explained to me that Krasna and Komorow are two neighboring small villages, and that is about 25 km (approx. 16 miles) North of Kielce. And for someone like me, on a map of Poland, it looked like the span between two American states for me. Because the area in which we speak, is all country and farm land.

I must however, point out some fascinating facts, that have been recently uncovered, about "Our Ancestor's", and documentations relating to Poland. I suppose with most genealogical research, you assume that records and "Actual Facts" would be just that. Family Update: However, Alicja, Pedro and Dana have discovered something out-of-the-norm, ( for American standards). They have painstakingly been viewing several different microfilms of our ancestors, ordered from the LDS in Canada. What they have encountered, is several discrepancies in actual dates. Which sometimes can put a whole new light on things, if the year is inaccurate.

Fortunately, the year of 1879 remained the same, as the birth year for Szczepan Gonciarz. However, two documents reveal some surprising facts on his actual birthday. These microfilms have also uncovered yet another discovery. Not only the fact that we descend from three generations of Jan Gonciarz's (Szczepan's father, grandfather and great grandfather) but there has also been discrepencies in dates relating to his parent's documents as well.

Jan Gonciarz and Paulina Hanc were Szczepan's "Stefan" parents. The following information comes from his parent's marriage certificate, Krasna, dated June 30, 1879. (Which bare in mind, puts this marriage at 6 month's before Szczepan's birth in December 1879) . Jan Gonciarz from Krasna (age 18) son of Jan Gonciarz-deceased and Maryjanna Zielinska, marries Paulina Hanc (age 17) daughter of Szczepan Hanc and Franciszka Sierar.

Then on the microfilms came Stefan's birth certificate- Krasna, dated Dec. 6, 1879 (this date appears on the birth certificate only)

Szczepan Gonciarz was born in Krasna on December 5, 1879 at 6 a.m., son of Jan Gonciarz (age 20) and Paulina Hanc (age 20). His Godfather was Ludwick Hanc and his Godmother was Maryjanna Hanc.

You will notice a couple of interesting facts. One, Szczepan's parent's were aged by 2 years in the same exact year, and (two) that he was born about 6 month's after their marriage. The other, is that although on all documents that Szczepan "Stefan" signed, once in America, all said he was born Dec. 26, 1879. When in fact, these microfilms indicate otherwise. Showing his actual birthday as Dec. 5, 1879. It is extremely difficult to speculate the reasoning for this, but one must ask themselves a couple of questions. Certainly, there may have been some shame involved, if in fact Szczepan was concieved out of Wedlock, and this could have been the reason for false information advertised in the local newspaper, and then other specified information entered into other documents. We can all speculate several different reasonings for this, but the facts still remain the same. This was in fact, his actual true birthdate. But we must all revisit a time in history, and the horrific circumstances that these people and their Country lived through, and were forced to endure, involuntarily. Furthermore, I must add that there was a definite reason for this, however small it may seem to us, certainly our ancestors did whatever they felt at the time, to be the best for Szczepan, and who are we to question their judgements? So keeping the above facts in mind, we must also recognize that documentations found in Poland, may contain these kind of surprises.

"Nut-Shell" Summary:

(Actually, it is probably more like a melon.)

First, I can not set an exact begining to Our Family name, because as you keep searching for your Ancestors, you eventually find the next names up the line. Thus, after proof and research, you then can say you are the Descendant of ??. So, at this point, not only have we always known that we are the Descendants of Jan Gonciarz, but we have just recently discovered that we descend from 3 Generations of Jan Gonciarz's!!!!!!!! (please refer to the family tree for this information)

This web site is dedicated to Szczepan "Stefan" Gonciarz and both of his wives, Leokadia Wojna and Bronislawa "Bertha" Florence Sobkiewicz Gonciarz.

Paulina Hanc's parents were Szczepan Hanc and Franciszka (Sierar) Hanc.

Szczepan Gonciarz's Godparents were Ludwick Hanc and Marianna (Bogus) Hanc. Although there is no proof of a connection, Ludwick is suspected as being the brother of Szczepan Hanc. But that is just speculation at this point.

Although we had only known about 1 sister and 1 brother to Szczepan, information from our cousin in Poland revealed a wonderful surprise. He in fact, had 3 sisters! Leokadia Gonciarz who went to France, Franciszka Gonciarz who resided in Konskie, Poland. And Karolina Gonciarz who resided in Krasna, Poland. The brother, un-named as of yet, still remains a mystery. We continue to search for him and whatever happened with him.

Unfortuantely, the only information I have on his sisters, is that Karolina (true name believed to be Waleria) Gonciarz, married ? Banak, and her second husband was Franciszek Banak and they were married in 1909. This was a note written on her birth certificate, along with the fact that she was born in 1882, and her Godparents were Ludwick Dziubinski and Marianna Hanc.

I must say that any information, big or small, and any little morsel found, has been a tremendous adventure into the past and our Ancestor's history. Certainly, a venture into uncharted territory, a foreign country, that did things so unlike we do in America.

When Szczepan came to the United States of America, the spelling of his name became "Stefan Gonciasz". I have been told by his grand daughter in Poland, that when he was boarding the Ship, and later in America, no one could pronounce his name accurately, thus leading to a more "Americanized" version. That is how he became Stefan (Stephen, Steven and even Steve) Gonciasz (rather than Szczepan Gonciarz)

Szczepan Gonciarz married Leokadia Wojna in Poland. We do not have dates yet of this event. They had two daughters, Natalia and Celina Gonciarz. As you will read under a brief history of Stefan, you will see that he was very much a part of the underground Polish Army. He was turned in to the German Soldiers by the Catholic Priest of his parish, forcing him to flee for his life, as well as the protection of his wife and 2 daughters.

Although he secretly kept in contact with his family, he was never able to see his wife and 2 daughters again. His wife, Leokadia (Wojna) Gonciarz died shortly after Szczepan's departure, suspected as natural causes. But there is still no proof of her cause of death. Celina, his youngest daughter, also died relatively young, (don't have a date yet) but she was killed when she was kicked in the head by a horse in a riding accident. She did marry before her tragic end, to Jozef Chrzan, and did have one son that we know of, Eugeniusz Chrzan. However, it is suspected that she had more children than just Eugeniusz.

Natalia Gonciarz, Szczepan's first born daughter with Leokadia, married 1-Franciszek Kaczmarczyk, and had one daughter, Jadwiga. It is not certain what ended this union. She then married 2-Franciszek Chrzan and had another daughter, Zuzanna. You will notice that Natalia and her sister Celina, had both married "Chrzan" men. It is not certain at this point if these two men were brothers, cousins or possibly not related at all.

Szczepan then had to move on, and begin a new life in America.

Szczepan Gonciarz, now Stefan Gonciasz, remarried in America, to Bronislawa "Bertha" Florence Sobkiewicz, also from Poland. They went on to have a full life and shared 7 children together, 6 of which made it to adulthood. You will find that history among several of these web site pages.

"This web site is in Honor of both of Szczepan's Gonciarz's families."

If you have any information about anyone mentioned in this web site, please email our family at jlsman3@aol.com