Tuesday, April 11, 2000
Well, mom’s cousin Paul came through in a very nice way; I got a package from him today with photocopies of death certificates for Great Grandpa and Buscha Horbal, the wedding certificate from the church where they got married, Great Grandpa’s naturalization certificate from 1922, and Buscha’s birth certificate. Interesting things learned from the documents:
The marriage certificate lists the church as " St. Peter and Paul, R. C. [garble] Church. I don’t know how important the garbled bit is, since it’s very hard to read, but R. C. would seem to stand for "Roman Catholic", something that Laura found exciting. It also lists the number of their government marriage license, so I’ll be able to send away for that without much trouble. The actual date of the marriage is difficult to read, too, so maybe the government document will be able to clear both that and the name of the church up.
The naturalization certificate is from Cleveland, Ohio. I had no idea that they lived in Cleveland. It lists all four children, so apparently none of them were born in Michigan. I wonder if Buscha was naturalized at the same time? Great Grandpa became a citizen on July 5, 1922. That was a Wednesday. I guess the court was closed the day before. The certificate lists their address in Cleveland as 1929 Columbus Rd. I’ll have to ask George Zeller if he knows where that is. Still no mention of where in Poland Great Grandpa was from.
The birth certificate appears to have been issued on November 16, 1962, by the Polish Consulate in Chicago. The document didn’t copy particularly well, so Paul made two copies, one dark and one light, but I was able to read the dark one pretty well. It’s a pity it doesn’t list the birthplaces of the parents; there’s a spot for it, number 6, "Miejsce urodzenia", but it’s left blank. The following spot, "Miejsce zamieszkania" means place of residence, so it’s clear they were living in Lipa, but less clear that they were born there. Oh, and the proper spelling of the names in Polish is Wiktoria Mazur, Józef Mazur, and Katarzyna Podgórska (want to make sure we’ve got all those accents right, after all).
The death certificates both mention that they’re buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Detroit.
Paul also sent a nice letter. He mentions that he and his wife Eileen took his parents up to Caro about 10 years ago, and they found the house and the schoolhouse (now converted to a house), both of which were still standing. Given that his memories are far more recent than mine (which say the schoolhouse had fallen down), I think I believe him over me. :-) Great Grandpa had a farm in Caro, and they grew sugar beets. I knew about the farm; I’m not sure I knew about the beets.
Paul also mentions that Buscha told him that "when they lived in Pennsylvania, Great Grandpa worked for a railroad. She said that one of his duties was ’cook’ and he used to make pierogis for the crew." So apparently a taste for pierogis is hereditary.
Joseph Horbal
Victoria (Mazur) Horbal
Posted at 7:16:46 PM
