Once in contact with my new found
relative I was given many new family details that helped my research along. One
of the things she was able to give me was the names of my Great Grandfathers
brothers and sisters.
The oldest child of John and Mary
Shablack was my Great Grandfather John Valentine. His sisters and brothers in
birth order are Bertha Shablack, Theodore Shablack, Victoria Shablack, Benjamin
Shablack and finally Helen Shablack. Altogether, my second great grandparents
John and Mary had six children that were born in America.
After getting this information I
wanted to find out when exactly their birth dates were and if all of them were
born in Philadelphia like JV. I had decided to give St Stanislaus Church
another try. After a few weeks I received a response from the church. They had
sent a baptismal copy of a Bronislawa Szablak born in 1906. The response letter
attached to the baptismal record let me know that Bronislawa’s English
equivalent was Bertha and that after her birth John and Mary left the St
Stanislaus Parish sometime in 1906.
Bertha’s Baptismal
Receiving another baptismal record
from the church was a great leap in the right direction so I was really excited
about that. I had found out that Bertha Shablack’s birth date was January 17th
1906 and that she also was born in Philadelphia and baptized at St Stanislaus
like my great grandfather JV.
St Stanislaus Catholic Church
However, reading the letter
discouraged me in a way because now I had to find out where John and Mary had
moved to after they had Bertha in order to find the rest of JVs siblings’. I
called up my newly found Aunt and asked a few more questions and she was able
to tell me that Theodore and Helen were born in New Jersey while all the others
were born in Philly.
So, I started looking at parishes
nearby to try and find more baptismal records. I started in Camden because my
Aunt told me that is where her Grandmother “my second great Grandmother” lived
before she passed away. To me it made since because Camden was right across the
Delaware River from Philadelphia. I sent letters to a few parishes in Camden
and came up with nothing so I decided to take a look back into the Philadelphia
area and I am glad that I did.
When I did research catholic parishes around Philadelphia I noticed that one was a lot closer to where Mary and John resided at 2339 Callowhill St Philadelphia, PA Actually, it was only a few blocks away from their residence.
With St. Francis being so close to
where John and Mary lived I thought it would be the place to look next. I
decided to write a letter to see if I could find the last four kids Baptismal
records. I waited a few weeks before finally getting a response, but once again
it was well worth it. Apparently, St Francis stored records from some other
local parishes which was great news because it could mean sending out less
requests. When I opened the letter I was excited to see that Theodore
Shablack’s baptismal record was inside! I had thought I hit the Jackpot again! The
information was a bit different on Theodore’s baptismal record than my great
grandfather JVs, but their last name was still spelled Szablak.
The record stated the name as
Theodore Szablak born in Philadelphia, PA on April 19th 1908 and
baptized in St Hedwig Church on May 10th 1908. I was shocked because
my Aunt had said that her uncle Theodore was born in New Jersey, so I knew I would
need to research this a bit further. However, I wanted to know a bit more about
St Hedwig and where exactly it was located.
St Hedwig’s is a parish for Poles
as is St Stanislaus. In the early 1900’s many polish immigrants came to Philadelphia
to start a new life and the Catholic Church was the center of their life as
with many Poles today. After realizing this it made since that my second great
grandparents did not attend mass at the Catholic Church a few blocks away, but
instead went long distances to attend mass and baptisms at Polish Churches where
they could congregate with fellow Poles.
Chester is south of Philadelphia and about an eighteen mile
trek from 2339 Callowhill St Philadelphia to St Hedwig Parish After thinking on the situation a bit, I thought that this could mean that
sometime after Bertha's birth in 1906 that John and Mary either moved south of Philadelphia
possibly for work or they had possibly been visiting someone when Theodore was
born. Then again after realizing that many immigrant Poles traveled long distances to attend a Polish church, it could be something else like John and Mary traveled across the
Delaware River from New Jersey to have their son baptized at St Hedwig's Catholic Church
and for document reasons it just stated that Theodore was born in Philly. Either way I was just happy to have found another clue and get one more baptismal record to help further my Search for my Polish Roots.
Theodore Szablak Baptismal Record
Front Row- Teddy (Theodore), John Valentine, Middle- Agnes,
Next ?, Back Row Benny (Benjamine) Shablack
This picture brings a smile to my face. This is one photo I received from my new found Aunt and thanks to her it gave a bit more substance to my research. When I am able to put a face to a name it really helps me get closer to that person. I am able to see what they did and depict the time period and the environment in which they lived, which helps me a great deal when researching the past. If only I had a time machine to take me back, then I could have met them all!
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