Ignatz Fedorovich Poplaski Frank

Calendrier perpétuel

Note(s):

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Courriel (email), 19 avril 2023 by Steve Vanier and Stephen Charles Vanier

My mother's middle name is spelled "Cathryn" and not "Catherine".
Her Father' name is Ignatz Fedorovich ["Frank" in the USA ] Poplaski, [Note: The family thinks Poplasky should end "y" as they were ethnic Russians and spoke only Russian, but we all know since neither could speak a word of English, church and immigration officials may have misspelled the last name, thinking there were Polish, where last names usually end in an "i".]
o Her mother's name is Antonia [not Anna] Markovna Poplaski
I was incorrect about where they first landed in North America. They never emigrated to Canada, but this is the way they traveled from Europe to America:
Ignatz Fedorovich "Frank" Poplaski acquired a "green card" allowing him to work in the USA, and he went overland from Minsk, Belarus, to Hamburg Germany, where he took a ship to Boston, Massachusetts in 1910 leaving his wife Antonia and newborn daughter Nadja behind in Minsk, Belarus. Two years later in 1912, when Nadja was 2 years old, Frank sent for Antonia. However, there was civil unrest at that time between Belarus and Poland, and the borders were closed. To get to America, Antonia had to "escape" and not just travel. Antonia had to leave 2-year-old Nadja in the care of Frank's parents. As our family story goes, Antonia was in a group of people that paid border guards to ferry them across a river, but at the last minute, the border guards said there was a surprise inspection occurring, and the group was on its own. They had to swim the river to get away from Belarus. Antonia traveled overland through Poland and Germany, and took a ship from Hamburg, Germany, to the USA, arriving in Boston harbor. "Frank" met his wife in Boston harbor, and they took a taxi from Boston to Great Barrington, Massachusetts where they lived their lives and had 5 more children, including my 101-year-old mother Mary, who spoke this information to me today, April 19, 2023. - - Stephen Charles Vanier.

My two sisters were baptized as:
- Karen Antonita Vanier [I got her middle name correct the first time]
- Christina Andora Vanier [I misspelled her middle name using only one "N" the first time].
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Courriel (email), 20 avril 2023 by Steve Vanier

Questions:
1)The family name's of your grand-mother, is it Wojciechowicz ?
2) Does your sources aggree with the informations given on this Ancestry's page?

https://www.ancestry.ca/genealogy/records/anna-may-poplaski-24-fnm018?geo_a=r&o_iid=41015&o_lid=41015&o_sch=Web+Property

Answers:
1. Oui - Yes, my grand-mother's family name is Wojciechowicz. Sounds Polish to me, but she only spoke Russian.
2. Oui et Non - Yes and no. I am not sure how much of this you want, but here is all I have on this:
a. My source et ma mere - is my mother, un femme remarquable - a remarkable woman - du excellente memorie - of good memory. Mother has consistently told us children about her Russian parents. I met and spoken with my mother's sisters, Virginia Race [Russian "Gina"] and Kay Hacker [Russian "Katrina"] when they were both alive. These fine women confirmed how their parents only spoke Russian - ses parents ne parlent que russe, never Polish - ses parents n'ont jamais parle polonais - and came from Minsk, Belarus, in the Russian Empire under the Czars.
b. The picture showing the string of young girls in bathing suits, with the highlighted one posing provocatively, is very much my mother's sister - la provocante c'est ma tante - my maternal Aunt Ann [Russian "Anna"] who was the "wild one" of the 5 sisters. This picture is accurate and captures Anna's vivacious personality, too.
c. For the record, my maternal grandparents - mes grands-parents maternels - had 6 children: Nadja, the eldest, who was born in Minsk, and who stayed in Russia, married a German man after WWII, and who's children and grandchildren are in Australia; and 5 girls all born in the USA: Gina [Americanized to "Virginia"], Olga [Americanized to "Aggie"] Marushka [Americanized to "Mary" - my mother] Anna [Americanized to "Ann" and Katrina [Americanized to "Kay"]. Mother is the last sister still alive.
d. However, the notations are incorrect - les notations sont incorrectes - on the source of the Poplaski name.
i. The family was Russian, they spoke Russian, they came from Minsk, Belarus.
ii. Mother believes when her parents emigrated, les barriers linguistiques ont deroute les autorites - language barrier may have confused the authorities - a mal termine leur nom de famille - to incorrectly end their surname with the letter "i" thinking they were Polish, rather ending the surname with a "y" as in Poplasky. I believe my mother is right. Je crois que ma mere a rasion. Ma mere est d'accord pour lasser les choses tells qu'elles sont. Mother is fine with leaving the Poplaski name as spelled, however, et inscrits sur leurs actes de naissance et de bapteme - that is what shows up on their birth certificates and church records.

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