Lost Cemetery Plot

I have come to the conclusion that I will never find my great-grandfather Peter Makosiej. I have been to the Princeton, Sterling, and Clinton Town Halls to see if they could find the record of Peter, but unfortunately I have had no luck. My mom thinks that maybe they did not have a lot of money and ended up getting buried somewhere without a grave marker.

Ellis Island

Now that I know Agnes' last name I continued on with my research. I went to Ellisisland.org, it is a free site. Since I have the year if birth for her I got an accurate record for my great-grandmother. Her ethnicity is galicy. She is originally from Wieozazrice, Germany. Agnes came over on the Friedrich der Grosse, a steamship from Germany. She arrived August 31, 1901 at the age of 21 and unmarried.

The image above is a postcard of the steamship that my great-grandmother travelled on.

(Image courtesy of http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=frigr)

I am now wondering if I am trully Polish like my father is saying were are. There is still my great-grandfather Peter to search for, but so far I am coming up with nothing. Hopefully, the Princeton Town Hall will be able to help me find the grave marker of Peter.

Grave Searching

I do not know why I did not think of doing this sooner. I went to the Parker Cemetery in Princeton. I knew that our family plot was there and that my aunt, uncle, grammy and grampy were buried there. However, I did not know that my great-grandmother Agnes was buried there. Unfortunately, her husband was not buried there, but I do have more gravesites in Princeton that I can search. I now have her maiden name and will be able to do further search. I have confirmed that her husband was Peter and not Michael. So the search continues.

Confused?

I know I posted in one of my earlier posts that both my great-grandfathers had the same first name. I have now found something else that shows that his name was really Peter. The information about the children, wife, birth place, death, and place living are all the same. Curious!?! My search shall continue.

Orphaned?

I have yet been able to get past my great-grandparents. I am beginning to wonder if maybe they were orphans when they left Austria and Poland. I really hope that is not the case with my ancestors because then I will probably find nothing more than what I have found. It does sound kind of romantic that to orphans found each other and married. They most likely did not marry for love, but you never know stranger things have happened to my family.

Town Records

Well, I spent most of the night searching through town records in Princeton and Sterling. Trying to find some hint of my family and found nothing so far, again. If you go to Footnote.com you can search for your family by town. It tells you where they came from and where their parents came from. I just wish I could find mine through this. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Struggling

Finding out who my family is is much harder than I thought it would be. I got as far as my great grandparents on both sides I can't find out anything more. It is like their parent's didn't exist at all. My dad is of no help at this point because he never bothered to ask questions about his family, which is not hard to believe at all. He is not at all into knowing who his family is. I just hope my cousin Teresa will have a better idea of who my ancestors are. Wish me luck I will be needing it.