Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Possible Lead on Anuszkiewicz

It is really kind of ironic how we come across some of the information we need for genealogy. I was trying to organize and consolidate my research and in the process I came across some emails from years ago. Some of these emails concerned my ANUSZKIEWICZ (UNCORT) ancestors. One of these emails contained death information on three women with the first name of Stella, one of which was:

Stella SKJELDAL
died: 19 September 1984
in Baltimore, Maryland

This is the same death date and place of death for my Great Aunt Stella ANUSZKIEWICZ.

Further research yielded the following:
Stella SKJELDAL
born: 25 October 1905
died: 19 September 1984 Baltimore City, MD
source - SSDI
(my Great Aunt Stella was born in Poland between 1905 - 1908)

Leonard SKJELDAL
born: 14 March 1905
died:  September 1905 Maryland
source: SSDI

Stella SKJELDAL was Naturalized in 1945 and she lived at
116 S. Broadway, Baltimore, Maryland.
Leonard SKJELDAL was Naturalized in 1948 and lived at the same address.

Headstone of Leonard & Stella SKJELDAL
in St. Mary's Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland

So these two are definitely related to each other. 

Apparently Leonard was a Merchant Seaman because I find several Passenger Lists where he is listed. All of these lists say he was born in Norway.

I find all of this very promising because my Uncle Vince had told me years ago when I first started doing research that my Great Aunt Stella had married a Norwegian man by the name of Leonard. He is also the one who gave me the death date and place of death for her (My Mother had also told me she had died in Baltimore, but she did not know the date.) 

I have a gut feeling that this is Great Aunt Stella and her husband but I have not yet been able to find a documented connection. I could send for Stella SKJELDAL's death certificate, but Maryland's prices are more than double what they are here in Pennsylvania. I have been trying to find a marriage certificate but so far no luck with online records.

But I feel this is a very promising lead!

Update

I made a phone call to St. Mary's Church. They gave me the number to the cemetery itself.  I was surprised to find that St. Mary's Cemetery is a Redemptrous Cemetery. They could not give me much info. I was able to get the exact location of the grave, but that was about it.
The woman I was talking to had suggested talking to the parish rectory, and to also try St. John Newman, since they also use the cemetery. Will have to give both Rectories a call when I get a chance.

Update

I have not yet called either of the rectories in Maryland. I do have a VERY promising bit of information that I believe points in the right direction. I decided to run a Google search on Leonard Skejdal. I came across a link for the My Heritage website. This is another pay site, and unfortunately, I do not subscribe to it. However, the site does let you see a little of what they have for the name you are researching. There were 3 of these such links for Leonard from a newspaper "The Capital" (Annapolis, Maryland), two of which were obviously obituary (not enough info in the little blurb to get anything out of it) but...a link dated; January 22, 1953 had some blurbs about other stuff then this....

Jan. 22, 1953
.....Helen Knana her daughters, Gloria & Diane and MT, and Mrs. William Schutter their son Louis of Philadelphia were weekend guests of Mrs. Marie Skjedal...

I believe this could be another link to confirming that Stella SKJELDAL is Stella UNCORT (ANUSZKIEWICZ).

Update

I wrote to both cemeteries asking for information about Stella SKJELDAL. Neither one had any information. The only thing either could tell me was that the grave was owned by Mrs. SKJELDAL - no first name on the deed; and that Leonard was not Catholic, which I find odd considering that you usually need to be Catholic to be buried in a Catholic Cemetery. However, when I called Our Lady of the Field's (another church that was recommended for this cemetery), and had told the woman I was talking to that i was surprised that Leonard was buried in a Catholic Cemetery, she told me there were exceptions but did not say what they were, but that it was up to the priest that was officiating.
   So, with that being a dead end - no pun intended - I decided to go the route of the Division of Vital Records for the State of Maryland. Looking through their website, I printed out the form to be mailed in. Along the bottom of the form was a phone number to call for 'genealogical purposes'. So I called - it was the phone number for the Maryland State Archives. Spoke to a very nice gentleman, and then ordered a copy of Stella SKJELDAL's death certificate. It should be here in about 10 days. Hopefully this will answer once and for all that Stella SKJELDAL is Stella ANUSZKIEWICZ-UNCORT.
   The gentleman that I was talking to also gave me some insight on how to pronounce SKJELDAL. He had said that in most Germanic & Norse (Norwegian) names, the 'kj' sound is usually pronounced as an 'sh' sound. He said he was guessing, but that he believed the SKJELDAL surname would be pronounced as:   Shell - dahl.

Update

   I received the Death Certificate from Maryland - Stella SKJELDAL is Stella UNCORT!!
However, there is no new information to be had from the Death Certificate. It lists her father as Stanley Uncort; mother as Alice ZIGMONT (same surname as I have had for her, just spelled different). The informant was her sister, my Grandmother Helen Uncort Kahana Bacican.

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