I would like help finding the hometown of my paternal great-grandmother, Anna Milos-16

Question

I know that Anna Milos arrived in the United States by 1892, and lived in Ware, Massachusetts, and worked in the woolen mill. She had family there. They spoke Polish.  What I don't know is how she arrived, and where she came from.  What was her hometown in Poland?  Documents give her birthplace as Poland or Austria.  If possible, I would like to know her arrival information -- boat to New York, or Baltimore? When?

Comments

I looked in the immigration records at Ancestry (US edition) with some spelling variations without any luck. I did see a passenger list with a Stephan Kozlowski who was described as Russian, and who arrived about the right time. He was by himself.

At the time they immigrated Poland, as a country, did not exist (the various partitions of Poland divided it between Austria, Germany, and Russia). This would explain why a person could be described as coming from Austria at one time, and Poland at another. Galicia, for example, originally part of Poland was taken by Austria in one of the partitions. Galicia was a rather poor part of the Austrian Empire, so there are many immigrants from there.

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I added a family tree to Albert's profile, I don't think he is

Anna's father.

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The Annie in that family was born about 30 years too late.

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Yes, he is put down as Anna's father. Death Ware Mass.

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You may have the wrong person.  I know that he is the father! I have family records.

Answer 1

If her father had a son Albert Milos who married in the same year as his sister to Katorynia Strychasz then their mother's name was Margorata "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, 1921-1924", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHYH-2CV : 28 July 2021), Albert Milos, 1893. 

Answer 2

If she was Polish and "Austrian" by nationality she was most likely from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.  I'll see if I can find information for you. :)  BTW, interesting surname Jaross, could it have been Jarosz at one time?  Very common for that region as well.   Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Resource Page

eta: I poked around a bit.  You will definitely see if you can track down an immigration/naturalization record online or in writing to NARA.  Also, try finding the church where they were married and see if they have a record (because it will often state the village where they were from and parent's names). 

Comments

Haven't found immigration online after repeated tries.  The church does not keep records.  Their policy is records are only for church use, not genealogy.  Yes the surname was Jarosz and they are from Jaworze Gorne, Pilzno, Poland, definitely in Galicia. I found their immigration records, so I know that hometown.  I have not tried NARA yet.  I will have to find out how to do that. Thanks.

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One more option, but only if you have done your dna.  Group your matches by common ancestor and see if you can isolate the “Milos” branch.  Start inspecting your match’s trees and see if you can find a common village or region.  See the resource page I have for Galicia where I have many links.  

I was able to do this successfully with my Polish branch, bc they were not originally from the village whence they emigrated.

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Yes! I actually have created an Excel file, grouping my DNA matches, and I do have "Milos" matches.  I will dig into this again.  My problem has been that most of my DNA matches do not have enough people in their tree to be helpful.

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You may have to do a bit of work on their trees, but it’s well worth it if/when you get that breakthrough!