His name at birth was Lekis Wislocki. His last residence in Poland was Czarnawoda. He had at least one sister, Eva Bednarski and five brothers, Sylvester also known as Stephan, Johann also known as John, Thomas and Petro also known as Peter. All six immigrated to Philadelphia by way of a port in Austria. They may have had another sibling known as Andrew.
As far I can see from various research articles, these were the siblings who immigrated to Philadelphia (Manayunk) between the years 1890 and 1905. I discovered that Lekis (Lewis) Wislocki (Wisloski/Weleski) worked at Pencoyd Iron Works. It appears his brothers may have worked there too. When John, Sylvester and Peter immigrated to Philadelphia, they had their brother Lekis Wislocki written down as their contact here in America. When Thomas and Eva immigrated to Philadelphia, they had their brother Sylvester listed as their contact here in America.
Little by little, the pieces of this puzzle come together. All the Wislocki siblings, with the exception of Andrew lived in Manayunk. I have a feeling if I can locate the graves of the sibling brothers, I may come across my great grandfather, Lekis Wislocki's burial spot. As indicated in earlier posts, my great grandfather was not interred in the same cemetery plot as my great grandmother, uncles, aunts, ect. Lekis died before his wife. Supposely, he did something to disgrace the family and the children ended up being raised by their mother, Eva. It was a known fact that none of the family members were allowed to ever mention his name. I have checked the records at Westminster Cemetery and could not locate any records on the burials of these brothers even though Lekis's wife, Eva and sister Eva Bednarski are interred there along with some of his children and their spouses.
Though, I do not know the terrible family crime/secret, I do know that the youngest child of Lekis and Eva was also considered a disgrace, when she married outside the catholic religion. This was the child known as Julia (Julie).
The Wislocki's spoke the Polish language and were devoted catholics. At some point, the spelling of their name was changed from Wislocki to Wisloski, then again when my grandfather, John changed it to its current spelling of Weleski though not all members of his extended family went along with the new spelling.
Today, we have family members with both spelling variations of the name.
1 comment:
In my husband's family there are several cousins who spell the name differently than we do. It took me awhile to link them all up.
Sometimes what or ancestors saw as disgraceful, we'd hardly bat an eye at. I hope you learn what became of Lekis.
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