Week 41 – #52Ancestors (The original prompt was Water… and I had nothing.. lol. So you get this! Enjoy!)
Every family’s story begins with names—some whispered across centuries, others shouted from ship manifests, and many carefully inscribed in church records halfway around the world. My family tree branches across four European countries and countless American communities, each surname carrying its own journey of hope, hardship, and determination.
This blog serves as my digital research notebook, a place to document discoveries and share the stories behind the names that built our family. If any of these surnames or places resonate with your own research, I’d love to connect—we might just be cousins!
The Family Names That Crossed Oceans
My family tree reads like a passenger manifest from Ellis Island’s busiest years. Each surname represents not just individuals, but entire communities that made the momentous decision to trade everything familiar for American possibilities.
From the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia: The Marcisak and Hurkala families left the tiny mountain village of Litmanova in 1901, escaping crushing poverty where nobles owned 90% of the land and peasants survived on plots too small to feed a family. The Hlinka clan followed similar paths from Slovak highlands to Pennsylvania coal country. These families traded mountain meadows at 2,200 feet elevation for company towns built on coal cinders, where the glow from coke ovens lit the night sky.
From Austrian Galicia’s Polish territories: The Dubnianski and Knyz families represent another chapter in Eastern European emigration. Paul Dubnianski’s tragic death by locomotive in 1912 left his widow Julianna to raise their children alone in Pennsylvania’s industrial landscape—a reminder that not all American dreams ended happily. The Kowalski name adds another thread to this Polish tapestry of immigration.
From Sweden’s Kristianstad County: My Swedish ancestors remain partially shrouded in mystery. My great-grandfather arrived in 1926 aboard the S.S. Gripsholm, but claimed he “didn’t know who his grandfather was.” Swedish church records have revealed a complex story involving a child born out of wedlock in 1867 and a mysterious Sven Mattisson—a brick wall I’m still working to demolish through meticulous parish record research.
From Ireland’s fertile counties: The Dowling family departed County Kerry’s limestone plains in the 1850s, while the Plunkett and Smith families fled County Meath during the catastrophic Famine years. Peter Plunkett transformed from refugee to Brooklyn paper manufacturing magnate, his success story embodying the American dream even as it meant abandoning Ireland’s endless green horizons forever.
Where These Names Settled
These surnames didn’t just immigrate—they built communities:
- Pennsylvania coal towns: Star Junction, Lower Yoder, and Johnstown became home to our Slovak and Polish families
- Brooklyn, New York: From tenements to brownstones, multiple family lines converged in Kings County
- Manhattan: The urban corridors where immigrant dreams took shape
- Delaware: Where Swedish carpenters helped build American infrastructure
Family Tree Research in Progress
Currently, I’m diving deep into:
- Swedish church records and descendancy research, tracking that elusive Sven Mattisson
- Slovak and Polish baptismal and marriage records
- Pennsylvania cemetery documentation
- Brooklyn city directories and naturalization papers
- DNA matches that might finally break through some brick walls
Join the Search
Behind every surname lies a story of courage—the decision to leave everything known for everything possible. These names represent young people who boarded ships with little more than hope, who worked dangerous jobs in coal mines and factories, who built American communities while preserving old-world traditions.
If you recognize any of these names or places—Marcisak, Hurkala, Hlinka, Dubnianski, Knyz, Kowalski, Dowling, Plunkett—or if your family came from Litmanova, Kristianstad, County Meath, or County Kerry, please reach out. Every connection adds another piece to this enormous puzzle of family history.
If you’d like to learn more about my immigrant ancestors, feel free to check out some of my other blog posts below, or head to my Blog page for even more!
And of course, watch this blog for even more ancestor stories in the future.
- “Kirsten M. Max-Douglas Family Tree,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/69485656/family: accessed 21 October 2025). ↩︎
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