This article originally appeared in RootsWeb Review, Vol. 3, No. 15; 12 April 2000

BONAWENTURA'S CHILDREN

by Stephen Lignowski

About two years ago, when I began the search into my own surname, I was surprised to find that there were so many LIGNOWSKIs in the United States who were not directly related to me. One of the first additional families I encountered was that of Bonawentura Rudolph LIGNOSKI (1809 - 1878), who came to the United States in 1836, fleeing from Russian persecution. I had the good fortune to find at RootsWeb (I think on a GenConnect board) an historian doing research for a book on Polish Texans in the Civil War, and who had written an article about Bonawentura LIGNOSKI in the journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of Texas. Not only did he send me a copy of the article, but also copies of all the records he had accumulated in his research on the man. One of the documents indicated that Bonawentura LIGNOSKI and his wife Caroline Matilda (1822 - 1904) had had 10 children, but only seven were listed in the article: Rudolph, Bettee, Charles, Julia, Carrie, Maria, and Almeria. Through census records, I was able to determine the names of the other three: E.A., Franklin, and Ella, only to discover from additional records I found a few months later that I had listed the same child under two different names (E. stood for Elizabeth, or Bettee). I was still missing a child.

From one of Bonawentura LIGNOSKI's descendants I heard mention of a family story of a "brother of Rudolph who died in infancy." I had first assumed he meant Franklin, whom I had discovered in census records in 1860, and who was missing in the 1880 census. I found him later living with his brother Rudolph in 1870, and I found a marriage record for him in 1881. Back to square one again. I had exhausted all of my leads. If the child was born and had died between censuses, there would be no indication of that except in censuses where the number of children for a mother was mentioned. There was. In 1900, Caroline was still alive, and the entry for her indicated that she had borne 10 children. I despaired of ever knowing anything about the last unknown child, since many states in the South did not start keeping vital records until the early 20th century.

Then a few weeks ago, I got an e-mail with the subject "missing child." Not knowing what to expect, I opened it. In the e-mail was a one paragraph note explaining that he had come across my RootsWeb Web page which mentioned an unknown tenth child, and recognized the surname as belonging to a great-aunt of his (Carrie) who had married into his family. He further explained that he had encountered the name in a compilation of obituaries from Alabama. He then quoted the obituary of Ada Amelia, an infant, who died 29 May 1848, daughter of B. R. and Matilda Caroline LIGNOSKI, of Barbour County.

Bonawentura's children had finally all come home.