Doughboys With Their Flu Masks - Wordless Wednesday

(Digital Image.  Photograph Privately Held By Cynthia Shenette; Photograph and Text, Copyright (c) 2013 Cynthia Shenette)  I found this World War I image in my collection a while back.  I decided to save it for flu season.  Unfortunately, flu season is here.  My grandfather, Adolf Szerejko, is the man on the far right. According to the back of the photograph the image was taken in "Oily Sein, Paris," and the front says, "A.S.M. A.A.A.P.I 102." 


Other Posts You Might Like:

Photo Story: Helping the Red Cross During World War I
Veteran's Day: The Life of a Doughboy, 1918
A Postcard from Paris, 1918 (Part 1 of 2) - Those Places Thursday
Flu 1918 (Part 1 of 3) - Amanuensis Monday

Send Up A Flare, Again! More Mystery People Identified!

(Digital Image. Privately Held By Cynthia Shenette; Text Copyright (c) 2012 Cynthia Shenette)  Will wonders never cease?  A reader identified three more people in one of my mystery photos!  According to their great-granddaughter, Joseph Choronzak is the man seated on the left and his wife Antonina (Walat) Choronzak is the woman in the back row, second to the right. Joseph and Antonina's oldest daughter, Mary (Choronzak) Bialecki, is the little girl standing in front of Antonina.  Joseph and Antonina are the couple I wrote about in my series of posts on the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Sadly, both husband and wife died on the same day of complications from the flu leaving seven young children orphans.  If you'd like to read more about this family please see my posts listed below:

Flu 1918 (Part 1 of 3) - Amanuensis Monday
Flu 1918 (Part 2 of 3)
Flu 1918 (Part 3 of 3)
Send Up A Flare, Mystery Bride Identified! - Mystery Monday
Choronzak - Tombstone Tuesday

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Joseph and Antonina's great-granddaughter (a.k.a. Sophie's grand-daughter) for (again) taking the time to look through my photos and helping to identify three of the people in this wedding photo.


Other Posts You Might Like:

Catechists, Our Lady of Czestochowa - Wordless Wednesday
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: WWI Red Cross Volunteers
Got Dissertations? - Tuesday's Tip
Meditation: The Strength of Ordinary Women

Choronzak - Tombstone Tuesday

Joseph (1873-1918) and Antonina (1882-1918) Choronzak,
Notre Dame Cemetery, Worcester, MA

(Original Image and Text, Copyright (c) 2011 Cynthia Shenette)

 Joseph Choronzak 1873-1918 his wife Antonina 1882-1918

The Choronzaks are the couple I wrote about in my three part series, Flu 1918. Joseph and his wife Antonina died on the same day of the flu, and according to a newspaper account left seven children orphaned.  I found and photographed their grave which is located in an old section of Notre Dame Cemetery in Worcester. I was also contacted by yet another grandchild of Joseph and Antonina who kindly sent me a photo of their grave as well. Interestingly, many of the other graves in the immediate area appear to be the graves of victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. I plan to post more about some of the other flu victims in the near future, so check back for additional posts. If you are interested in reading a little bit more about one of Joseph and Antonina's grandchildren check out the two Mystery Monday links listed below.


Other Posts You Might Like:

Mystery Monday: Yet Another Polish Wedding...
Send Up A Flare, Mystery Bride Identified! - Mystery Monday
Going Home: Our Lady of Czestochowa, Worcester, MA
The Stories My Grandmother Told Me

Flu 1918 (Part 3 of 3)

(Copyright (c) 2011 Cynthia Shenette) Where do I go from here? In the Telegram article transcribed in part one of this series, the man I believe to be Aunt Rose's father is listed as John. The family obituaries I have say his name was Joseph. Given previous mistakes I've found in obituaries, I'm still pretty confident that the John in the Telegram article is the Joseph I am looking for. Also given the chaos caused by the flu and the number of people mentioned in the newspaper on a daily basis, including the obits, I'm sure mistakes were common. I still need to verify the information.

I have three spellings of the last name: Chronzak, Choronzak, and Choronozak. Even Aunt Rose and her siblings' obituaries do not agree on the spelling of their parents' surname. I've tried to find the family in the 1910 U.S. Census without luck. I've also had limited success tracking the family in the Worcester city directories. The Telegram article did list that they lived on Meade St. in Worcester. I can go back to the Worcester house directories to see if I can trace them back to 1910. Even if I can't figure out the spelling of their name, I can find a neighbor, search the census for the neighbor, and hopefully find Aunt Rose's family that way.

Now that I know when Aunt Rose's parents were buried I can review earlier issues of the newspaper for obits. I know they were buried at Notre Dame Cemetery in Worcester so I can ask for burial information at the cemetery. Once I have an exact death date, I can go to the Worcester City Hall Clerk's office and get a copy of their death certificates. I've also discovered the names of some of Rose's siblings--Katherine, Stephen, and Sophie. All in all I have quite a bit of information.

If you are interested in reading more about the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, I suggest The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. There are other fine books out there, but this is the one that I have read. I also recommend the websites listed at the bottom of this post. The website, The Great Pandemic: the United States in 1918-1919, by the United States Department of Health and Human Services was particularly helpful for outlining the impact of the flu in Massachusetts. It lists the other states as well.

I will post updates on my research as I discover new information.


Links of Interest:
The Great Pandemic: the United States in 1918-1919
Influenza Digital Archive
Pandemic Influenza Storybook: personal recollections from survivors, families, and friendsThe Deadly Virus: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918"Influenza 1918" The American Experience (PBS)


Flu 1918 (Part 1 of 3)
Flu 1918 (Part 2 of 3)


Other Posts You Might Like:

Where They Lived: Every Address Tells A Story
COG 97: Researching "The Coldbrook Tragedy" (Part 1 of 4)
(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: The Kowalewski Family
Postcards From the Edge: Genealogy Road Trippin'

Flu 1918 (Part 2 of 3)

(Copyright (c) 2011 Cynthia Shenette) Last year my family and I got lucky. We got the flu. Twice. We got the H1N1 in October 2009 and the seasonal flu in February 2010. By the time the H1N1 flu vaccine was available in town, two months had passed since the H1N1 hit our area.

At one point it seemed like everyone was sick. Parents were sick. Kids were sick. Sick parents ended up in the emergency room with sick kids. One mom I know, a mother of three, brought her eight-year-old and her baby to the emergency room. The baby had pneumonia. Another mom of three brought two boys to the emergency room. The older one was admitted with pneumonia. If misery loves company, it sure loves a crowd.

In our case my son came down with the flu right before Halloween. He was out of school for about a week, but finally seemed to get better. Two days after returning to school he was sick again. His case of the flu followed the classic pattern all the health professionals tell you to watch out for--the ill person gets better only to worsen again. A bacterial infection had set in.

What does all of this have to do with the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918? A lot. Imagine a time before antibiotics, before easy access to health care, and before health insurance was available to cover medical costs. As I read the Telegram article about the impact of the flu pandemic on the Polish community in Worcester, the story hit home with me. How many families suffered situations similar to my Aunt Rose?

Thankfully the virulent strain of the flu that killed so many in 1918 and 1919 has not been seen since. What was strange about that particular flu was the intensity with which it hit. People sickened and sometimes died within hours of first showing symptoms. The usual segments of the population most susceptible to the flu--the very young and the very old--were not as affected as young and middle aged adults. People like me.

If my grandmother picked up the Worcester Telegram on October 1, 1918, these are the headlines she would have read. Consider the paper was only fourteen pages in its entirety that day.


Winchendon Has 26 New Epidemic Cases

Hardwick Schools Are Ordered to Be Closed

SHREWSBURY LIBRARY IS CLOSED BY THE TRUSTEES

Rochdale Pupils Are On Epidemic Vacation

Churches And Schools Are Closed In Dana

Influenza Closes Oxford Mill

Pneumonia Takes Off Two At Northbridge

Millbury Soldier Dies in Camp

EMERGENCY HOSPITAL TO BE READY LATER PART OF WEEK

Double Crew Working Day And Night To Convert Greendale Dance Hall of Agricultural Society Into Hospital

Southbridge Acts As A Precaution

Massachusetts Gaining In Fight Against The Influenza Epidemic

Marlboro Reports 16 New Cases

Needed Drugs Arrive In Clinton

Second Hospital Will Be Opened

Illness of Staff Leaves Mayor Holmes Alone

Marlboro Sends 1000 Gauze Masks to Boston

Practical Healthy Women Are Needed [by the Red Cross]
and ironically

Influenza Epidemic Does Not Interfere With Work Of Draft Boards


Fourteen pages. Even with the war raging in Europe, flu coverage clearly trumped war coverage. I didn't list the headlines that refer to specific people dying of the flu or pneumonia. There were also 58 obituaries listed that day. Imagine similar headlines and coverage in Boston, or New York, or San Francisco. Or your town.

Imagine the enormity of it.


Flu 1918 (Part 1 of 3)
Flu 1918 (Part 3 of 3)


Other Posts You Might Like:

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: WWI Red Cross Volunteers
Veteran's Day: The Life of a Doughboy, 1918
The Stories My Grandmother Told Me
Meditation: The Strength of Ordinary Women

Flu 1918 (Part 1 of 3) - Amanuensis Monday

(Copyright (c) 2011 Cynthia Shenette)

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

Thanks to John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch for providing the idea for Amanuensis Monday.

Have you ever had one of those surprising moments when you found something, bing boom, that you thought was going to take forever? Something that rightly SHOULD have taken forever, but it didn't? I wasn't even looking for the information I found the day I found it. Genealogical serendipity. Most of the time--when I'm looking for Szerejko, or Kowalewski, or Radziewicz, or in this particular case Choronzak--that just doesn't happen.

Last spring I decided to try to find a little information on my "Aunt" Rose. Aunt Rose was actually my grandmother's adopted sister. My grandmother and my mother told me that Aunt Rose was taken in by my great-grandparents, Antoni and Ewa (Kowalewska) Bulak, when Rose's parents both died of the flu during the 1918 influenza pandemic. The story goes that Aunt Rose's parents died within two days of one another and left several children behind. The children were (using my mother's words) "farmed out" to other members of the Polish community of St. Mary's parish in Worcester, MA to be taken care of.

When I started this search back last June all the information I had to go on was that Rose's maiden name was Chronzak or Choronzak. According to the census, I did find that Rose was living with my great-grandparents in 1920. While I was at the Worcester Public Library I checked the Worcester city directories hoping to get lucky and find death dates listed with the family's 1919 entry. No such luck. Next I asked a librarian if there were any Worcester statistics/information for flu deaths from the 1918 pandemic publicly available. No luck again. So much for the easy way.

From my research on the flu I knew that most deaths, at least in my geographical area, occurred during the fall of 1918. I decided to visually scan the microfilm of the Worcester Telegram for obituaries related to the flu starting in late September when the flu really started to take hold. I reviewed one issue of the daily paper. There were over fifty obituaries listed for that day alone! That trip to the library put the enormity of the flu pandemic in perspective for me. I suddenly realised this project was going to be tougher than I originally thought. Shortly after my library visit my family and I left for California for a good part of the summer. When we got back I moved on to other research.

Last Thursday I went to the library to do some research for a couple of hours. I had several projects in mind, and one of them was to look at the October 1918 issues of the Worcester Telegram. I thought I'd start systematically reviewing the microfilm starting with the October 1, 1918 issue. I loaded my microfilm onto the reader and reviewed the first issue on the roll. This is what I found on page 6:

Worcester Daily Telegram, Tuesday October 1, 1918, p. 6.POLISH PARISH MUCH AFFECTED BY GRIP
The spanish influenza epidemic has affected St. Marys Polish parish to a considerable extent. Half the parish members are confined to bed, according to report made late last night, by the rector, Boleslaus A. Bojanowski, who also said there were at least 600 church people with the malady.

He and Rev. Edmund Kempski, his assistant at the church, have been busy the past few days, administering the last rites of the Catholic church.

There have been quite a number of deaths the past week. One of the saddest cases was that of Mr. and Mrs. John Choronozak, Meade street, both buried Sunday afternoon in Notre Dame cemetery. The couple had been ill but a few days and they leave seven orphans, the eldest: 14 years of age. Three of the children are suffering with the "flu" in city hospital while the remaining four are cared for temporarily by friends of the family.

Much sympathy is extended Mr. and Mrs. J.J. Mendys and family, Richland street. The couple and three children are in a bad condition, all confined to their beds at the family home. They had called in physicians without avail. A man neighbor visited the home yesterday on business when he learned of the plight and he notified Rev. Fr. Bojanowski who, in turn secured a physician and other assistance.

There is no one to give permanent care, however, and both Mr. and Mrs. Mendys were in a critical state, last night having received the last rites of the church.

Rev. Fr. Bojanowski officiated at the funeral service of Aleck Sielski, 46 years old, another victim of the influenza, yesterday morning. He leaves a wife unable to work, and daughter, about 15 years old.

Another requiem mass will be celebrated this morning at 8:30 o'clock at the funeral of Constantin Skorodske, 44 years of age, who has been ill a week, and succumbed of pneumonia. He leaves a wife and five children.

There are many, many cases, Rev. Fr. Bojanowski said, where the parents and all the children are sick. Usually the Polish people have large families, and the scarcity of nurses has made it very hard on these households, thereby spreading the infection, it was said.

Flu 1918 (Part 2 of 3)
Flu 1918 (Part 3 of 3)


Other Posts You Might Like:

The Stories My Grandmother Told Me
A Matter of Habit: Solving a Mystery
Amanuensis Monday: Clairvoyants and Distractions
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Here Come the (Mystery) Brides...