[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] a new dilemma

[Edelgard Strobel]

Hello Craig,

maybe the place name is Wisznow:

http://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/WISNEWKO20SS

Edelgard



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig Schiller" <craigbear at gmail.com>
To: <ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 10:47 PM
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] a new dilemma


> For a quick refresher on the situation that this question pertains to, one
> of my great-grandfather's brothers, Paul, was known to have emigrated to
> the United States in the 1910s, but then permanently lost contact with my
> great-grandfather around WWII -- with the result that those of us alive
> today had virtually *no* knowledge of him beyond the fact that he existed,
> and have had to start entirely from scratch just to find out anything 
> about
> him at all. Our best lead was a border crossing document which had him
> entering the US at Noyes, MN in 1913, and listed a spouse named Bertha who
> lived in "Jeznewka, Volina". (From SGGEE research, further, I confirmed
> that "Jeznewka" is most likely Yasenivka, a village which *is* located in*
> exactly* the area where my other Schillers were living at that time.)
>
> That border document sent me hunting in Racine, WI, where I located two
> separate WWI draft cards, one which listed a wife named Bertha but had the
> wrong birthdate on it, and one which had the right birthdate and had the
> name Bertha listed and then crossed out before listing my 
> great-grandfather
> (correct name and address) as a replacement next-of-kin. However, I've
> tried without success so far to clarify whether the two draft cards were
> for the same Paul or not, because of (a) the contradictions between the 
> two
> cards (different birthdates, Bertha being listed on one but crossed out on
> the other, etc.) and (b) the rather odd notion that one person would even
> have two separate cards in the same draft round in the first place.
>
> From there, I located two naturalization index cards in Racine, a failed
> application from 1923 and a successful one from circa 1940, which
> corresponded cleanly to the address and birthdate on the draft card that
> listed my great-grandfather as next of kin. So in turn I ordered the
> naturalization petitions and certificate from an archive in Wisconsin, and
> they arrived today. They *almost*, I say *almost*, seem to solve my
> problem: they both name him as the widower of a woman named Bertha; they
> both give an original US entry that corresponds correctly to the date and
> location on the border crossing document that sent me looking in Racine in
> the first place...and they both give a birthdate that corresponds 
> correctly
> to the draft card that had my great-grandfather's name on it.
>
> Problem solved? Nope.
>
> They both list his birthplace *and* his last foreign residence as "Vicnov,
> Poland". No trace of Borowiec, Grodziec or Jeznewka...*Vicnov*. So now,
> after all of this, I suddenly have to figure out if despite all that
> circumstantial evidence, I've actually been barking up the wrong tree the
> whole time.
>
> So my question is: does the place name "Vicnov" mean anything plausible to
> anyone? Or should I just chalk this up to a bureaucratic error like my old
> "Gruec" problem, and accept that I've got the right guy?
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