Finding the Karpinski Family: Step 2, Talking to the Family

Please read Step 1 first.

Step 2

The second step of the research process is talking to family members about your subject.  If you are brand new to genealogy, you will want to interview as many family members as possible, starting with the oldest (I know this sounds morbid, but these are the people who have the most information about past generations and who will likely become a past generation first).  Additionally, no one wants to replicate another’s research, as this would be a waste of both time and money, so by taking the time to speak to your relatives and do a cursory online search (step 3), you will limit this.

Talking to the Family

For this project, the only person I know to speak to is my great aunt Dottie.  She has done a lot of research on the Acquard family and is where I received the information on the Karpinski’s.  The information I received via email was:

“Here's the info I have on your great-grandmothers (Stella Karpinski Acquard) mother and father.

Francis (Francixaek) Karpinski (Karpinska) born September 16, 1880 in Poland and Died May 22, 1943 married to Josephine (Zozefa) Szydlik who was born September 26, 1886 in Poland and died April 4, 1973 in Warsaw NY.  Both are buyed[sic] in St. Joseph's cemetery on Rt. 16 in Holland NY. There headstone reads S.P. Mama Josefa 1886-1973 and S.P. Ojciec Franciszek 1880-1943 Karpinska.  He died of cancer and she died of asthma.  He had a brother Stephen. I do not know who his parents were.  Hopefully, you can find some information on him.

Josephine Szydlik Karpinski's parents were Thomas & Barbara Szydlik.  I do not have any other info on them.

Josephine had 2 sisters that I know of Stepania Szydlik who married with last name Stankiewicz.  No first name known.  Her other sister Apolania born in 1892 in Poland and married with last name Kaczanowski.  She died January 4, 1963 in North Collins NY.

In 1987 I received a letter from Apolonio Stankiewicz

address: ulico.Wojsko, Polskiego 37/20; 77-100 Bytow; woj. Stupsk.  She is a cousin that used to write to my Mom.  However, she writes in Polish and I can't read or write it so I had a terrible time communicating with her.    I also have an name and address for Barbara Stelmaszczyk, ul. Krabowska 14; 42-600 Tarnowskie Gory; Polska .  I have a picture of a girl from 1957 with the name Picowszs Kaminia.

Good Luck.  Not sure if any of these people are alive but their children or grandchildren should be.”

One email and I have a lot more information.  Things to look into:

• Visiting the cemetery in Holland next time I am visiting Buffalo to see the gravestone mentioned.  I can also see what info the cemetery has on the family.


• Josephine’s sister’s first and married names and some of their children’s names


• Francis’s brother’s name


• More spellings of first and last names.  Need to look at a Polish genealogy book for some standards.


• Addresses in Poland.  Finding hometowns in the ancestral country can be difficult, this should help.

Our next step will be a cursory search of this family online tomorrow.

MSLIS Monday: 3 Down, 1 to Go

I have just finished my third semester in graduate school for my MSLIS.  It is hard to believe how quickly I have gone from brand-new first-year, to nearly-done, job-hunter.

I really enjoyed my classes this semester.  I took Introduction to Cultural Heritage Preservation, Telecommunications and Information Policy and Life Histories and Ethnographies.  It was busy, to be sure, but I learned a lot and was surprised in many ways that the class I was least excited about became my favorite and the one I learned the most from.

IST 618, Survey of Telecommunications and Information Policy, if notorious for being despised by LIS majors.  It is required for our degree, yet no one ever wants to take it and complain continuously about having to do so.  After this semester, I understand and fully support the requirement and consider it one of the most important classes I have taken.

I took the class with Dr. Lee McKnight, who explained why information policy is so important using real life examples throughout class.  He often brought up policies in libraries and that impacted libraries, both in class and in our readings.  Additionally, our project was to create a case study and this allowed me to survey actual librarians about their internet usage policies, correlate the data, and create graphs and write a paper to explain our research's importance in relation to material my colleagues found in a literature review.  I would classify this project as the most important in my time at SU this far.

My Introduction to Cultural Heritage Preservation class showed me the importance of collaboration between libraries, archives and museums (LAMS).  My favorite parts were learning about social media and emerging technologies in preserving cultural heritage and looking into the part tourism plays in this topic, using information from the classes I have taken toward a tourism management degree, along with more recent research.

My Life Histories and Ethnographies class was not quite what I had expected, but I did read many fascinating ethnographies, wrote an autobiography and interviewed my father-in-law to write a life history on him.  Learning about well-regarded ethnographic writers and reading what they have written is helpful in my genealogical research as I start to write profiles on my ancestors.

Overall, it was a wonderful semester and I look forward to beginning my forth, and last, semester at the end of January.

Librarian Interview #2

While at the NYLA conference, I was able to interview the director of Livonia Public Library, Frank Sykes, for my reference class. My assignment was to learn how reference services work at his library, including modes of delivery, assessment and levels of service provided. We also discussed his recommendations on how to stay current with reference trends and other general observations he has.

Similar to getting to Carnegie Hall, Frank’s recommendation to become good at reference is “practice, practice, practice.” Just like any other program or application, you have to become familiar with it. Databases have different interfaces and various ways to search for a desired result. Reference is also a field where the professional has to stay on top of their game. Research, webinars, and list-servs are all ways to be informed of new databases and research methods.

Frank’s goal is to provide more specific, local information to his patrons in the next few years. He feels that small public libraries will be focusing on reference questions in local history and genealogy, local and county jobs and local school projects in the future, as this is what they can answer that the internet search engines cannot. 

It is nice to hear of the prominence of genealogy and local history questions in public libraries, as this gives me more options to look into once I start my job search. Although there may not be a specific department, the knowledge that I will get to work with people on family history related topics in reassuring.

Librarian Interview #1

Networking is an important part of a career path. In my introduction to library and information science class, we were given our first opportunity to practice this skill by interviewing a library manager, administrator or department head in order to learn more about the profession.

I was fortunate to interview the director of the local history/genealogy department of the Onondaga County Public Library. Our discussion focused on her job, the change in libraries due to digitization and the things I can focus on while receiving my degree.

Our discussion on digitization brought up many fascinating aspects to librarianship in the computer age. What used to be a long search for an obituary, covering a microfilm search of the death date and four days after, is now a quick online search of digitalized newspapers. The difficulty in deciding what fee to charge patrons has been created due to this new search. Instead of a 25 cent copy, a librarian can easily attach an image to an email. I found her idea of adding “This information is provided by a public library, financed with public funds and donations” to the bottom of the email to be the most logical, particularly since many people will make a donation, often of more than the library would have charged them.

Another problem caused by the digital age is deciding what information to put online. Should the library focus on content and narrative driven data, which will be used frequently or images, which are glamorous and showy? Finding the right blend is a difficult decision.

The majority of the department’s patrons are retired, with a stable source of income and high educational level. They are high demand researchers, knowing what they want or at a difficult point in their research. Their high-end research means that librarians in this field need to be constantly coming up with new and more specialized answers to reference questions. It is important to stay up to date in the field, by being active with the local genealogical society and reading professional publications and listservs in the field. She also recommended conferences offered by the New York Library Associationand the New York State Archives.

After our discussion, I was more convinced that I am following the proper career path for myself. I look forward to learning more about archival procedures, genealogical reference and the digitization of information.