William and Frank

On January 4, 1904 Frank Janusz, Anna's oldest son, boarded the SS Deutschland for his voyage to America. Three days later, back in Rudnik nad Sanem, Anna's youngest son, William Busta, was born. There was 23 years between Anna's oldest son and her youngest one.

Anna's husband, Ignacy had left on his own voyage to America 11 months prior. He could not be William's father. But was Anna even his mother?

Anna was 48 years old when William was born. She had been apart from her husband for nearly a year. Count Hompesch, the possible father of her first two illegitimate children, had been dead for seven years.

Guillhelmus, illegitimate son of Elisabeth Jasnosz, Joannes and Agnetis nee Mieczwa’s (?) daughter, was born on the 7th of January 1904 in Rudnik

Back in Poland, Dom identified William's birth record. It only raised more questions: Why were three out of five of Anna's children illegitimate?

The only thing that seemed to be correct about the record was the maternal grandfather listed, Joannes Janusz, Anna's father. The mother of the baby was listed as Elisabeth, not Anna and the maternal grandmother was Agnetis, not Victoria.

Additionally, the last name was spelled wrong, instead of Janusz it was Jasnosz. To those of us researching our Polish relatives in America this discrepancy is easily dismissed, we are accustomed to seeing our relatives names spelled differently on each official document. But in Poland the records were kept by parish priests, and they were kept meticulously. A misspelling that I was willing to overlook was to Dom a serious red flag when it came to this document.

There were two ways to interpret this record:

Either the mother (Anna) went to great lengths with the priest to disguise the birth record as not to be outed as having a third illegitimate baby while her husband was in America, or the baby wasn't hers at all.

My first thought was that Elisabeth was Anna's half-sister through their father Joannes Janusz. But he couldn't have had a second wife, he had pre-deceased Anna's mother, leaving her a widow. Maybe Joannes Janusz mentioned on the record was Anna's brother, making Elisabeth her niece...

Dom suggests that the house where William was born, #440 may prove to be a clue in finding the identity of his parents - the house number is different than the one where Anna gave birth to her children John and Louis whom she had with her husband Ignacy. If we can determine who lived in that house we may find out who William's parents were...or was the house number a ruse from Anna to further complicate things?

Did Elisabeth truly exist and why did she give her baby to Anna to take to America? What became of her back in Rudnik? Was she caught up in the conflict of 1914 when the Russians invaded and destroyed 80 percent of the town?

Or was Anna the mother of this baby after all, and if she was, who was William's father?

We are still waiting on the birth records of Mary, Frank and Anna, and Dom has also contacted family geneaologists in Poland who claim that Hompesch fathered their illegitimate ancestors to see how they came to that conclusion. He has also reached out to historians in Rudnik to find out if they can be of any help to us. 

And Frank's passenger record also leads to more questions: Was the family narrative of him spitting at a portrait of Czar Nicholas even true? The story was that Frank was released from jail when Alexei Romanav was born and Czar Nicholas freed political prisoners in celebration - historically, this really did happen. 

But Frank's Ellis Island records show that he was on his boat by January 4 1904, and Alexei wasn't born until August 12, 1904. The Ellis Island records also ask if the passenger was ever incarcerated and Frank answered "No".

To be continued  

Many thanks to my cousin Anna for kindly contributing to the cost of research! I'm so glad we're on this journey together! 

Many thanks to our amazing researcher/geneaologist/translater: Dom of  mypolishancestors.com. We would be lost without you!