JOHN ALBERT KIJAK
John Albert Kijak was my mother's paternal grandfather. He was the only grandparent that she knew as both her grandmothers and her maternal grandfather had passed away before she was born. I was very fortunate to know all 4 of my grandparents but my mother only knew her grandfather Kijak who is pictured here in approximately 1910 (111 years ago):
John Albert Kijak was born May 20, 1861 in Taniborz, Poznan, Poland to Thomas Kijak and Balbina Korcz. He was baptized in the Catholic faith on May 21, 1861 at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in Tulce, Poland:
When preparing my materials for this post, I had my first experience with NOT finding anything on these small villages on the Internet to aid me. It was necessary to go to my old maps of Poland to find a reference to Taniborz and Tulce:
When I say small villages, I do mean small. I was actually in Poland in 1993 on my 17-village genealogical tour with my brother and his family. Let me assure you that Taniborz does exist but it is nothing more than a small road with some farms on each side. We did drive down a somewhat "main" road and found a sign indicating a right turn to Taniborz. Driving down this road gave the impression of driving through someone's farm land. People were out working in their fields and stopped to stare at the American van driving by. The wonderful photos that I took in other areas of this trip did not extend to Taniborz and Tulce as I was trying my hand in Poland with a video camera and the results were less than perfect.
On to the village of Tulce we went and I was able to find quickly the Catholic church still in existence. A small cemetery behind the church was very accessible and my 10 year old niece and 9 year old nephew delighted in searching all the gravestones but they were newer burials and no Kijak names could be found.
I had previously written to this Catholic church and was pleased to receive numerous records from the Thomas and Balbina Kijak family including records of other children that were born to them during their marriage, all of which occurred in Taniborz. In addition, I received the death certificate for father, Thomas Kijak, who died on January 13, 1865 in Taniborz at the age of 53 and who was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Tulce on January 16, 1865.
On February 2, 1867 after the death of Thomas Kijak, his widow, Balbina, remarried in Tulce to Casper Kowalak and they later had a son, Martin. Records for these two events were also sent to me. Later, Casper, Balbina and Martin would immigrate to America.
Family tradition states that John Albert Kijak came to the US from Poland in 1882, going first to Canada and entering the US from there. He is to have entered the US on June 19, 1882, became lost in Upper Michigan and eventually made his way to friends in Bay City, Michigan where he settled. He carried with him from Poland his featherbed (on his back) and a flute that he had used in Poland for calling sheep. I have this flute to this day though it is correctly known as a recorder:
As of this date, however, I have not been able to find any passenger list information on John Kijak's arrival in the US. Perhaps a problem is the way the surname of Kijak has been massacred over the years!
Once in Michigan, John began a career as a butcher and the 1890-1891 Bay City directory shows a listing for "John Keyak as butcher for J.F. Dork and living in the area of Bowery Street". The surname Kijak has been spelled and pronounced multiple ways. In Polish the surname is pronounced as KEYOC which means "stick". However, the pronunciation that has been used in the US is KIYAK which sounds like the Kayak boat.
On October 26, 1891, at the age of 30, John Albert Kijak married Mary Anna Rubis at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Bay City. They were married by Rev. F. Votypka with John's half brother, Martin Kowalak, as a witness as well as Ignacy Szule:
The 1894 Bay City, Michigan special census lists the family living on Johnson Street and shows John Kijak, Maryanna (wife), Joseph (son-2 years old) and Anna (daughter-2 months old). On this census, John Kijak was listed as a laborer.
By 1900 John and Mary Kijak had 4 children with Joseph, born in 1892; Anna, born in 1894; Martha, born in 1896 and Rozalie, born in 1898. The 1900 Bay City, Michigan, US census shows the family living at 1006 South Sherman and John is listed as a "coal miner" though where this occupation came from I don't know. Family history has always indicated that he was a butcher:
This is where the story of John Kijak becomes confused. For whatever reason that has not been discovered, John and Mary Kijak separated in 1900-1901 though they never divorced. At that time Mary took her four children and relocated to South Bend, Indiana with John remaining in Bay City. The 1910 South Bend, Indiana, US census does show Mary with her four children, Joseph, Anna, Martha and Rozalie. On the 1910 Bay City, Michigan, US census, John Kijak is shown living with his half brother, Martin Kowalak and family:
It was around this same time that John and his half brother, Martin Kowalak, had this wonderful photo taken of themselves, with Martin sitting and John standing:
By 1913, John's son, Joseph Kijak, was living and working in St. Joseph, Michigan which was just some 30 miles from South Bend, Indiana. At that time he received the following postcard from his sister, Anna, who was now living in Detroit. The photo on the postcard shows their father, John Kijak, with a group of fellow butchers. The license plate on the car shows a Michigan plate with the year 1913 which places John living in Detroit at that time:
It is amazing what can be uncovered that has been forgotten for many years. I have had a box of photos on the Kijak family for years and had seen this postcard many times. This time I turned it over and noticed that it had obviously been glued in a photo album and then torn out with the black paper from the old album still affixed to the back of the card. I had always just assumed that this was just a photo of my great-grandfather, not realizing that there was an actual message on the back of the card. After some extensive work at trying to remove the black paper I was able to reveal the message in which Anna Kijak had written to her brother, Joseph, as follows:
"Dear brother, Joe,
Here is a picture of Pa with his working friends. Pa is on the top row in the middle. It has been some time since you have written us. You said that you would try to come visit us in Detroit for the 4th of July but you did not come. We hope you are not ill. You can write to Daddy anytime. I know he would be glad to hear from you.
Sister, Anna"
The 1920 Detroit, Michigan, US census does show John Kijak, now living in Detroit and working as a butcher while boarding with the Stanley Bobrowski family:
John Kijak was evidently a wanderer. By the time my mother was born in 1925, John had moved in with his son, Joseph and family, in St. Joseph, Michigan. My mother says that her grandfather lived with them in all of their various homes while she was growing up. The 1930 Berrien County, Michigan, US census does show the family of Joseph and Ella Kijak with my mother and her three brothers listed but grandfather, John Kijak, does not appear. My mother is insistent that he was living with them and even remembers the bedroom that he had. He may have missed enumeration when the census was taken but in his last 20 years of life he did live with son, Joseph and family, as indicated by the following photos taken in 1925 and 1930 with the Joseph Kijak homes at that time in the photos:
My mother stated that her grandfather, John Kijak, was a very quiet man who did not talk much to her or her brothers. She said that when he was together with her father, Joseph, that the two men would talk Polish to each other which nobody else in the family could understand! Though in my mother's "birthday book" that she received in the early 1940's, her grandfather, John Kijak, did sign the book on the date of his birth in his own hand:
To actually see his signature was a special treat for me when I began researching my great-grandfather.
On August 19, 1945, John Albert Kijak passed away at his son's home on Pleasant Street in St. Joseph, Michigan. He was 84 years of age. His obituary was printed in the local paper though it did contain a few errors. He is buried in Resurrection Cemetery in St. Joseph:
I struggled, though, with how to adequately present this story because it is obvious that not all families had idyllic lives. There must have been "secrets" in the closet in the marriage of John and Mary Kijak but my mother said she was unaware of any of these facts while she was growing up. It was only after my mother visited her aunt, Anna Kijak, in Florida in Anna's later years (she lived to be 101) that my mother learned some of the facts of the marriage of her grandparents.
No matter the situation, my mother has fond memories of her grandfather who she grew up with and remembers him not particularly as a grandfatherly type of person but a kind person nonetheless.
Today, on the 160th anniversary of his birth, I did pay a visit to his grave which is walking distance from my home. I wanted to get a photo of his gravestone but its location made the picture less than adequate. I did have to stop and wonder just what situations and decisions created the life that he had and I could only say "rest in peace".
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