52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 20 "Rubis Cousin's Reunion"

RUBIS COUSINS MEET AFTER 80 YEARS:

Newspapers and television broadcasts frequently have human interest stories of family members meeting after many years apart.  Back in 2012, I took part in arranging for my then 87 year old mother to reconnect with her then 85 year old cousin after 80 years apart.

I personally thought it was a slow news day in South Bend, Indiana but alas nobody in the media appeared to cover this story.  Instead I had to cover the event myself!

A few years earlier I had received an e-mail from a person who had come across my blog.  While I frequently receive such e-mails, none have ever had a connection with my mother's paternal grandmother's family which is the Rubis line from Poland.  My mother knew very little about her grandmother who had passed away in 1918 long before my mother was born.  My mother did know that her paternal grandparents had a very rocky marriage and had separated around 1900 and that her grandmother then had connected with another gentleman, moved to South Bend, Indiana from Bay City, Michigan, where she gave birth to 7 more children with this gentleman before she passed away in 1918.

That was why this e-mail I received a few years earlier surprised and pleased me as the woman writing indicated she had seen my blog, noted the banner on the blog that contained the 4 photos of my great-grandmothers and recognized the name of Mary Rubis Kijak.  This writer, D, told me that she believed my great-grandmother was her husband's great-grandmother as well.

E-mails went back and forth between D and myself.  She indicated that her mother-in-law was the daughter of Mary Rubis Kijak's oldest child from her relationship with Frank Banner, Sr.  While my mother knew that there were children from her grandmother's life with Mr. Banner she only remembered them from her childhood.  Living in the fruit belt of Southwest Michigan (St. Joseph) it was common for family members from other areas to visit St. Joseph during the summer to take the fresh produce home.  Evidently members of the Banner family would frequently do so, coming from nearby South Bend, Indiana (35 miles) and my mother remembered playing with these half cousins when they were children.

D and I exchanged information and I learned that D's mother-in-law, Betty, was very eager to see my mother again.  My mother as well was eager and did remember Betty as a child though 80 years had gone by.

On August 22, 2012 we had our reunion.  My mother and I drove from St. Joe to Mishawaka, Indiana and met Betty and her daughter-in-law, D, at a restaurant where we had a wonderful lunch and long conversations.  Both D and Betty had brought scads of photos with them.  Out came my Flip Pal scanner and I was able to scan all the photos right there at the table.  After lunch we went to Betty's house, near the Notre Dame campus, for some further visiting.  

Here is a photo of my mother (left) and Betty (right) at their reunion in 2012:

When there are sensitive issues involving ancestors it is often difficult to learn any of the details involved but Betty was very forthcoming with information on my great-grandmother's second family that I had not been aware of.  It was a very special reunion in many ways and one that my mother and Betty were so grateful for.

The next year D and I arranged another reunion with my mother, Betty and two other cousins, Martha and Evelyn.  Again we traveled to Mishawaka, Indiana and the 4 cousins had a grand reunion that they all thoroughly enjoyed.

Here are the 4 cousins at that reunion with Betty and my mother in the back row standing and Evelyn and Martha sitting:

Again, in 2015, the 3 cousins and D traveled to St. Joseph to take part in my mother's 90th birthday celebration.  Even after so many years apart the 4 women thoroughly enjoyed spending time together.

Since then all 4 cousins have passed away.  D and I still correspond and discuss how happy we are that we were able to get the cousins together when we did.  

This year, my mother would be 100 years old, and in thinking of this I was reminded of these reunions between these cousins.  All 4 women shared the same grandmother, Mary Rubis Kijak, while Martha and Betty had Mr. Banner as their grandfather and my mother and Evelyn had John Kijak as their grandfather.

And I learned a valuable genealogical lesson - "never say never" as there are always avenues to explore that will lead to new discoveries, though I always thought the chances of my finding further information on my Rubis ancestors were slim.

In the last few years I have learned that this is definitely not true, as I have had the immense joy to have connected with a cousin in Poland, from the Rubis side of both of our ancestors, and with her help I have been able to extend my Rubis ancestral line back more generations.

This information will be shared in further blog posts this year.  

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte

From Whence I Came - Joseph Kijak

JOSEPH KIJAK

To continue my series of posts on my grandparents and great-grandparents, this is a week in which three of my four grandparents had birthdays.  As a child, I can remember the pure joy of having three birthday celebrations in a week for three of my special grandparents.

Joseph Kijak was born August 3, 1892 in Bay City, Michigan to John Kijak and Mary Anna Rubis.  He was their first child and only son.  His birth was followed by the births of three sisters, Anna, Martha and Rozalie.  Joseph Kijak would be my maternal grandfather and he was a very special grandparent who I have many fond memories of even though I was only 12 when he passed away.

While I do remember my grandfather well, I have very little information regarding his childhood.  I don't have any photos of him from his childhood years but I know that he was baptized in the Catholic faith as a newborn and that he lived in Bay City, Michigan with his parents and sisters as evidenced by the 1900 Bay City, Michigan, US Census:

From what I have learned over the years from other relatives the marriage of my grandfather, Joseph's parents, was not a pleasant one.  His mother had been only 16 when she was married to John Albert Kijak who himself was 30.  This was no doubt an arranged marriage after both families had arrived in the US from Poland.

Somewhere during the period from 1900 (when the Bay City census shows the family still together) to 1903 when Joseph Kijak's step sister, Emma, was born in South Bend, Indiana, mother Mary Kijak left Bay City with her 4 Kijak children, Joseph, Anna, Martha and Rozalie and settled in South Bend, Indiana with a man named Frank Banner.  Her husband, John Albert Kijak, remained in Bay City, Michigan.  John and Mary Kijak never divorced.

My grandfather, Joseph, spent his youth living in South Bend with his mother, sisters, step sister, step brothers and his mother's companion, Frank Banner.  This is the only photo I have of Joseph Kijak as a young man:

The 1910 South Bend, Indiana, US Census shows this family though the 4 Kijak children are listed with the surname "Banner" which was incorrect.  It is amazing the steps a genealogist has to go through to find hidden data.  For years I could not put my finger on a 1910 census for my grandfather and never thought to look under the surname Banner.  We must always be alert to all possibilities:

While living in South Bend, my grandfather found a job in St. Joseph, Michigan working for Cooper Wells, a hosiery manufacturing company.  This was only a 30 mile drive from South Bend and it was here, at work, that he met my grandmother, Ella Kolberg.  How long they dated, I don't know,  During their courtship Joseph Kijak did rent a room in a home at 417 Court Street in St. Joseph undoubtedly to be closer to work and most likely to be closer to his girlfriend:

On June 17, 1914 Joseph Kijak and Ella Kolberg were married at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Joseph:

They began their married life in St. Joseph where my grandfather continued to work at Cooper Wells.  Their first marital home was a rental at 614 Price Street in St. Joseph which is still standing in very good condition 107 years later:

In 1915, son Harris was born and in 1918, son Elden was born.  The 1920 Berrien County, Michigan, US Census shows this family living at 211 Court Street in St. Joseph.  This house is no longer standing:

In 1925, their daughter (my mother, Eloris,) was born, followed in 1926 by their 3rd son, Leslie.  With these 4 children their family was complete.  At this time Joseph and Ella had a fruit farm on Cleveland Avenue in St. Joseph and the work and toil was their income.

In 1929 my grandfather had a unique experience with a member of the Al Capone gang which I have previously written about.  This experience led to his discontinuation of driving.

The Depression came in 1929 and with it the loss of their home and farm though the 1930 Berrien County, Michigan, US census does still show them living on Cleveland Avenue:

After the loss of their home and farm the family lived in a variety of rental homes until approximately 1940 when Joseph and Ella were able to purchase a home at 818 Pleasant Street in St. Joseph.  During these years, no longer farming, Joseph worked as a painter and decorator and in later years at the S&H Green Stamp store.

In 1945 my grandparents had a professional photo taken of themselves on the occasion of my grandmother's 50th birthday.  This is a favorite photo of mine:

As a teenager, my mother had a birthday book in which she had friends and family members sign their names on the date that was their particular birthday.  Her father, Joseph, signed his name in this birthday book as follows and it is special to have an example of his handwriting though he signed on the page for August 2nd instead of the 3rd!  He had always thought his birthday was on August 2nd and celebrated it on that day all of his life.  When I began my genealogical research and visited the Court House in Bay City, Michigan, I was able to obtain a copy of his birth certificate showing his birth was actually August 3rd.  I also visited the church in Bay City where he was baptized and that also indicated a birth date of August 3rd:

Though photos with my grandfather are few and far between this one of myself and my brother with my grandmother as well is one that I particularly remember:

My memories of my grandfather are many - his coming to Detroit on various occasions to help my parents with construction work when my parents bought their first home, building shelves in the basement to hold all our toys, planting a maple tree in the back yard and planning the placement of the tree so as not to obstruct a future garage, getting paint poisoning and having to bandage his fingers for the rest of his life and living in extreme pain from the poisoning.  He was a gentle man, never raised his voice and was a loving husband to my grandmother and a good father to his four children.

My grandfather became ill in October, 1960 and was diagnosed with a cerebral aneurysm.  The hospital in St. Joseph could not treat this condition at that time and he was transported to a hospital in South Bend, Indiana where he passed away on October 23, 1960.  I was only 12 at the time but have vivid memories of our drive from Detroit to South Bend, having a car accident on the way, getting lost trying to find the hospital in South Bend and my mother arriving to see her father just before he passed away.

He was a wonderful grandfather and I have always remembered him.  He and my grandmother are buried in Lincoln Township Cemetery in Stevensville, Michigan and his memory lives forever in my heart:

Today I am thinking of him on this the 129th anniversary of his birth.

Copyright 2021, Cheryl J. Schulte