Family of Paul Pionk and Anna Bazowa

This post is the fifth in a series examining the nine early Pionke, Pionk, Pionek, and Piontke family groups in Chicago, Wisconsin, and South Dakota, and their origins in the old country.

Paul Pionk and Anna Baza (Bazowna, Bazowa) were my 4th-great-grandparents. Previously, I introduced their sons Valentin and Jacob, whose descendants migrated to Chicago and Wisconsin. Today I will look at this family's origins in West Prussia.

We know little about this family's beginnings. Not only is there no record of Paul's marriage to Anna, but there is also no record of either of their births. Therefore we do not know their birth dates, birth places, or their parents' names. But let us begin with what we do know.

Pionk family origin and missing parish records

As Michael Pionke discussed in his article about the Pionke surname, all of our Strzepcz and Kielno area Pionkes descend from our very own Adam and Eve Pionk. Adam Pionk and Eva (maiden name not known) lived in Będargowo in the 1700s. Paul Pionk was almost certainly their great-grandson.

Unfortunately, we will probably never know the exact connection because there are many years missing from the Strzepcz parish records. There are no baptisms available between 1745 and 1810 and no marriages or deaths before 1846.

There were numerous Pionk or Pionke families in both Kielno and Strzepcz during the time that Paul's family lived in those parishes. Some resided in the same villages as Paul—or very nearby—and it is intriguing to ponder which of these may have been his siblings. But at this point, there is too little information to truly know.

Bazowa or Baza family origin

From the Strzepcz baptism records, we know Paul Pionk's wife as Anna Bazowa or Bazowna. However, it is important to note that -owna and -owa are old-fashioned suffixes used to form feminine versions of a surname. In this case, the standard form of the name would have been something like Baza. The suffix -owna refers to an unmarried woman and -owa refers to a married woman. Thus Anna's maiden name was Bazowna and her married name was Pionkowa.

In contrast to the Pionks, there were not many families with the surname Baza in the Strzepcz parish. However, versions of the name can be found in the neighboring parishes of Kielno, Przodkowo, Luzino, and Rozłazino. Variations include: Barza, Basa, Base, Boza, Boża, and Bosa. So perhaps Anna's family originated in one of these parishes.

Nonetheless, it is likely that our Baza family was living in Strzepcz parish when Anna married Paul Pionk. We know this because the tradition was to marry in the bride's home parish. Unlike Strzepcz parish, marriage records for the relevant years survive in all of the parishes mentioned above. There is no record of their marriage in any of these parishes; thus it is logical to conclude that Paul Pionk and Anna Baza were married in Strzepcz.

Paul Pionk and Anna Baza family

Based on the birth date of their first child, Paul Pionk and Anna Baza were probably married in 1819 or 1820 in Strzepcz Catholic parish. They had five children in 10 years, all born in Zęblewo and baptized in Strzepcz. The family resided first in Zęblewo and later in Mały Donimierz (map).

Children of Paul Pionk and Anna Baza:

• Eva Pionk was born on 21 February 1821.
• August Pionk was born on 12 January 1823.
• Valentin Pionk was born on 14 January 1825.
• Francisca Pionk was born on 19 January 1828.
• Jacob Pionk was born on 2 August 1830.

Paul Pionk died on 19 October 1842 in Mały Donimierz and was buried in Szemud. He was 50 years old and thus he was born about 1792. According his death record, Paul was a Käthner—a person renting a small piece of land with a house and garden and maybe a few farm animals.

Paul and Anna's three sons all married in Kielno and Strzepcz and had families of their own. Daughters Eva and Franciska, however, are something of a mystery.

August Pionk married Marianna Dosz in Kielno parish in 1847. They had seven children, two of whom lived to adulthood. Their family remained in Poland (West Prussia) and lived in Donimierz.

Valentin Pionk married Josephine Stefanowska in Kielno parish in 1852. Jacob Pionk married Franciska Leik in Strzepcz parish in 1853. Valentin, his children, and Jacob's children eventually migrated to the U.S. and lived in Chicago and Wisconsin.

It is my theory that Eva Pionk died as a child, while the family was still in Strzepcz parish. I believe Franciska was actually Anna Pionk who married Joseph Rhode in Kielno in 1847. A future post will discuss this in greater detail.

Mysteries and mistakes in Paul Pionk's death record

Paul Pionk's death record indicates that he was survived by a wife Maria and four minor children. As noted above, Paul's family began with a wife named Anna and five children. So what can we conclude from this record?

Paul Pionk death record, Kielno parish, 1842

First, it is possible that Paul's wife's name was written as "Maria" in error, and that Anna in fact outlived her husband Paul. Unfortunately, errors are fairly common in these parish records.

But if the record is correct as written, then Anna must have died before her husband, and he must have remarried while the family was still in Strzepcz parish. If Paul did remarry, he did not have any children with his second wife, which is a little unusual.

Either way, there is another significant question—what happened to Paul Pionk's widow? I cannot find a death record in Kielno for either a Maria or an Anna Pionk that exactly matches what we know about this family. Nor can I find a marriage record for a widowed Maria Pionk. Thus there is no evidence to prove whether Paul remarried or not.

Second, it is obvious that one of Paul and Anna's children died while the family was still living in Strzepcz parish—remember, there are no death records before 1846 in that parish. We know that sons August, Valentin, and Jacob all lived to adulthood. Therefore one daughter died before 1842. To be strictly accurate, that daughter must have been Eva because she would have been age 21 and thus not a minor when her father died. However, parish records are not so strictly accurate when it comes to age.

Anna (Baza) Pionk - potential death record

There is one intriguing death record in Kielno parish for a widow Anna Pionk. On 31 December 1854, this Anna Pionk died at age 88 in Mały Donimierz, leaving four adult children. The death place matches that of Paul Pionk; additionally, sons Valentin and Jacob both lived in this village during this time frame. Likewise, the four minor children from Paul's death record could be the four adult children in this Anna's death record.

Anna Pionk death record, Kielno parish, 1854

The obvious problem, of course, is her age. If Anna Pionk was 88 when she died at the end of 1854, she would have been born in 1766, making her too old (age 64!) to have been the mother of Jacob born in 1830.

But what if her age was recorded in error? Frequently the age at death is wrong in these records. As an example, Paul and Anna Pionk's son Jacob was 39 when he died but his death record says he was 50. In Anna's case, though, this would have been a substantial error—a difference of 20 years or more. We cannot rely on the possibility of multiple errors to explain the discrepancy and thus we will never know for certain what became of Paul Pionk's wife.

On the other hand, a different possibility exists: if the age of 88 was correct, perhaps this Anna was Paul Pionk's mother rather than his wife.

Anna Baza - first marriage?

We have considered the possibility that Paul Pionk had a second wife Maria, as well as the question of whether his widow remarried. A third question is whether Anna (Baza) Pionk was a widow when she married Paul.

When searching early Strzepcz parish baptisms for other Baza families, I found two couples where the wife was named Anna Bazowa or Bazowna: (1) Adalbert Ryszka and Anna Bazowa and (2) Paul Pionk and Anna Bazowa. Could the wife of Adalbert Ryszka (Reszk, Reschke) and the wife of Paul Pionk be the same person?

Based on the years of the children's births, it is a definite possibility. The Ryszka births took place in 1811, 1814, 1816, and 1818; the Pionk births in years 1821, 1823, 1825, 1828, and 1830. Furthermore, the last Ryszka child was born in Zęblewo, the same village where all of Paul and Anna Pionk's children were born. Baza (Bazowna) was not a common name in this parish, so it is less likely that there were two Annas with this surname. Finally, there is no duplication in the names of the sons (Michael, Joseph, Adalbert, Franz, August, Valentin, and Jacob). This is noteworthy given how common these names were.

However, there is a death record in Strzepcz parish for an Albrecht Reszke, age 63, who died in Głodowo (just north of Łebno) in 1851, leaving his wife and one child. If this was the same man, then obviously there were two different women named Anna Bazowa living in Strzepcz parish at the same time. At this point, I do not have enough evidence to be certain either way.

Pionke Friday: We will post more about the Pionkes next Friday. This is the fifth post in a series about the Pionke, Pionk, and Pionek families here in the U.S. and back in the home country. Next week: Family of Joseph Pionke and Susanna Mrozewska.

Related posts:

• Family of Valentin Pionke and Josephine Stefanowska
• Family of Jacob Pionke and Franciska Leik
• Early Pionke and Pionek Families in Chicago and Wisconsin
• More Early Pionke and Related Families in Chicago, Wisconsin, and Michigan
• Będargowo - Part I: A different story of Adam and Eve
• Będargowo - Part II: What the Prussians tell us
• On the trails of our ancestors
• Pionke — The mystery of a name

© TreeQuest: An Unexpected Journey 2016

Acknowledgement:

Thanks to Michael Pionke for explaining the term Käthner.

Reference:

• Family History Library Films: 162398. Katholische Kirche Strepsch (Kr. Neustadt).
• Family History Library Films: 529815. Kościół rzymsko-katolicki. Parafja Kielno (Wejherowo).
• GenBaza.com: AP Gdansk, Urzedy Stanu Ciwilnego, Smażyno (2088). [account and login required]
• PTG Pomorskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne (Pomeranian Genealogical Association) - birth, marriage, death indexes.

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