Martin James Leader

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A couple years ago, it came to my attention in our family Facebook group that my paternal grandmother (Lillian Christina Gessner 1932-2018) had a half-brother. The only information she had, or could remember, was the name Martin, and that he had served in the army during World War II.

This reminded me of a strange entry in the 1930 census that I hadn’t really dug into further at the time. With my curiosity piqued, I decided to do some digging, uncovering a somewhat bittersweet story.

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Anton Sersen

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Just a quick story of how genealogy can surprise you when you least expect it.

I’ve been away from the research for several months now, but have recently picked back up again. Even well underway with a “Genealogy Do Over”, starting both my paternal and maternal trees from scratch, giving me a chance to retrace my steps, look for new records, review old records for missed details, etc.

One of those details that I’ve known about in the back of my mind, but has bugged me for a while, is the 1910 census for my paternal great-great-grandparents, Aleksander Szerszen and Franciszka Ruskowska. I’ve written about Aleksander before, and his disappearance after the 1910 census.

I’ve also noticed that in Franciszka’s entry, it lists her as having 4 children, with 2 living at the time of the census. We know Stanislaus (Stanley) and Bronislawa (Bertha) were the living children. We also know that Jan Szerszen (born c. 1901) was on the ship manifest when the rest of the family immigrated to Baltimore. I presume that he died sometime between their arrival in August 1906, and the census in the spring of 1910.

But who was the fourth child?

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Aleksander Szerszen

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Aleksander Szerszen was my great-great grandfather, and the first member of my paternal line to immigrate to the United States. Today I wanted to take some time to talk about his journey here, and more mysteriously, his disappearance after arriving.

Early Life

Aleksander was born on February 5th, 1878, in the small village of Złotki, Poland. He was born to Jakub Szerszen (1823-1879) and Marianna Podles (1845-1903). He was the youngest of at least 5 children. We can imagine that Aleksander’s childhood was not particularly pleasant, between losing his father at such a young age, and dealing with the many hardships that most Eastern European families faced in the late 19th century – including famines and economic struggle. Continue reading →