January 17, 2020 Long Line

Today I got my first certificate from the Michigan Genealogy Society for the Michigan Pioneer Project.  This is a great project, collecting genealogies from residents all across the state, in two categories: Pre-Statehood, prior to 27 January 1837 and First Families from 27 January 1837 to 31 December 1880.  Eager to participate I decided to do one genealogy for each nationality in my ancestry.

I started with the easiest.  My great grandparents Piotr Jablonski and Katarczyna Gic  immigrated from Poland in 1873, and my grandfather Frank Joblinski was born in 1875 in Detroit.  Documentation was required; birth, marriage and death records for each ancestor, proving the line of decent down to me.  I was able to obtain the Polish records for my great grandparents birth and marriage through the Poznan Project. My grandmother Michaelina Lyskawa was born in Poznan as well, but I was unable to obtain her birth record, but did have her immigration record and her marriage to my grandfather in 1903 in Detroit. The birth record for my grandfather proved that he was in the United States in 1875, and census records showed the family stayed here.

My genealogy partner and sister, Linda Tilley, worked with me on this project.  We each did our share and sent in the documents and applications together.  We were presented with our certificates  and the accompanying pin at the January meeting of the Downriver Genealogy Society by Tom Koselka,  society member and member of the Michigan Genealogical Council.  It was a proud moment for both of us, and we were thrilled to have taken place in this important project.  I am waiting for a corrected certificate, however, since the Polish spelling was Jablonski, which morphed into Joblinski somewhere along the way. The two surnames on the certificates should be spelled differently.  Small thing, but it matters to me.

We are currently waiting for the next two certificates.  After my dads family, which was all Polish, we did our mothers paternal line, which was all German.  My great grandfather Nicklaus Wickenheiser immigrated and a young teen in 1875 with my second great grandparents, Anton Wickenheiser and Thekla Rebel  and several siblings. They farmed in Ash Township, MI where their son August met and married my grandmother Lena Rivard.

My mothers maternal line was the most difficult, simply in terms of more generations.  My fourth great grandfather Rene Leduc came to Detroit with Cadillac in 1701. Because records were spare for that set of grandparents, I start with his son Louis Leduc and followed the line down to my grandmother. I do commend the French for keeping great records!

We are a settling people.  From Poland to Detroit to Romulus, Wayne county,  where the Joblinski family farmed for over one hundred years and where many family members still live. We haven't roamed much.  My siblings and I all live in Monroe County, except for one Wayne county renegade.  Also from Germany to Monroe County, many of the descendants of my Wickenheiser grandparents live in or near Monroe.

The French came to Monroe county before it was a county and Michigan was a state. Even before the area was the United States. I chose the Leduc family as pre-statehood, but some ancestors came to this area even earlier.  They embraced the motto "Si quaeris peninsulam, circumspice" long before the state did, and put down deep roots in the rich Michigan soil. My roots are in Michigan. I think I will stay here.