Translation Tuesday: A Russian Internal Passport - but Who's

In a long forgotten box of family pictures, my father-in-law pulled out an official looking document.  Right away it looked like it was likely a passport.  However, there was no picture.  My father-in-law's family was originally from the part of Poland which was controlled by Russia until the end of the World War I.


I performed a Google search and found out it was actually an Internal Passport of the Russian Empire.  So one question solved.  However, it was still unclear, who the passport belonged to or anything about what it said.  My guess is that this may have belonged to Casimir Krupa or his wife Michelina Ladakaus.  I have been successful in translating official documents in Latin and Polish, but the Cyrillic writing of this internal passport was essentially unreadable to me.


I am hopeful that a member of the genealogy blogging community with an knowledge of Russian would be interested in helping me translate this Russian Internal Passport.


I would greatly appreciate any that could help with a translation of these few pages of the passport.


Please help!!!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!!

*****Update:  Sept 4, 2011*************

I am very grateful for the assistance I received on translating the Internal Russian Passport that I have been researching.  Thanks to Greta Kohl for giving of her time and talent to translating the key information from this document for me.  I am sure it will lead to some additional avenues of research and more family discoveries.

With Greta's assistance, I learned that I was incorrect in who I believed this internal passport might belong to. Since it was found with a number of pictures belonging to the Krupa (Cooper) branch of my father-in-law's family, I assumed that it could belong to Casimir Krupa or his wife, Michelina Ladakaus.  

I was way off.  

The passport belonged to Bronislawa "Bessie" Bartosiewicz.  She was my father-in-law's father's mother.  She arrived in the United States in 1904.

Here are the key points revealed by the translation:

The passport was issued in 1904 (making it likely she needed the internal passport to travel to the port she would depart from for the U.S.)

1.  Bronislava Yuzefovna Bartosievicz (This is the Russian spelling for Bronislawa).  The most important piece of information from this is "Yuzefovna" is the Russian way of saying, "daughter of Yuzef" or "Jozef".  We didn't know what Bronislawa's father's name, so this is a great piece of information!

2.  Rank:  Peasant

3.  Date of Birth:  January 1885

4.  Religion:  Roman Catholic

5.  Permanent Residence:  Village of Jankowo, #15 at Street (undecipherable) Gmina Serock, Łomżyńska gubernia  (This could be of critical importance.  Now we know that she lived in Jankowo, Poland.  I will look up the appropriate church records and see if we can find her and her father listed in this town in Poland.)

6.  Married or Single:  Single

If we are ever to make that family ancestry tour to Poland, then knowing this information will come in handy.

********Update:  Sept 7, 2011*******

Greta posted on her blog what she learned from helping me translate this internal Russian passport.  Here is a link to her blog post.

What I Learned Wednesday: What’s a Gmina Doing in an Uyezd, and Other Bits

Greta, thanks again for your help!!

Armstrong Family Land Division - 1897

My recent trip to Portland, Maine paid additional dividends.  I was able to go to the Portland courthouse which holds the land records for Cumberland County, Maine.  I wish I could have spent more time there, but I was able to obtain records of how John Armstrong and Betsey Woodbury Dyer Armstrong's family land was divided and distributed.


Family lore indicates that land was granted to the Armstrong family in 1757 for South Portland, which is now Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  This land had been kept in the family for well over 100 years.  There are records that indicate additional land grants which go back even further, but that will be the subject for a future post.


John Armstrong (Born:  Feb 24, 1782) died in 1838, leaving his land and apparently his entire estate to his wife. Betsey Woodbury Dyer Armstrong.


Prior to marrying Betsey, John Armstrong has been married to Rhoda Miller.  John and Rhoda appear to have had three children:  Simon, William and Mary Armstrong.  Both Simon and William died in their 20's.  Rhoda Miller Armstrong died fairly young in 1816.


John Armstrong remarried about a year later in 1817 to Betsey Woodbury Dyer.  Betsey was a widow.  She had at least three children from her first marriage with William Dyer including:  Woodbury Dyer, William Dyer and Benjamin Dyer.


John and Betsey had at least 6 children together including:  Eben, Lucy, John B, Israel, Arthur B and George P Armstrong.


Betsey died on April 21, 1876 at the age of 88.  The disposition of her estate took a long time and was finally resolved in 1897.


The Armstrong family land holding appeared to be about 475 acres which was divided into 8 equal sized lots for the following heirs:

1. John B. Armstrong (He received one lot as well as the existing house and barn)
2. Lucy Armstrong Walton (Lucy Armstrong married William Walton)
3. Mark W & Henry B Walton (Lucy and William Walton's sons)
4. Mary L. Armstrong
5. Benjamin Dyer (Benjamin was Betsey's son from her marriage to William Dyer)
6. Mary Strout (Not sure if this is Eben Armstrong's wife who has remarried)
7. Arthur Armstrong's heirs (I don't have an exact date of death, but it appears that Arthur Armstrong died prior to disposition of his mother's estate ***Update****  Arthur B. Armstrong died in San Francisco, CA Nov 18, 1893)
8. Joseph W. Armstrong (Joseph is Israel Armstrong's oldest son)

Each lot was approximately 135ft of frontage on Shore Road and the lot went back approx. 19,000 ft.   These were very long thin lots.  Each division was roughly 60 acres.

The Armstrong family house at 905 Shore Road is still there today.

Tombstone Tuesday - The Armstrongs and Woodburys of Cape Elizabeth, Maine

I live in Florida, but was recently visiting New England to visit family.  I was lucky enough to spend a few hours in Portland and Cape Elizabeth, Maine (the long-time home of many of my Armstrong and Woodbury ancestors).

I had contacted Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in S. Portland, before my visit.  The caretaker was able to direct me to many of the graves of my ancestors.  Here are the ones I was able to capture.

John Armstrong (24 Feb 1787 - 27 May 1838) - Revolutionary War Veteran (my 3rd great-grandfather)

Betsey Woodbury Armstrong (16 Nov 1787 - 21 Apr 1876) - John's wife

John B. Armstrong (My 2nd great-grandfather), Jennie Campbell Armstrong and Clarence W. Armstrong

Robert E. Armstrong (My great-grandfather), Elizabeth M. Fuller Armstrong

Hugh Woodbury (My 5th great-grandfather) and his wife Jane Green Woodbury

I recently joined BillionGraves.  They have a goal of capturing gravestones for over a Billion graves all over the world.  This month they have a contest for those people who capture 1,000 or more gravestones using their iPhone app by August 31st get a BillionGraves T-shirt.  I am up for the challenge and think I can do it.

Check out their website for more details.  I am a big believer in having all tombstones available online.

Wordless Wednesday - James Kurtz WWII Flyboy