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The Ladewski Papers - Search the digitized histories of local immigrant families assembled by South Bend genealogist Gertrude "Lucky" Ladewski and her sister Gene Szymarek . Please address any corrections, ammendents or additions documents concerning a specific family section to Jim Piechorowski at jamespiech@aol.com.
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Gertrude T. (Stachowiak) Ladewski
1928 – 2002
“I remember one of the first issues I ever typeset of the Newsletter of the Polish Genealogical Society (as the PGSA was called back then) had an article on Lucky Ladewski. I was sorry to hear she had passed on, and am glad to hear you’re working to restore and digitize her work.
It’s bad enough when death robs us of a good person; we can’t let her work be lost too.”
Good Luck
Fred Hoffman
Gen Dobry, August 31, 2006
Lucky’s obituary in the South Bend Tribune’s, February 22, 2002 edition celebrates the life and aspirations of a lady in love with life and determined to achieve whatever she set her mind too.
I regret never having had the opportunity to meet her in the living years.
“G. Lucky was an “accomplished” woman. As an author and using her pen name of “G. Lucky” her column “Tell It Like It Is” was highly admired and respected in two papers in which she wrote: “The Polka World” and “The Polka News”. After a battle with cancer, she coordinated, through the Polka industry and her column in 17 states a cancer fund drive in which $10,000 was raised for cancer and research.
Lucky and her husband George founded “Polka Partner Records” which opened many doors. Through the polka industry here in South Bend they created “The Polka Power / Club”. Her thirst for her heritage did not stop here.
Genealogy was one of her great loves. She co-authored two published books on the Genealogy of South Bend’s Polish Families with her sister Gene. Her determination was unstoppable. Her gold card from the South Bend Public Library for volunteerism proved her love of words.”
Had it not been for her sister, Gene Szymarek, drafting Lucky into her personal effort to write a family history, the twelve case of written polish family histories might have never found their way to the Northern Indiana Center for History.
In a 1988 interview with South Bend Tribune correspondent Ann Carey, Lucky stated:
“ There is no way I wanted to get into this, but then I got angry when I saw all the incorrect information. I got into it really because Gene came over and said there wasn’t anything on the Polish in St. Joseph County.”
Gene Szymarek, joined the South Bend Genealogical Society and discovered that she was the only person there researching Polish families. In additional she was told that it would be impossible to get any information from Poland.
The sisters opined that a “sure way to get them interested in something is to tell them it can’t be done” their determined efforts led to the eventual publication of three books detailing St. Joseph County Polonia:
Lucky aptly described this journey as
“My Magnificent Obsession. I’d love to write a bestseller, but that would become obsolete. My name on a book on genealogy will last forever and I know I’ll have left something of value. You have to do something with your life and leave something besides your name on a tombstone marker”
Lucky’s love of Genealogy and the Polish Heritage was legendary in the St. Joseph County Polish community. The family records which are in the process of being digitized rest at the Center for History in South Bend.
The dedicated work of the South Bend Genealogy Society and Scott Shuler, Archivist, Center for History has been key in making the family files from “A to K ” available in the Genealogy Reading room at the Center for History (by appointment).
Since February 2006 we have digitized families from “A through Z”; our goal was to complete the initial stage of the work by Christmas 2006.
With the help of Web Master Sharon Gill Vanden Bossche of the St Joseph County Gen Web Site who hosts the “Ladewski Papers Site” this information is now available to the world. Thank You, Sharon!!!
http://www.rootsweb.com/~instjose/LadewskiPapers/lucky.htm
The project to date has preserved data (Families A-Z) related to 1400 paternal family names comprising 3300 digitized pages of data. Using a conservative multiplier of one spouse and four offspring per family a minimum of 6000 distinct families have been identified through the first generation
In the course of this project I have used my personal web site
As a staging area for data input into the Ladewski site and have integrated families and European origins as an aid to those searching that “brick wall”. (Where did they come from?) Dilemma. Lucky, identified many last origin locations of a number of families, where no obituaries or funeral cards were available. These may be found in the above listed site containing in excess of 10,000 entries.
Believe it or not, Lucky was not always right!!
Although, we do not revise Lucky’s original work we have already entered correction pages by living family members as an addendum page as verified. I am sure this will continue into the future as other’s review the data.
There remains two case of miscellaneous paper and seven packets of unsorted obituaries that will be integrated into the completed work. Volunteers of the South Bend Genealogy Society are accomplishing this work.
The Ladewski Papers … UPDATE - 01/12/2007
Updates:
George Ladewski, recently donated Lucky's family tree research disk's found while cleaning out her personal computer. Thank You, George for recognizing and saving this priceless gift for our community. - 01/12/2007
The Ladewski Birth, Death, Marriage, Obituary, NI & Census Records were completed for Families A to J prior to Lucky's passing. You will find the individuals name, the parent's if available, the date of birth, the type of record and in many cases village of origin for foreign born. Names in [xxx] signify the source of the data if it was a family member. - 05/16/2007
*Web Mistress note: These updates will be at the bottom of each Alpha letter in the files.........So start your reseach by clicking on the Photo below intitled "Polish Families"
Web Mistress note:
After a year and a half of compiling and processing the files of Lucky, I must say that it has been a pleasure to be a part of putting this Great Lady's works on the web site. Thank you Jim for all that you have done, Thank you to Lucky's family for their generosity in donating the files, and Thank you Lucky for all your hard work, that started all of this.
I am sure that Lucky is in heaven and smiling down and thankful that her work has not been forgotten and that so many will benifit from her reseach. (05/17/2007)
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| George & Lucky Ladewski April 1969 | Genealogy Society Article 1988 |
(Click on the above pictures to see enlargement)
Click on photo below to enter the World of Lucky Ladewski Papers
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Project started: Sunday, March 12, 2006, 2:24:12 PM
Project updated: Sunday, March 30, 2008 07:37:23 PM
Return To: Saint Joseph County, Indiana INGenWeb Site