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Welcome! This website was created on Jan 01 2016 and last updated on Mar 08 2024. The family trees on this site contain 4754 relatives and 1545 photos. If you have any questions or comments you may send a message to the Administrator of this site.
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About The Rokosz Family
This website is a work in progress detailing the descendants and ancestors of  Jacob Rokosz and Veronika Jezuit. This website is just a repository of information, not a  search engine and shouldn't ask you to join anything or contain ads.

The inspiration for this family history research was the "Rokosz Book" put  together by Jean Ann Schnettler, Jacob and Veronika's eldest great grandchild. Thank you Jean  Ann for sharing your research and for the time putting together the initial family  information. Your pictures, your Polish letter from a cousin and the many birth and death  details were revelations to me when I received a copy of the book in the late 90's and I have  been eager to learn more about the family history ever since. See Link to the right to view  this large Rokosz 
 book.

Collaborations with cousin Renee have yielded even more information and it is our hope that  this website will allow others to readily view and add to our family history.

Jacob and Veronika emmigrated from Poland, which at that time was part of Galicia in Austria- Hungary and settled in Michigan in 1910. Jacob came over in 1909 (if not earlier) and stayed  with his nephew in Detroit, Peter Wilczynski while wife Veronika and baby Julia joined him in  Detroit with this nephew in December of 1909.

The following summer of 1910, their children John, Sophie and Peter would join them leaving  Martin 12, Frank 11, Andrew 9 and Walt 5 in Poland. It is not known who cared for these four  children. Frank would emigrate in April 1912 and Veronika would return to Poland in 1913 (accompanied by American born infant Bernice) and bring Walt and Andrew to Michigan. Less  than a year later, Austria- Hungary would be at war. Their son Martin would be unable to  emigrate as he was mute and would have been unable to pass a fitness test for immigrants.   Prior to WWI, visas were not required but there were physical examinations and from a letter  from a Polish cousin, it doesn't sound like Martin attempted a crossing.

As more Catholic church records in  Poland become available, we have learned a lot about Veronika and Jacob's ancesstors who seem to have been located in  the same geographic area since the late 1700's. These records have allowed us to add quite a few names to the tree. Nearly all of the  information on our tree comes from the Polish Catholic Church Diocese of Tarnow records  microfilmed by the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Unfortunately I accidentally wiped out most  of the citations for this source so if you aren't sure where the information came from, most  likely it is the LDS familysearch data. So far our line of Rokosz's appear to have all started  with Michael the father of  Luke, or Lukasz (Polish) or Lucas(Latin)Rokosz, Jacob's grandfather who was born in 1773 in Ocieka, Rzeszów Poland.  The farther back you go, it is more difficult but I believe Michael had several sons, including a Dominic and a Michael in addition to Lucas.  Recently I found a baptismal record for a son Gasparus (Latin) or Kaspar (Polish) According to the microfilmed Catholic Church Records Lucas was married  three times and had two sons and five daughters that survived childhood. His daughters were  Catharina Barnas, Marianna Strzek, Magdelena Moskel, Victoria Golonka and Catharina ? Lukas  also had twin sons Casimirus and Gregorius, and a daughter Margaretha who all died in infancy.

Son Antonius died at age 26, unknown if he had any descendants. Son Thomas was born in 1802,  married twice, Thomas had one son Joseph born to first wife in 1841 and a second son Jacob born  much much later, in 1868, actually 5 months after Thomas's death. A third son Adalbertus from  Thomas's first wife died at age 6.

Jacob's half sibling Joseph was much older and married several times. The records show three  sons born at House #51, Joannes in 1879, Adalbertus in 1882 and Andreas in 1900. Rokosz is surprisingly not as an uncommon name as one might think. We've been collecting the  information on most of the US Rokosz's from the various historical records, census, manifests,  etc. and have included them in the family tree, without connections, each as their own branch  in case someday they can be tied to Veronika and Jacob and also as a practical matter since  they keep appearing in the research and need to be eliminated. However, despite residing in  similar geographic areas like Detroit or Standish Michigan, and having very similar names  (Frank, John, Pete, Bronislawa), so far no connections have been made to any other Rokosz's.  Descendants of Lucas have red square in front of their names in this site. Actually now in  December of 2018, I took a DNA test and found that I am a distant relative of Felicianna Rokosz  and Agnes Rokosz, 2 new branches to explore.

See details under the "STORIES" tab above about some of these other "not yet relatives". 

Use the descendant tab under "VIEW" and put in names and select "Descendants"  or "Reports" for  the facts and descendants of the relative you wish to view.

See the Polish history useful link below as well as the "Stories" section  under the PEOPLE Tab  at the top of this site for more information.  There are instructions below for getting  around the website, it may take some getting used to but it is easy to use to find the  descendants and ancestors of any relative as well as to add stories and pictures.

Don't hesitate to contact me with errors or omissions and please add your photos, stories,  letters,historical info on Poland, Detroit, etc. We need your help to learn about our ancestors  and document the family history for future generations. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Warm Regards,

K
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Getting Around
There are several ways to browse the family tree. The Tree View graphically shows the relationship of selected person to their kin. The Family View shows the person you have selected in the center, with his/her photo on the left and notes on the right. Above are the father and mother and below are the children. The Ancestor Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph above and children below. On the right are the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The Descendant Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph and parents below. On the right are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Do you know who your second cousins are? Try the Kinship Relationships Tool. Your site can generate various Reports for each name in your family tree. You can select a name from the list on the top-right menu bar.

In addition to the charts and reports you have Photo Albums, the Events list and the Relationships tool. Family photographs are organized in the Photo Index. Each Album's photographs are accompanied by a caption. To enlarge a photograph just click on it. Keep up with the family birthdays and anniversaries in the Events list. Birthdays and Anniversaries of living persons are listed by month. Want to know how you are related to anybody ? Check out the Relationships tool.


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