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