Our great-grandfather Joseph Sobocinski (variant: Soboczynski) was born 22 December 1870 in the Prussia/Germany-controlled part of Poland. We gleaned Joseph’s father’s name, Joseph Sobocinski Sr., from his death certificate, but we do not know his mother’s name. Joseph may have come from Posen, which was a province and city in Prussia that Germany annexed in circa 1871.
With the unification of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Province of Posen became part of the German Empire, and the city of Posen was officially named an imperial residence city. Previously, Poles suffered from discrimination by the Prussian state; numerous oppressive measures were implemented to eradicate the Polish community’s identity and culture. Under German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who possessed great hostility towards the Poles, renewed Germanisation policies began, including an increase of the police, a colonization commission, and the Kulturkampf. Germany passed legislation in 1904 and 1908 against the Polish population, to include laws allowing the confiscation of Polish-owned property.
Excerpt from Wikipedia article.
Our theory that Joseph’s origins may lie in Posen is based on a possible match found in immigration records. According to census data, our Joseph claimed he immigrated from Polish-speaking Germany to the United States between 1891-93 at the approximate age of 20. The passenger list of a ship named Italia that traveled in January 1891 from Swinemünde, Pömmern, Germany to New York, contained a Joseph Sobocinski from Zatachawa, Posen, Prussia heading to Philadelphia. Additional matching details included his age of 23 and birthplace in Germany.
After arriving in the U.S., Joseph ended up in Michigan City, Indiana by 1898. It remains unclear why Joseph sought to settle down in Michigan City; perhaps he had family there or first visited Chicago and then sought other opportunities nearby. We saw our other Polish ancestors, the Widelski’s, move from Chicago to Michigan City as well; it’s possible there was a small trend of polish immigrants moving to this area at the time.
Mary Zaborek
Our great-grandmother Mary Zaborek was born 12 February 1880 in Poland (probably the same Prussian/German-controlled sector as Joseph, judging from census data) to parents Martin and Maria Zaborek. Mary’s birthdate is uncertain, as she erratically listed different ages on various documents with birth years ranging from 1880-1887. As a child, she immigrated to the United States in circa 1893, according to census data. The below passenger list from the SS Polynesia (arriving in Baltimore in 1893) possibly contains our Mary, traveling with her mother (Maria Zaborek) and two sisters to meet up with her father, who is already in Michigan City, Laporte County, Indiana. The below record fits most of that story, except for the husband’s name being listed as Franc and the age of Mary (although her age was constantly fluctuating in documents).
About a year earlier, Mary’s father, Martin Zaborek, traveled aboard the ship Karlsruhe, arriving in Baltimore, MD on 19 March 1892. He traveled with a girl named Juliana Zaborek (age 16), possibly another daughter. Additional passenger data for Martin and Juliana included their homeland as Poland, religion as Catholic, and destination as Indiana.
An incredibly large family
On 15 November 1898, Joseph married Mary in Laporte County, IN. Together, Joseph and Mary, over the next 22 years, had 12 children:
- Steve (about 1902-1993)
- Clara (Amber) (about 1903-1931)
- Clarence (aka Clement) (about 1904-1993 )
- Harry (about 1905-1961)
- Pauline (Lena) (Hatfield) (about 1908-1977)
- Peter (about 1909- 1999)
- Lottie (about 1912-1937)
- Nettie (our grandmother) (1914- )
- Norman (about 1918-1998)
- John (about 1919- )
- Martha (Kazmucha) (about 1921-2006 )
- Elmore (possibly Eleanor Levendowski) (about 1924- )
How does one support a family this large? The children certainly helped out by working at early ages. For example, in 1920, with nine children living at home, Clara (17) worked as a seamstress, Clarence (16) worked as a woodworker, and Harry (14) worked as a janitor. Joseph worked as a blacksmith in sundry positions throughout his adult life. According to Joseph’s death certificate, he worked as an oiler in a machine shop in his later years. The family’s primary residence was 705 Tremont St. in Michigan City.
At some point after 1925, Joseph changed his last name from Sobocinski to Saturday (Saturday translates to sobota in polish). It remains unclear why Joseph decided to change the family surname, but there are several reasons why immigrants choose to change names, including: illiteracy, simplification, mispronunciation, desire to fit in, desire to break with the past, and fear of discrimination.
Joseph died early at the age of 55 on 21 January 1927 of pulmanory tuberculosis. He left Mary with a large household of children. Mary outlived Joseph by more than 20 years, dying 2 August 1950. Both Joseph and Mary are buried in St. Stanislaus cemetery in Michigan City.
Clare Family History 