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JURKEWICZ Family History

Jurkiewicz is a patronymic surname that means "family of Jurek," where "Jurek" (pronounced "Yurek") is a form of the Greek given name "Georgios."

Alexander J. JURKEWICZ, Sr.¹ (1888-1965)

1. Alexander "Alex" J. Jurkewicz, Sr.¹ was born March 19, 1888, in Russian-occupied Poland. Per his draft registrations, he was born in "Postako"(?) or "Snadow" (perhaps Śniadowo, but which one?).^{[Draft 1917,1942]} He immigrated to America in either 1907 or 1910 and married Eva Edith Liszewska/Logenberger/Loueberg/Loburg, also a Polish immigrant, who had immigrated about 1896. They wed on June 9, 1912, in Utica, Oneida County, New York. The couple started their family in New York with 5 daughters and then moved to Michigan where they had at least another 5 children, perhaps as many as a total of 13:

1A.	Helen Josephine Jurkewicz	9 Mar (1913)	23 Sep 1955	(42)
1B.	Victoria A. Jurkewicz	Jul 1914	17 Jan 1984	(69)
1C.	Emily Jurkewicz	31 Oct 1915	27 Mar 1939	(23)
1D.	Estelle "Stella" Jurkewicz	21 Nov 1917	3 Mar 1965	(47)
1E.	Catherine Eva Jurkewicz2	21 Nov 1917	2 Jun 1974	(56)
1F.	Alexander J. Jurkewicz (Jr.)	2 Jan 1923	18 May 2002	(78)
1G.	John J. Jurkewicz	14 Aug 1925	27 Dec 1937	(12)
1H.	Alice W. Jurkewicz	21 Jul 1926	17 Nov 1998	(72)
1I.	Doris Jurkewicz	6 Mar 1928	23 Apr 1983	(55)
1J.	Audrey Florence Jurkewicz	4 Feb 1931	11 Oct 1991	(60)

Alex and Eva received their license to marry on June 1, 1912, in Oneida County, New York, and were married by Priest J. Czarkowski on June 9 in Utica. Alex's surname was record as "Jurkiewicz" (with the "i") and his parents were named as John Jurkiewicz and Katherine Kowal. Eva's name was spelled with the Polish spelling of "Ewa Liszewska" and her parents were named as Marion Liszewski and Victoria Jaroszewska. At the time, Alex was working as a machinist and Eva as a button sewer. Witnesses to their union were A. Liszewski and Anna Jaroszewska.^{[Marr 1912]}

The Jurkewicz family lived on Sunset Place in Utica by 1917. At that time he was a laborer at Herron Manufacturing Company. His World War I draft registration described him as of medium height and stout build, with blue eyes and brown hair.^{[Draft 1917]}

By 1920, the Jurkewicz family relocated to Ford Village in Ecorse Township, Wayne County, Michigan, just south of Detroit.^{[Cen 1920]} By 1930, four more children joined the family which had relocated to nearby Wyandotte City at 1117 7th Street. Alex was then working as an auto worker.^{[Cen 1930]} Come 1940 and the Great Depression, Alex had been unemployed throughout all of 1939 and was seeking work. The 1940 census noted that Alex had no education and Eva had a 6th-grade education. Both were still aliens.^{[Cen 1940]}

Afte World War II broke out, Alex filed his declaration for naturalization in Detroit on April 21, 1942^{[Nat 1942]} and six days later registered for the draft in Wyandotte. His draft record listed him as living at 1117 7th Street but working as a self-employed farmer at 42159 Judd Road in Belleville, where daughter Stella lived. He was described as 5'3" tall, 160 pounds, with gray eyes, graying brown hair, and a ruddy complexion.^{[Draft 1942]}

Eva Edith (Logenberger/Loueberg/Loburg) Jurkewicz died on February 28, 1950, the day before her 56th birthday, in Trenton, Wayne County. She was buried in Monguagon Township, Wayne County, on March 3, 1950.^{[Dth 1950]}

Alex moved west to Sonoma County, California, in the early 1950s, with his daughter Alice and her son. His daughter Catherine and her family moved there around 1955 or 1956. Son Alex Jr. and daughter Stella also moved to Sonoma County. Daughter Audrey apparently took over the home at 1117 7th Street in Wyandotte where she and her husband lived in 1959.^{[Dir 1959]}

Alex J. Jurkewicz died on July 25, 1965, in Sonoma County, California. He was 77 years old.

Helene Josephine (JURKEWICZ) GRIVAS (~1913-1955)

1A.Helene "Helen" Josephine Jurkewicz was born on March 9, 1913*, in Utica, Oneida County, New York. She moved with her family to Wayne County, Michigan, by 1920.^{[Cen 1920]} She married John George Grivas, a Greek immigrant from Peratia, West Greece, who lived at the time in River Rogue, Wayne County, Michigan. They wed on September 28, 1941--she was 27 years old and he 44.^{[Marr 1941]} They had five sons:

1A1.	Paul Grivas	--	--	--
1A2.	John George Grivas, II	(1943)	26 Nov 2014	(71)
1A3.	James Grivas	--	--	--
1A4.	Thomas Arthur Grivas	(1947)	2 Jan 2015	(67)
1A5.	Donald Grivas	--	--	--

Helen and John resided at 231 South Military Street in Detroit, about a block from historic Fort Wayne, at the time of Helen's death.^{[Dth 1955]}

Helene Josephine (Jurkewicz) Grivas died on September 23, 1955, at Detroit Receiving Hospital. She was 42 years old. Helen was buried on September 28 at Woodmere Cemetery.^{[Dth 1955]} She and John had been married just shy of 14 years.

Victoria A. (JURKEWICZ) HOWARD (1914-1984)

1B. Victoria A. Jurkewicz was born in late July 1914 in New York. She moved with her family to Wayne County, Michigan, by 1920.^{[Cen 1920]} She married a Howard.

Victoria A. (Jurkewicz) Howard died on January 17, 1984, in Southfield, Oakland County, Michigan. She was 69 years old and had resided in Wyandotte prior to her death.^{[Dth 1984]}

Emily (JURKEWICZ) HOWEY (1915-1939)

1C. Emily Jurkewicz was born on October 31, 1915, in Utica, Oneida County, New York. She moved with her family to Wayne County, Michigan, by 1920.^{[Cen 1920]} She married Jack Howey and they resided at 1134 Biddle Avenue in Wyandotte, Wayne County.^{[Dth 1939]}

Emily (Jurkewicz) Howey died at the young age of 23 on March 29, 1939, in Wyandotte. She is buried at Ferndale Cemetery in Riverview, where her younger brother John had been buried a year and a half before.^{[Dth 1939]}

Estelle (JURKEWICZ) MORALES (1917-~1964)

1D. Estelle "Stella" Jurkewicz was born on November 21, 1917, along with her twin sister, Catherine, in Utica, Oneida County, New York. Her family moved to Wayne County, Michigan, when she was a toddler. She graduated high school, probably in Wyandotte. Stella first married Augustin "Gus" Sandtner/Sampson, who was 24 years her senior and had four sons from a previous marriage, by 1940.^{[Cen 1940]} She later married Sam Morales and had three children:

--	Lawrence August Sampson, Sr.	23 Jan 1917	23 Sep 1991	(74)
--	Harold Sampson	8 Feb 1919	15 Nov 2014	(95)
--	William Francis Sampson	(1920-1921)	11 Feb 1945	(25)
--	Anthony Lewis Sampson	4 Aug 1923	31 Jan 2006	(82)
1D1.	Melody/Melanie Morales	--	--	--
1D2.	Sammy Morales (Jr.)	--	--	--
1D3.	Eva "Marty" Morales	--	--	--

Gus

Gus was born "Augustin Sandtner" in Limbach in the foothills of the Little Carpathians, Pozsony (Bratislava) County, Austria-Hungary. It is now in the Bratislava Region of Slovakia. He, at the age of 16, and with his 10-year-old sister Maria, emigrated from Limbach aboard the S.S. Main, which set out from Bremen on November 6, 1909, and arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 20. Their destination was Newport, Campbell County, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio.^{[Pass 1909]}

Gus married Irene Christine Henzerling in Newport on June 28, 1915. By then he had taken the name of Gustave Sampson and was working as an iron worker. Gus and Irene had four sons between 1917 and 1923 in Campbell County. Later they moved north to Melvindale, Wayne County, Michigan. There, on June 30, 1929, Irene died while giving birth to daughter Ruth. Irene was only 33 years old. Mother and daughter are buried at Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit.

Stella & Gus

Stella lived with her parents in Wyandotte, Wayne County, Michigan in 1935, prior to marrying Gus, while Gus had resided at Melvindale in 1935. They were married about 1938--he about age 44 and she about age 20. By 1940 Gus was a steel worker for Ford Motor Company and they had bought a home along Judd Road in Sumpter Township, about 24 miles to the southwest of Wyandotte and Melvindale. Gus' sons William, age 19, and Anthony, age 16, and Stella's niece Janet, age 1, lived with them.^{[Cen 1940]}

The Sampsons may have returned to Melvindale by 1943 when Stella was noted living there when her sister Catherine wed.^{[Marr 1943]}

During World War II, Gus' three sons served in the U.S. Army and William died in France on February 11, 1945, at the age of 25 years. He is buried an Épinal American Cemetery and Memorial, at Dinozé, which was established by the U.S. Seventh Army as it drove northward from southern France through the Rhône Valley into Germany. The cemetery became the repository for the fatalities in the bitter fighting through the Heasbourg Gap during the winter of 1944-45. Gus' youngest son Anthony also served during the Korean War as well.

Stella & Sam

The details of Stella and Gus' break up are not yet known, but Stella remarried to Sam Morales and had three children before moving to California, probably in the early 1960s.

Stella's father, twin sister Catherine, and younger siblings, Alex, Alice and Doris, moved to Sonoma County, California, in the 1950s. Stella and family moved there later and settled near Shiloh Road in Windsor.

Estelle (Jurkewicz Sampson) Morales died on March 3, 1965, in Sonoma County. She was 47 years old.^{[Dth 1965]}

Gustave (Sandtner) Sampson died on August 31, 1974, at Wayne County General Hospital. He was 81 years old and had been living in Lincoln Park. He is buried at Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit.

Catherine Eva (JURKEWICZ) GRAHL² (1917-1974)

1E. Catherine Eva Jurkewicz² was born in Utica, Oneida County, New York, on November 21, 1917, along with her twin sister, Stella. Catherine moved to Wayne County, Michigan as a toddler. In 1938 or 1938, she had a daughter, Janet, but by 1940 gave her over to her sister to raise. Afterward, Catherine married Arthur William Grahl, Sr. on December 22, 1943, in Belleville, Wayne County. She was 26 years old and he 33. They had two children:

1E1.	Janet Jurkewicz (Sampson)	(1938-1939)	--	--
1E2.	Ardith Kay Grahl3	--	--	--
1E3.	Arthur William "Billy" Grahl, Jr.	26 Sep 1948	10 Oct 2010	(62)

Catherine has yet to be found in the 1940 census, but at that time her first daughter Janet was living with her twin sister, Estelle (Jurkewicz) Sampson in Sumpter Township.^{[Cen 1940]}

After Arthur was discharge from the Army in October, Catherine and Arthur obtained a marriage license on December 16, 1943, and were wed on December 22 in Belleville, Wayne County, to the west of Wyandotte. Arthur was 33 years old and Catherine was 26 (although she wrote down 25). Arthur had been working as a laborer and Catherine as a riveter--a "Rosie the Riveter"! Catherine was also known to have been a welder. Witnesses for their marriage were Catherine's twin sister Estelle Sampson and Arthur's younger sister Sophia Grahl.^{[Marr 1943]}

Catherine Eva (Jurkewicz) Grahl died on June 2, 1974, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California, at the age of 56 years. She was buried at Pleasant Hill Memorial Park in Sebastopol.

Alexander J. JURKEWICZ (Jr.) (1923-2002)

1F. Alexander J. Jurkewicz (Jr.) was born on January 2, 1923, in Michigan, likely in Wyandotte, Wayne County. He married Geneva Bernice (Jackson), probably in Michigan, and had five children:

1F1.	Carolyn Lee Jurkewicz	2 Jun 1945	17 Apr 2006	(60)
1F2.	Alexander Jurkewicz (III)	--	--	--
1F3.	John Jurkewicz	--	--	--
1F4.	Patty Jurkewicz	--	--	--
1F5.	Marion Jurkewicz	--	--	--

The Jurkewicz family likely moved from Michigan to Sonoma County, California, in the early 1950s, along with Alex's sister, Catherine (Jurkewicz) Grahl, and her family. They lived along Turner Road in Analy Township on the outskirts of Sebastopol.

Alexander J. Jurkewicz (Jr.) died on May 18, 2002, in Sonoma County. He was 79 years old.

Geneva Bernice (Jackson) Jurkewicz died seven years later on May 2, 2009, in Sonoma County. She was 83 years old. She had been living in Geyserville.

John J. JURKEWICZ (1925-1937)

1G. John J. Jurkewicz was born on August 14, 1925, in Wyandotte, Wayne County, Michigan. He died on December 27, 1937, at the young age of 12. He is buried at Ferndale Cemetery in Riverview, Wayne County, to the south of Wyandotte.^{[Dth 1937]}

Alice W. (JURKEWICZ) PERRY (1926-1998)

1H. Alice W. Jurkewicz was born on July 21, 1926, in Michigan, likely in Wyandotte, Wayne County. She had a son in Michigan and moved along with her father to Sonoma County, California, in the early 1950s. She later married Jack Perry, a farmer/rancher in Cotati.

1H1.

David Mellinger/Meninger

--

--

--

Alice W. (Jurkewicz) Perry died on November 17, 1998, at the age of 72. She had been living in Cotati at the time.

Doris (JURKEWICZ) SAMPSON (1928-1983)

1I. Doris Jurkewicz was born on March 6, 1928, in Michigan, likely in Wyandotte, Wayne County. She married Harold Sampson, the stepson of her elder sister Stella, on August 26, 1947, in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio.^{[Marr 1947]} They had at least two children:

1I1.	Robert Sampson	--	--	--
1I2.	Deborah Sampson	--	--	--

Harold

Harold had an 8th-grade education and as a young man lodged with the Arsanto De Anglis family on Oakwood Boulevard in Melvindale, Wayne County, Michigan. Harold had lived with them since at least 1935 and worked part-time as a filling station attendant.^{[Cen 1940B]}

He went on to marry to Jane A. Busz on May 3, 1942, in Detroit. They had two children together but divorced prior to 1947. Jane remarried, moved to Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, and had five more children.

Doris & Harold

Doris and Harold received their marriage license in Lucas County, Ohio, on July 26, 1947, with the consent of Doris' mother Eva. They wed a month later on August 26 in Toledo. She was 19 years old and he 28.^{[Marr 1947]}

Doris (Jurkewicz) Sampson died on April 23, 1983, in Lincoln Park, Wayne County, at the age of 55. She is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Riverside, Wayne County.

After Doris' death, Harold went on to remarry to Carol Goldberger and continued to reside in Lincoln Park.

Audrey Florence JURKEWICZ (1931-1991)

1J. Audrey Florence Jurkewicz was born on February 4, 1931, in Michigan, likely in Wyandotte, Wayne County. She married Willard L. Brousseau, a native of Ossineke, Sanborn Township, Alpena County, Michigan. They had at least one daughter:

1J1.

Judy Brousseau

--

--

--

Audrey's father and siblings, Catherine, Stella, Alex, and Alice, moved west to California in the 1950s. Audrey apparently took over the family home at 1117 7th Street in Wyandotte, where she and Willard were noted in 1959. At the time, Willard worked as a foreman at Michigan Metals in Detroit.^{[Dir 1959]}

By 1983 the Brousseaus moved a block east to 1126 Lindbergh Street.

Finally, the Brousseaus returned to Willard's hometown of Sanborn Township where they lived at 11606 Ossineke Road, along the Devil's River outside of Ossineke.

Willard L. Brousseau died on June 3, 1991, in Alpena, Alpena County, at the age of 63. He is buried at St. Catherine's Church Cemetery in Sanborn Township, where his parents are buried.

Audrey Florence (Jurkewicz) Brousseau died four months later on October 11, 1991, in Petoskey, Emmet County, Michigan.^{[Dth 1991]} She was 60 years old. Audrey is also buried at St. Catherine's Church Cemetery.