Is Our Family Name Pajewski

The Page Story

Was Our Family Name Pajewski

By Dave Jordan
October 21, 2005
The Page Story presents the family history of the Pajewski (pronounced Payefskee) brothers, Michael, Frank and John. Michael was born in 1854, Franz in 1862 and Johann in 1865. They were all born in Germany and all immigrated and settled in Chicago in the 1880s. It is thought their father was Paul Pajewski and their mother was Elizabeth Drosdowski. In the 1880s, all three Pajewski boys along with their half sister, Veronica and her husband immigrated to America and eventually all settled in Chicago. After they were in America a while, perhaps shortly after 1900, it is thought the three Pajewski brothers and their families began to informally use Page as their surname instead of Pajewski. However, it was not until 1926, that John Pajewski had their name changed in court to Page. The other brothers or their families may have formally changed their names also. So what's the problem? Why would I ask the question if we were really Pajewski's? The problem is a quote in my genealogy notes from a conversation in the late-1970s with my Grandmother Elizabeth Jordan. My notes state, "Veronica's maiden name was not Pajewski but something like Rode, later found to be Rhode. She thinks the ski name was from adopted parents". In my dad's interview notes with her on family history, he wrote that the sister was a half-sister. Both my dad and my grandmother also stated that John Page said he was orphaned at seven in Germany. While I have taken the information about Veronica as a half sister with a different last name at face value and hypothesized two marriages for her mother as a result, I did not react to her statement that the Pajewski name was from adopted parents. As I think back now, whenever my Dad or I had asked her about the former name, she was reluctant to talk about it and implied that she was always a Page. She had to know of course since the Pajewski name is on her marriage application and marriage license. And of course there is the court documentation in 1926 for the formal name change and all the entries in the Chicago Directories, and all the baptismal records. I just figured she didn't want to talk about it. However, as I re-examine her statement "thinks ski name was from adopted parents" it got me wondering if maybe I wasn't listening and she was trying to tell me something. Let's work through this and see if it's possible that our ancestors in this line could be named other than the Pajewski's. To begin, there is significant evidence that the three brothers (Michael, Frank and John) used the name Pajewski from their arrival in Chicago in the mid-1880s until the 1920s. And it is known that our John Pajewski is the same as our John Page because of the 1926 name change document. To look at this issue in more detail, let's look at the records already collected. Upon examining the data, parents names were listed on Frank Pajewski's and John Pajewski's St. Augustine Marriage Register. The marriage records clearly state that Paul Pajewski is their father and Elizabeth Drosdowski is their mother. There is only one other record so far that showed the father's name. This was on Michael Pajewski's 1923 Death Certificate and it was shown as Paul Pajewski. On this same document "Don't Know" was the entry for his mother's name. Michael's wife Helen provided the information. There is also only one other record so far that showed that the mother's name and that was on John Page's 1951 Death Certificate. It was shown as Anna Schmidt; "Don't Know" was the entry for his father's name. The informant was a person in hospital records but it was either John himself or his son Eddie Page who provided the information. It does seem a little unusual that John and his son could provide his mother's maiden name but not the name of the father. Stranger still is a new name, Anna Schmidt that never came up before. On Frank Pajewski's 1917 Death Certificate, the entry was "Don't Know" for the name of both his father and mother. Frank's wife Augustine provided the information. It was from this data that I posited that the parents of Michael, Frank and John were Paul Pajewski and Elizabeth Drosdowski, and that Ann Schmidt was a total error. Furthermore, since Veronica was a half sister with a maiden name said to be other that Pajewski and because she was born before Michael Pajewski (she 1849 and him 1854), I concluded that she had a different father than the boys, but the same mother. And thus I posited that Elizabeth Drosdowski married a Rhode and became Elizabeth Rhode and then married Paul Pajewski and became Elizabeth Pajewski. If one accepts Grandma Jordan's remembrance that the boys were adopted or had an adopted name then one needs to assume that there were three husbands of Elizabeth Drosdowski to make it work. The first husband would be the father of Veronica. The second husband the father of Michael, Frank and John. And the third husband would be Paul Pajewski. Given that there is only a ten-year age difference between John and Michael it is conceivable that all the boys were young enough that they adopted the 3rd husband's name. While this might seem a stretch it is pretty similar to what happened to the Jordan family in England about the same time. In that case, the older boys who were teenagers in the 1880s took on their father's name. Thus it is possible that the three boys (Michael, Franz and Johann) took on the Pajewski name with a presumed 3rd husband for Elizabeth and continued with it. If Johann was orphaned at age seven then it implies that Paul and Anna both died by about 1872. If the name was adopted it may well explain their interest is using Page instead of Pajewski. For example, years later when they tried to sort out their origins from the little each knew, they may have concluded that given the difficulty in the spelling and pronunciation of Pajewski and that it wasn't their name to begin with, then they just went with a simpler name. A key assumption hypothesis in this scenario is three husbands in a short time for Elizabeth Drosdowski. While it seems a lot, it is possible given shorter life spans, disease and wars. So what's the answer? At this time, The Page Story and supporting data presume Paul Pajewski and Elizabeth Drosdowski are the parents of Michael, Frank, and John and that Elizabeth and a 1st husband named Rhode are the parents of Veronica. However, a doubt has been raised and we'll need to push back a little further to clear this up. So how can we confirm the historic name? The key definitive records needed are the baptismal and birth records for Veronica, Michael, Frank and John. If found hopefully this will reveal their parents names. So far we have one town name, the birthplace for John in Melencz near Marienburg, Prussia. Someday this would be a good place to start. Hopefully the rest were born in the same general area. In addition it would be good to methodically search the records in the USA to see if there are more hints about the name and the towns in Germany where they were from. These searches include the St. Mary Cemetery, obituaries, church records for St. Boniface and St. Augustine and the passenger records for arrival into the United States. Initial Web Publication Date: 07/06/03 Intermediate Additions: 06/01/03, 10/21/05 Last Web Upload: 10/21/05

The Page Story presents the family history of the Pajewski (pronounced Payefskee) brothers, Michael, Frank and John. Michael was born in 1854, Franz in 1862 and Johann in 1865. They were all born in Germany and all immigrated and settled in Chicago in the 1880s. It is thought their father was Paul Pajewski and their mother was Elizabeth Drosdowski.

In the 1880s, all three Pajewski boys along with their half sister, Veronica and her husband immigrated to America and eventually all settled in Chicago. After they were in America a while, perhaps shortly after 1900, it is thought the three Pajewski brothers and their families began to informally use Page as their surname instead of Pajewski. However, it was not until 1926, that John Pajewski had their name changed in court to Page. The other brothers or their families may have formally changed their names also.

So what's the problem? Why would I ask the question if we were really Pajewski's? The problem is a quote in my genealogy notes from a conversation in the late-1970s with my Grandmother Elizabeth Jordan. My notes state, "Veronica's maiden name was not Pajewski but something like Rode, later found to be Rhode. She thinks the ski name was from adopted parents". In my dad's interview notes with her on family history, he wrote that the sister was a half-sister. Both my dad and my grandmother also stated that John Page said he was orphaned at seven in Germany.

While I have taken the information about Veronica as a half sister with a different last name at face value and hypothesized two marriages for her mother as a result, I did not react to her statement that the Pajewski name was from adopted parents.

As I think back now, whenever my Dad or I had asked her about the former name, she was reluctant to talk about it and implied that she was always a Page. She had to know of course since the Pajewski name is on her marriage application and marriage license. And of course there is the court documentation in 1926 for the formal name change and all the entries in the Chicago Directories, and all the baptismal records. I just figured she didn't want to talk about it. However, as I re-examine her statement "thinks ski name was from adopted parents" it got me wondering if maybe I wasn't listening and she was trying to tell me something.

Let's work through this and see if it's possible that our ancestors in this line could be named other than the Pajewski's. To begin, there is significant evidence that the three brothers (Michael, Frank and John) used the name Pajewski from their arrival in Chicago in the mid-1880s until the 1920s. And it is known that our John Pajewski is the same as our John Page because of the 1926 name change document.

To look at this issue in more detail, let's look at the records already collected. Upon examining the data, parents names were listed on Frank Pajewski's and John Pajewski's St. Augustine Marriage Register. The marriage records clearly state that Paul Pajewski is their father and Elizabeth Drosdowski is their mother. There is only one other record so far that showed the father's name. This was on Michael Pajewski's 1923 Death Certificate and it was shown as Paul Pajewski. On this same document "Don't Know" was the entry for his mother's name. Michael's wife Helen provided the information. There is also only one other record so far that showed that the mother's name and that was on John Page's 1951 Death Certificate. It was shown as Anna Schmidt; "Don't Know" was the entry for his father's name. The informant was a person in hospital records but it was either John himself or his son Eddie Page who provided the information. It does seem a little unusual that John and his son could provide his mother's maiden name but not the name of the father. Stranger still is a new name, Anna Schmidt that never came up before. On Frank Pajewski's 1917 Death Certificate, the entry was "Don't Know" for the name of both his father and mother. Frank's wife Augustine provided the information.

It was from this data that I posited that the parents of Michael, Frank and John were Paul Pajewski and Elizabeth Drosdowski, and that Ann Schmidt was a total error. Furthermore, since Veronica was a half sister with a maiden name said to be other that Pajewski and because she was born before Michael Pajewski (she 1849 and him 1854), I concluded that she had a different father than the boys, but the same mother. And thus I posited that Elizabeth Drosdowski married a Rhode and became Elizabeth Rhode and then married Paul Pajewski and became Elizabeth Pajewski.

If one accepts Grandma Jordan's remembrance that the boys were adopted or had an adopted name then one needs to assume that there were three husbands of Elizabeth Drosdowski to make it work. The first husband would be the father of Veronica. The second husband the father of Michael, Frank and John. And the third husband would be Paul Pajewski. Given that there is only a ten-year age difference between John and Michael it is conceivable that all the boys were young enough that they adopted the 3rd husband's name. While this might seem a stretch it is pretty similar to what happened to the Jordan family in England about the same time. In that case, the older boys who were teenagers in the 1880s took on their father's name. Thus it is possible that the three boys (Michael, Franz and Johann) took on the Pajewski name with a presumed 3rd husband for Elizabeth and continued with it. If Johann was orphaned at age seven then it implies that Paul and Anna both died by about 1872.

If the name was adopted it may well explain their interest is using Page instead of Pajewski. For example, years later when they tried to sort out their origins from the little each knew, they may have concluded that given the difficulty in the spelling and pronunciation of Pajewski and that it wasn't their name to begin with, then they just went with a simpler name. A key assumption hypothesis in this scenario is three husbands in a short time for Elizabeth Drosdowski. While it seems a lot, it is possible given shorter life spans, disease and wars.

So what's the answer? At this time, The Page Story and supporting data presume Paul Pajewski and Elizabeth Drosdowski are the parents of Michael, Frank, and John and that Elizabeth and a 1st husband named Rhode are the parents of Veronica. However, a doubt has been raised and we'll need to push back a little further to clear this up.

So how can we confirm the historic name? The key definitive records needed are the baptismal and birth records for Veronica, Michael, Frank and John. If found hopefully this will reveal their parents names. So far we have one town name, the birthplace for John in Melencz near Marienburg, Prussia. Someday this would be a good place to start. Hopefully the rest were born in the same general area. In addition it would be good to methodically search the records in the USA to see if there are more hints about the name and the towns in Germany where they were from. These searches include the St. Mary Cemetery, obituaries, church records for St. Boniface and St. Augustine and the passenger records for arrival into the United States.

Initial Web Publication Date: 07/06/03
Intermediate Additions: 06/01/03, 10/21/05
Last Web Upload: 10/21/05