The Pajewski/Page Story

Introduction

Prelude

by Dave Jordan

In September 1977, I wrote The Story of John and Anna Page. Since that time, much new information has been found. In addition other stories about other branches of the Page family have become available. With the creation of Our Pajewski/Page Family web pages, I have decided to update and expand the various stories into a larger framework. The resulting, The Pajewski/Page Story, is a collection of short stories about different chapters and branches in the lives of descendants of Paul and Anna Pajewski. With time, others may contribute their own stories leading to a growing work on the origins and history of the Page family.

One of the confusions in our story is that the family's original name in Germany was not Page but Pajewski. The family used Pajewski when they first came to America but as the decades went by they began using Page . It is not certain why, but perhaps they wanted to blend in or got tired of people mispronouncing their name. They appear to have started the change informally in the early 1900s. And by 1926, the John and Anna Pajewski family formally made the legal change to Page .  By the 1970s when I began to research the Page family history, I found the families only mentioned Page when referring to their ancestors and the previous name was not mentioned or even hinted that there was a change. Eventually I was able to determine it was Pajewski .

To tie these names together I have used a slash between them for various titles such as The Pajewski/Page Story and Our Pajewski/Page Family web pages. Within the text however, sometimes they will be referred to Pajewskis and at others times Pages as to what fits the context.

The stories are collected into two major parts. The first called Our Origins in Germany focuses on our early roots. The second part Descendant Families in America provides chapter space for each of our German forebear descendant branches. I have started a few of these and others may wish to write others.

In Our Origins in Germany, the origins of two families are presented. These are the Origins of Our Pajewski Family and the Origins of Our Gainowski Family . The Gainowski family is connected to the Pajewski family through the marriage of their daughter Anna to John Pajewski.

While readers may wish to initially focus on stories in their branch, for those interested in every nugget of information on the life and times, you may wish to read the other stories to gain additional insights and find connections between them.

If you wish to make a literary contribution, please contact Dave via e-mail.

Notes

1. Initial Web Publication Date: 7/6/2002
2. Modified: 09/16/2002, 05/29/2003, 11/26/2009
3. Desktop Master file: Stories_Page