Thanks to Avotaynu I was directed to this great website:  it is only in Polish but shows how the borders of Poland kept changing - this is important for establishing where our ancestors were really from:  Germany?  When?  Poland?  What period? 

http://polmap.republika.pl/polska1.htm

Just click on the centuries marked at the bottom and the borders will adapt to the time frame chosen. 

1910 Benjamin Kadetzky

From the Ellis Island database,

First Name: Benjamin
Last Name: Kadetzky
Ethnicity: US citizen
Last Place of Residence:
Date of Arrival: Sep 13, 1910
Age at Arrival: 40y Gender: M Marital Status: M

Ship of Travel: Kronprinzessin Cecilie
Port of Departure: Bremen
Manifest Line Number: 0023

It looks like this Benjamin returned to the "old Country" as he was already a US citizen.  Aged 40 means Benjamin was born in 1870.

He could be the same Benjamin J who is buried in
Mt Lebanon Cemetery, Queens
son of  Tzvi Aryeh
Benjamin J Kadetsky
d. 13 Jan 1938 age 68
b. 1870
married to
Adele

born 1868

died 10 March 1956 age 88

their children were

Ida

married to Max Eisenberg


Hyman Kadet
Chaim b. Binyamin Yosef 
B 1890
D. Sept 7, 1980
married to Clara
b. 1898 - d. 1991

1907 Jankel Kadetzky

First Name: Jankel

Last Name: Kadetzky
Ethnicity: Russia, Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Sakrotschim, Russia *
Date of Arrival: Nov 18, 1907
Age at Arrival: 20y Gender: M Marital Status: S
Ship of Travel: Nieuw Amsterdam
Port of Departure: Rotterdam, Holland
Manifest Line Number: 0012

* On the Kadetsky map of Poland ther is a town near Warsaw called Zakroczym.  Sounds close enough.

1901 Wolf Kadetzki

The Hamburg passenger lists on-line show the record of Wolf Kadetzky, who travelled from that port to the US on the  Phoenicia, n June 23, 1901 aged 17.  He seems to have travelled alone.  

1903 Itzchok Kadetsky

Also in 1903, arriving from Szerpeck (possibly Sierpc) to Ellis Island, Itzchok Kadetsky, aged 33
entered New York. His year of birth was then approximately 1870.  We are working on matching him up to other family members.

His arrival record states: 

First Name: Itzchok

Last Name: Kadetsky
Ethnicity: Russia, Hebrew
Last Place of Residence: Szerpeck
Date of Arrival: Jul 29, 1903
Age at Arrival: 33y Gender: M Marital Status: M
Ship of Travel: Barbarossa
Port of Departure: Bremen
Manifest Line Number: 0020

1874 Sussman Samuel KADETSKY

Sussman was born in Poland on Mar 23, 1859. His parents were: Israel Morris Kadetsky and Sarah E Sobel.

Sussman came off the ship aged 15 in 1874.
He became a naturalized US Citizen on October 21, 1887. At that time he lived on Oliver Street.
In 1882 he married Julia Brown, who was born in NY on Jan 26, 1860
and died July 10, 1926. They are buried together at Mt.Carmel Cemetery, NY)

Their children were:

Anna
b. Oct 1883

Isaac
b NY May 1887

Bella (Nacht)
b. NY 1889
d. Feb 26, 1973

Charles
b. NY NY 08/03/1891
d,. NY March 1972 age 81


Sussman died June 1, 1942.

New KADETSKY Family blog

Having recently been approached by several Kadetsky descendents, we have decided to start a new blog ONLY for that surname (and ones related to it), to share all the genealogical information we've been gathering separately.

This one will continue operating and the much same information will be available on both, but if you are a Kadetsky or descended from one, you might want to check out the other one (as it gets fleshed out - please be patient, or better yet, contribute to fill it with interesting family lore, anecdotes, heirlooms (pictures, news etc. )

It will probably be password protected but by contacting one of us, you can request an invitation and we hope you'll like it and want to participate.

http://kadetskyfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/

I'm looking forward to seeing it grow....... with all your contributions!

Welcome to the Kadetsky Family History Blog

Our connections keep expanding and increasing, making this blog a logical progression, so that we can all share our family history and find the missing links between KADETSKIES, as we all seem to have originated in the same place (Biezun, Poland)and so are related at some point or another.

Please contact us at Kadetskyfamilyhistory@gmail.com regarding anything to do with Kadetsky genealogy.

The Authors of this blog are all descendents of Kadetskies and each contributes the information gathered while researching the history of the KADETSKY family.  At the time of the creation of this blog we have identified several main branches of the surname:  one remained in Poland and we will work on that to see how we all interconnect.  Another one entered the US in 1871 and branched into diffferent areas including New York and Boston.  Then another branch entered the US in 1879 and after spending a few years in NY, settled in Boston.  Another one moved to Israel.  And then there are the ones that changed the name to Kadet, Kay, Cadetz, etc., and that need to be connected to their respective ancestors. 

Gary Lelonek will upload the information he has gathered and connect us to Israeli Kadetskies.  He is descended from Pessia Kadetsky of Biezun, Poland.

Mark Hallerman is descended from Rachel Kadetsky of Biezun, Poland, who was Pessia's sister.

Steve Morris and Jenni Hymoff share a common great-great-grandfather - R'Yitchak Yehoshua - of whom we as yet know nothing more than his name and two of his children, Abraham Joseph (Steve's great-grandfather) and Hadel Esther /Adeline (Jenni's great-grandmother) and that they came to the US in 1879 from Poland.

As we add authors and contributions we will explain who is related to who. 

Please feel free to contribute, either as author or by sending the authors things so we can upload them.   This blog will be as accurate and interactive as we all can make it.

We hope you'll become as fascinated and hooked as we are!  

A new KADETSKY contact

I received the following message a few months ago and since then, an extremely information-rich  correspondence with Gary has brought about the creation of this blog!

My great grandfather Izchak Mayer Lelonek married Pessia Kadetzky daughter of Szaja and Roza Kadetzky. They lived is Sierpc, Poland. I have other info on Kadetzkys that died during the holocaust that my grandfather entered into the yad vashem database. I know that there were Kadetzkys in Israel and in America that my grandfather tried to contact when he got to America after ww2 but i do not know any more info on them.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Gary Lelonek

Gary himself will be uploading lots of data he has collected. 

Ellis Island entries for KADETSKY

These are entries of Kadetsky and similar names. If we Kadetskies are all related, then these are worth following up.

Sierpc is a town very close to Biezun and Golub Dobrzyn, and Zrjeps could be an alternative spelling. Szerpeck is in Hungary.

Abraham and Hadel Esther did not enter via Ellis Island as it did not yet exist when they came in in 1879. I have not been able to find them in Castle Garden records. We know they were in New York before moving to Boston, which was around 1880 or 81.

A bit of infomation for you dedicated genealogists in the family: CastleGarden.org offers free access to an extraordinary database of information on 10 million immigrants from 1830 through 1892, the year Ellis Island opened. Over 73 million Americans can trace their ancestors to this early immigration period.

There is only one Kadetsky there:

ISRAEL KADETSKY, LABORER aged 30 Male, arrived on 20 Jun 1871 from GERMANY Ship: WISCONSIN

They might be listed under different spelling variations. In the 1880 census Abraham and family are listed as CADESKY.

AGNES KADESKA, GENTLEMAN'S SERVANT age 26 Female, arrived 22 Mar 1889 from GERMANY, Ship: AMERICA

KADETSKY surname in Poland

Thanks to Wlodek Malinowsky, we have a list of towns in whose archives the Surname KADECKI (in English KADETSKY) can be found. JRI Poland has a very good search system that you can go through if you want the exact details, however, after reading through the lists, I find nothing resembling our known ancestors, Abraham Josef and Hadel Esther and their father R'Yitchak Yehoshua.

Here is a map where all the towns mentioned are marked. I'd been meaning to put this up for a long time but finally have got around to it, since Wlodek kindly sent the lists along and I hope it is as interesting to you as it is to me.

The towns where we've found Kadecki listings are (keep in mind that OUR direct Kadetsky ancestors all emigrated before 1880):

Biezun (86 entries, between 1828 and 1894)
Drobin (One entry, 1837, the death record for Iciek Abramowicz KADECKI)
Golub Dobrzyn (6 entries, all after 1890)
Plock (2 entries, 1869 and 1876, a marriage - Szulim- and the death of Chana Ruchla)
Plonsk (one entry, 1892 the marriage of Chenoch KADECKI)
Warsaw (4 entries, between 1887 and 1904)
Zakroczym (20 entries between 1862 and 1897)
Zuromin (one entry: 1898 marriage of Zurech)
Ciechanow (Katacki - possible variation in spelling) (2 entries from 1841)

Mlawa: the town where other listings are recorded.
Torun: the Archives where the Biezun records are located.

We also found an entry in Zychlin, for a Wasercug. The town is close enough to indicate that the Waters family and the Kadetsky family may have known each other in Poland already. There are several Hymoffs/Chaimows in the area but that is a more common surname and thus may or may not be related to us. Lublin, where Israel Hymoff reportedly was born, is in the lower right hand corner and close enough to leave the possibility open that there is a pre-USA link.

All comments are welcome!

Some Kadetsky family history from Poland

I checked out the Jewish Family Finder on JewishGen.com (a fascinating site which anyone interested in their Jewish family history should use) and found a researcher in Poland also looking into the KADETSKY surname. I contacted him (with the wonderful help of a fellow Genner who translated our correspondence) and got the following answer from him:

Dear Jenni,
Sorry for not replying earlier but I very often travel and I am very busy. Yesterday I came back from Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
If you are interested in your family history from today Poland and today Ukraine you should know not only the history of the Jewish people in Europe but also history of the Eastern Europe at least from XVI-XVII. Before you obtain such knowledge I would like to provide you with basic information. Having analyzed overnight all surnames and dates which you have mentioned in your letter I confirm that we are related to each other.
However we encounter one major problem. It would be a very time consuming task to establish when our family history converged.
It is undoubtedly a fascinating subject, but it requires historical knowledge about Polish, Austrian, Prussian and Russian states.
I don’t know if you realize since when the Jews from Biezun and neighboring villages were required to use the surnames and who named them?
Biezun was a Polish-Jewish town founded by the nobility family Dzialynski. I guess, in 1760, its ownership was transferred to the Zamojski family. In 1767, they brought the Jews. It was a very common practice among the Polish nobility and earlier among the Polish kings.
If Polish nobility wished to build and to develop cities and towns they had to bring the Jews as the law prevented nobility from performing any work or running any businesses. If a nobleman soiled his hands with work he was stripped of his title and became a peasant. Peasants were just slaves, they could not learn how to read, write or calculate. Only Catholic priests and some townspeople were literate.
Therefore the Polish nobility had to hire others to work.

In the 18th century due to political reasons Poland was partitioned by 3 countries: Prussia, Austria and Russia. At the beginning Biezun was included in Plock district in Prussia.

In accordance with the Prussia King’s edict dated 17.04.1797, every peasant and every Jew was given his own unique surname as so far they used only names and father’s names (patronymics), sometimes place of origin.

In Plock surnames were assigned by a famous composer Hoffman in 1802. Hoffman, as an officer and a military musician was penalized for drunkenness and transferred to provincial Plock. In that way in 1802, Hoffmann, who was always drunk, was ordered by the King to assign surnames to the Jews. It is quite interesting as the procedure was quite comical but sometimes offensive surnames were given.

It should be kept in mind, that your family who originated in Ukraine came also from Poland as this territory was a part of Poland until so called Chmielnicki uprising. Later on partitions of Poland often divided families.

However, the history of families from today Poland, especially from Biezun and neighboring shtetls can be traced by analyzing surnames from Prussian districts, especially from the years 1802 or 1803 onwards.

The following rule was applied: if one family who lived in a village or in a town was given a surname, then other not-related people were not given the same surname. New-born babies were given names after late grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, brothers etc.

The Jews started to settle down in this part of Poland in the 15th and the 16th century. Firstly they were brought to Gabin, then to Drobin, Dobrzyn nad Wisla, Dobrzyn nad Drweca, Lipna, Sierpca, Zuromin, Wroclawek, Kikol.

If my grandparents were born in Biezun, in 1880, were married and then moved to Golub, Dobrzyn, Zuronim, Lipno, Sierpiec, Lubicz, then they were related to each other “many times”.
Therefore surname Kadecki comes only from Biezun but it spread to the entire region and at the end of 19th century can be found in America. The same rule applies to the surnames like: Czarnobroda, Czrnoœliwka, Dobroszklanka, Pedziwiatr , Cipa czy te¿ Pêdzidupa.

The above rule did not apply to Jewish names of historical significance such as Rapaport.

Therefore if you wish to research your family history you should understand the Jewish history in this part of Europe before and after Holocaust.

Your point of view depends, of course, on your religious and political opinion. Historical knowledge of anti-Semitism and Holocaust is also essential.

Contrary to the popular belief, the latest research shows that approximately 50% of the Polish population has Jewish genotypes, although they are both Polish nationalists and Catholics.
They are also often Anti-Semitic.

I am positive, that many your ancestors live in today Poland and in former Soviet Union, but sometimes they do not know that. Often people of East Europe consider a word “Jewish” as offensive. Moreover it is sometimes destructive.

Often I have the exact knowledge about person’s background, but I believe that I do not have right to discuss the subject.
Of course your situation is very different.

By the way: 2 years ago my daughter met Gilbert Rapaport at Austin University in TX (USA). He is the Head of Slavic Department. He speaks Russian and Polish fluently.
My daughter told him, that her father has a friend named Rapaport from a town located between Plock and Torun. Professor replied, that it’s impossible as they were very small shetetls and nobody survived Holocaust.
His family emigrated before the I World War from Dobrzyn and Biezun and my friend, Rapaport, 82 years old, (his mother’s maiden name was Dobraszklanka) is his close uncle.
My daughter found such interesting family link, although she knows nothing about Jewish genealogy.
The Jewish family Kadetcki comes only from Biezun. Fischer and Kaufman lived in Dobrzyn nad Drweca. If you wish I can research the subject, which you are interested in and I will send you progressively available information .

Regards and invitation to Poland.

Wlodek Malinowski

Abraham Joseph 1879 Kadetsky family tree - incomplete

 The information here has been collected from census records, gravestones, family members and documents and is totally susceptible to improvement. Please send any changes, names, dates, additions or deletions you wish me to make.