The Rice's
Tracing Our Roots
"Family history is the preservation of your family's culture, remembering ancestors through photos and documented personal biographies. The knowledge of family history is important only if you learn from your ancestors and live today as the borrowed time of your children’s future."
Author of this website
"If we share, we learn. If we learn, we understand."-Author Unknown, Ancient Native American
Hello. I'm glad that you came for a visit. This site is dedicated to my past relatives, whose lives and dreams have brought me to today!
Rice is an old American family name, dating back to a Lake County, Indiana name change petition originating by my father in 1947(joke), but.........
Their genealogical roots can be traced to over 255 years so far, accomplished with nine years of research. Many have been traced back to their original immigration ports of New York City or Boston. Surnames of Andrykowski, Apanasewicz, Barszczewski, Chatupnik, Chmara, Chylewski, Czajka or Czajkowski, Golinski, Jankowski or Jannowski, Nowacki, Molach or Mollach, Ryckowski or Rydzkowski, Samotyha, Sarosiek, Schwemiski, Spichalski or Spychalski, Woyciechowski, and Zlotorzynski are direct lines. My research is now concentrating in Poland. My family tree now is growing with church records in Cekcyn, Filipow, Gross Byslaw, Schwetz(Swiecie), Gniezno, and Swarzedz parishes. You are invited to view the old photos and family histories here. Hopefully, these may help you with your genealogical research. I am always in search of new cousins and branching out.
I am hoping for completion of research of most of my direct lineages in Poland by the end of 2010. If you are a serious family historian, you understand what hopeful and time-tables mean. But excluding two of my lineages, Apanasewicz and Czajkowski, which appear to be total brick walls, I be lucky by this Christmas. If so, I plan to publish all of my research on a 2-Disk set CD named The Rice Family Tree Vol. 3- Connecting Cousins and Polish Parishes. My last published CD went over well with direct family and some cousin lines. I made a good 20 copies and sent it out for free. This next CD set, and possibly my final publication, I unfortunately feel may be a burden of personal expense to cover. I am not into genealogy to make money. Family heritage should be free and passed down to future generations. If you are a direct cousin, please e-mail me and I will gladly e-mail any documents, maps, and photos related to your family heritage.
But if you think that you may be interested in my next 2-Disk set, send me an e-mail as I am starting to make a list. I haven't figured a final cost, which would top out at $5. The second disk of this 2-CD set will contain in full size at least 500 documents, scores of direct ancesters photos in the family tree, hundreds of old and hard to find maps, scores of family trees, and numerous photos of old Polish parishes, villages, towns, and cities where ancesters came from. The first CD will be self-booting to create a self-contained Website of hundreds of Webpages. These pages will be menu indexed to create an enjoyable experience to explore this extended Rice Family Tree and all of its cousin lines. This is the feedback that I recieved from many who got a free copy of Volume 2. Volume 3 will be just an expanded issue that has blossomed into a 2-CD set. Like I said previously, family heritage is a gift that must be passed on. E-mail me on whatever format that I may pass on this heritage to you!!!
So if you have some time, I hope that you enjoy my website. If time is short, then bookmark this site and come back. There is a lot to see and learn here, even if you are not related. This site is large in size with 60 seperate pages, but links to specific detailed surname information quickly. It also has 4 links to valuable outside genealogical information. As you may note at the bottom of this page, this site is up-to-date and constantly changing as my research continues. If you like this site, pass it on to a relative or friend.
Hello Sipowski family historians. You are my first new cousin contact in 2010. If you are looking for information on the surname Zlotorzynski, which connects to my bloodline, you will find it here! I have also newly created pages with the Sipowski family tree and some very old Sipowski photos. You can view these pages through my Kindred Kontackz section. You will find that there are more Sipowski cousins living in the US than you think!
Faces and places from my direct ancestors
These are some unidentified vintage photos from the Rice photo chest. Most date back from 1910 to 1930. If you are of cousin lineage, a familiar face may appear from your vintage family collection.
Personal biographies of direct immigrant ancestors
My personal tree and cousin line branches in the US
To learn more about my Polish lines from the 'Old Country', just click below. This is a new section that should be continuously expanding.
This is my newest section to this website. The pages here have 3 functions. The first is to explain how myself and other cousins found each other using the Internet. The second is to link to cousin lines that have their own genealogy websites. The third function is to post old photos of cousin lineages not exposed on the Internet. These older photos should help verify relationships to this tree when a familiar face is seen here and matching your old family photo. If any related cousin line does not have a link to this family website or you have some older photos that would prove helpful to other lineages to connect, please e-mail me and I will publish it here. This is what Kindred Kontacks is all about.
See current map of just where my ancestors were born in Poland.
Learn the basics of translating Polish documents. Example using difficult two page 1814 marriage document. These basic rules and procedures apply to most foreign languages.
Ever hear of a Surname that was altered by Ellis Island? I have a documented case in my family tree. See how this happened and how it may affect your own family genealogical research.
Ever see the content of an old passport. The link below shows my great grandmother's 1912 original Russian passport. Although Polish in descent, this area was under the authority of Russia at that time. This is a valuable vintage keepsake for any family researcher to acquire. If you haven't seen one, it's pretty cool.
Someday in your research you may find documentation about a relative's grave site, but upon visiting that cemetery you may not find a marker or even cemetery records existing on that relative. I have several in my line. Learn how this can happen.
If you have a family genealogy website, or thinking about putting together one, you need to visit my page "Design Your Website So That It Can Be Found". This page explains in simple terms and graphic illustrations how to make your website search engine friendly. This site has been tested with commonly used searches at Google, Dogpile, Alta Vista, Yahoo, and many other search engines. It is not uncommon to have a link to this site pulled up on the first page of search engine results. Read this page and you will leave this site with the MAGIC KEY to a successful family genealogy website.
Check out my genealogical tips pages. There you will find numerous ideas on working with old photos, scanner usage, tidbits on genealogical documentation, and producing a family CD.
Want to see what some of my current genealogical research projects are?
Awards presented to this site since opening May 22, 2003
Site Last Updated 7/24/10
