Ignatz Ganas

 

Ignatz Ganas

 

 

My maternal grandfather, Ignatz Ganas was born on 29 Jun 1870 in Chorzalki, Poland as the second child of Joseph Ganas and Mary Jaskowiak. He had two siblings: Severin, and Stanislawa. He died on 12 Jan 1940 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Cause of death was Bronchial pneumonia.  He was buried on 17 Jan 1940 in Calvary Cemetery, St. Paul, MN.

Church records from Iwno, Poland show that Ignatz and his siblings were born in Chorzalki near Iwno. Iwno was a noble's estate of 664 residents located in Kries Schroda, Posen. It is about 160 miles Northwest of Warsaw; 48 miles Southwest of Poznan.  Chorzalki, population 58, was a "Vorwerk" which can be described as a remote estate or farm, removed from the main estate or village.

Iwno had a Catholic church, a "Chauseehaus", a machining factory, starch factory, distillery, sawmill and brickworks. "Chauseehaus" can be translated as a roadhouse or inn. Oral history says that Ignatius parents owned a tavern and that Ignatius remembered standing on boxes and tending bar as a boy after his father died. Perhaps it was this chauseehaus.

Ignatius was sent to live in Berlin with his mother's twin brother whose first name is not known. He grew up in his uncle's family and was taught to be a tailor. He is said to have left Berlin when he was 15 years old. Nothing else is known about his life until he emigrated to the United States. 

He arrived in the U.S at Baltimore, Maryland in Aug 1893 coming from Hamburg aboard the ship Russia.  He was naturalized in 1898 in Ramsey County, MN. He lived in St. Paul City, Ramsey, Minnesota in 1900. 

When he was 28, He married Stella Schipp,daughter of Michael Schipp and Elisabeth Jascinski, on 18 Oct 1898 in Minnesota.  They had 12 children. 

Records show Ignatz' profession as teamster. He owned his own team. He also worked as a tailor. 

Until about 1920 Ignatius and Stella lived on the Mississippi River levee in St. Paul. They then bought a house on Goodhue Street on the bluff above the levee near the foot of the High Bridge.  The Ganas family owned that house until Stella's death in 1954.

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