The Psychogenealogist

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Funeral Prayer Card for Marianna Grzeskowiak Pawlowski (1879-1941) - Family Artifact Challenge (Day 13)

This is the prayer card for my great grandmother, Marianna Grzeskowiak Pawlowski (1879-1941). I don’t have it in my possession, but the image was shared with me by a cousin several years ago. I don’t know if there is an image on the reverse, but I would suspect so.

Google Translate (did you know you can scan an image and get a rough translation of many different languages?) suggests it is, in fact, a type of prayer.

Born in Poland, Marianna came to the U.S. when she was an infant with her parents and two older siblings. Here she is with the rest of her family. She is in the back row, 2nd in from the right.

She was married on September 3rd, 1903 in Detroit, MI to my great grandfather, Adam Pawlowski (1879-1959). The man behind is Adam’s brother, John Pawlowski (1882-1920).

Here they are a few years later standing in front of their home at 1176 Dubois St. in Detroit, MI. This is probably just before my grandmother, Claire Pawlowski Halvangis (1916-1980), was born. This is the last known photo I have seen of Marianna.

Marianna is buried next to her husband at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Detroit. I took on my first trip there in 2017 to Mt. Olivet. Many in my family are buried there and I had not yet been to visit. It was a windy day and the audio here is not good, but the video of their gravesite seemed worth sharing.


Thanks for taking a look at the Family History Artifact of the Day Challenge! Every day in May I will be posting a family artifact or heirloom. I hope you’ll join!

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See this gallery in the original post