new member and a brick wall great grandmother zambriski dod 1979 from Poland

Question

my great grandmother is not showing no matter where i look freely. name is stella zambriski spelling?/phonetic  <maiden> Bell < first marriage>  Carter <her second and last marriage> her year of death is 1979 and this I was told by her  daughter <my grandfather's sister> that her mother came to America from Poland with her parents <no names> and siblings <one named Ziggy possible nickname>. All I know for certain is Stella had 9 children by first marriage Bell and are as follow: Albert J<my grandfather born 1929 death 1972>, marie, betty, virginia, alice, daniel, jim <possible james>, maryann, and patsy <aunt born dec 9, 1946>. Second marriage to Carter would have been around 1948-52 as Patsy was a small child and doesn't remember her biological father Albert whom my grandfather was supposedly named after but not exact junior. Any help would be appreciated.

Comments

For those who want to help searching here, the son (Gina's grandfather) Albert Bell was born 1929 in Wayne County, MO (per findagrave)

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Per 1940 census Albert's mother Stella was born around 1912 (age 28 in 1940) and born in Missouri. Her husband's name was Brian or O'brien Bell. According to a Social Security application for their daughter Betty Jean, Stella's maiden name was Carter (rather than Carter being her second married name). See obituary below for her maiden name.

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Per his World War II draft registration card, Stella's husband's name was Bryant Elbridge Bell, and he was born 1 Nov 1909 in Oakford, IL (about 100 miles north of St. Louis, MO, where they were living in 1940). He died 9 Aug 1947 and was buried in St. Louis, per findagrave.

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An obituary from the 16 Jan 1979 issue of the St. Louis Dispatch does give her maiden name as Zambruski and states that she was successively the wife of Bryan Bell and of Connie Carter.

Answer 1

Given that (as I noted in the comments above) she was born 1912 in Missouri, she may be the Stella Zambrzuski, age 8, born in Missouri, listed in the 1920 census in Ripley County, MO (nearly 150 miles south of St. Louis) as daughter of Adam and Mary Zambrzuski, who had emigrated from Poland in 1910 - and who had a son Zygmont born in 1901 (who may very well have been the sibling "Ziggy").

Adam was still living in Ripley County as a widower in 1930 and was buried there in 1949. 

Comments

An obituary from the 29 Jan 1975 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch lists the surviving siblings of Zygmond Anthony Zambrzuski as Frank Zambrzuski, Stella Carter, and Genevieve Viera. This agrees with the 1920 census cited above, which lists among the children of Adam and Mary Zambrzuski a Zygmont, a Stella, a Frank, and a Jennie [presumably short for Genevieve].

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More confirmation: the Jennie in the 1920 census was 2 years old, thus born about 1918. A Genevieve Viera, maiden name Zambrzuski, born 19 Feb 1918, died 14 Jun 1996 in Orange County, CA, per California Death Index. This means that Zygmond Zambrzuski, Stella Carter, and Genevieve Viera were indeed the children of Adam Zambrzuski of Ripley Co., MO, listed in the 1920 census.

The California Death Index also helpfully states that Genevieve' mother's maiden name (i.e., the maiden name of Mary, Adam's wife), was Mazurek.

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Also (as yet further confirmation) note that Wayne County, MO (where Stella's oldest son Albert was born in 1929) is right next to Ripley County, MO. Unfortunately I have not been able to find Stella in the 1930 census.

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Adam's death certificate does not list his exact birthplace (only "Poland"), but does list his parents as Ferd. Zambrzuski and Catherine Wassneski.

An Adam Zambrzuski born in 1878 (thus of about right age) and married (check) is listed in the Hamburg passenger lists as having departed Hamburg for New York in September 1909 (about right) - unfortunately without accompanying family. This Adam Zambrzuski gave his home town as Kiencewo; however, I have found no such town in either the German or the Polish Wikipedia. You may want to ask (using the tag "Polish Roots") whether someone might know what this placename refers to.

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thank you so much this is very interesting...I found Stella after asking the question in a 1940 census and they were in st louis since 1935 as that was one of the census questions asked as to the location of the family during that time and her daughter virginia was age 1. further searching for kiencewo there is a mention <google broad search> brings me to 1 mention in a german paper dated from Nov 11 1866 ad i have yet to translate any of it Telegraf Graz: Organ fur steiermarkische Interessen vol 12