Anna Lasica - Lasica-Sporn-Schepper-Delenta family tree

NameAnna Lasica

Birth1881, Spie (Wilcza Wola), Poland

Death1959

BurialSt. Michael’s Cemetery, South Hackensack, NJ, in same plot as husband

Short bioAnna was one of George (Grandpa) Lasica’s four sisters. She immigrated to the U.S. as a child. There’s much confusion here: One oral family record suggests her birthday was June 11, 1890 and that she immigrated at age 13. But a baptismal certificate from Poland shows she was baptized in 1881. She may have immigrated before age 9. Her daughter, Patricia Madansky Kilinski, said that Anna often spoke of her experience at the immigration station in Castle Garden, NY. Castle Garden — which processed 8 million immigrants, or two out of every three persons immigrating to the U.S. between 1855 and 1889 — closed in 1890, and fire destroyed almost all of the records housed there. Ellis Island opened in 1892.

The Phoenicia

A second and more likely possibility is that she immigrated at age 18 (she may have visited years earlier). Records on the Ellis Island Web site show an Anna Lasica, who was born in 1881 in Sjoie, Austria (probably a misreading of Spie, Poland, then under Austrian occupation). Anna was a single white female traveling aboard the Phoenicia from Hamburg, Germany, and arriving at Ellis Island on Feb. 26, 1899.

In the early years she visited her brother George often and spoke in warm tones of the wonderful smell of bread from his bakery and the big pitchers of coffee and milk. She and her sister Sophie worked for a time at a wool-spinning factory on Passaic Street in Garfield, NJ (near Two Guys). After World War 2, her children wanted to pay for a trip for her to return to the old country, but she refused because she had memories of how bad the conditions were. By the time of her death she was spelling her married name as Anna Madansky. Anna was a diabetic, and she died of colon cancer. (Another Anna Lasica, who lived in Toms River, NJ, was born Nov. 1, 1890, and died November 1985; SSN 158-16-7913.) Anna was Joseph Lasica’s great aunt, though they never met.

Lillian Sporn Lasica said Anna had multiple sclerosis, but we haven’t confirmed that.

Spouses

1Anton Majdanski

MarriageSt. Joseph’s Church, Passaic, NJ

Birthc. 1870, Poland

Death1958

BurialSt. Michael’s Cemetery, South Hackensack, NJ, in same plot as wife Anna Lasica

ChildrenPatricia (1920-)
Johanna (Jana) (1918-1943)
Charlotte Sandra (1912-1986)
Joseph (changed his name to Jerome) (1910-1970)
Angela (Nellie) (1907-)
Rosalie (“Rae” or “Rose”) (1905-1967)
Marianna (“Mae”) (1904-?)

: An amazing photo from around 1929: sisters Patricia Madansky (front left), about 9 years old, Jana, about 11, and Charlotte (back left), 17, with their mother Anna Lasica Madansky, then 48.

: Charlotte (left) and Patricia Madansky flank their mother Anna Lasica Madansky.

: Anna Lasica Madansky on the boardwalk, date unknown.

: Anna Lasica Madansky holding grandson Michael Kilinski, 4 1/2 months, outside the Kilinski residence in Middletown, New York, in early 1949.

: Anna Lasica Madansky holding her grandson Jimmy Schweitzer outside the Schweitzer home in Butler, NJ, in 1954.