Manduke and Manduka Family History

Notes on family history for decendants of Wladyslaw W. Manduka, Born "Polen" 1820, died Baltimore Maryland 1897.

I thought it would be a good idea to write a summary of work completed to date. Our ancestor for this family is Wladyslaw Manduka, born Poland in 1820. He married a girl living in the Sandgate workhouse (Mary E. Whitehead, age 19)in May of 1856 and arrived in the US variously and settled in New York City.

He was a Crimean war veteran although it is currently unclear if his unit, the "Second British Foreign Cavalry" 2nd B.F. Cav, King's German Legion ever saw action. He was based at Shorncliffe, Kent. He later joined the Union Army in various forms, the 93rd Infantry, the 17th Vol. Infantry, and finally the 25th NY Cavalry. He was 44 at the time of enlistment. He died in July 1897 and is buried at Loudon Park National Military Cemetery in Baltimore, when I have had a replacement headstone placed.

More information is available on Google for "Wladyslaw Manduka".

I encourage any relative to order his Civil War pension file from the National Arrchives. I won't attempt to reproduce that here now, but it is a great read. A hint is the last line of the officers report-"the soldier was obviously a drinking man of bad reputation and a scoundrel". I feel bad immortalizing that here. He isn't here to defend that statement. But he was obviously brave, adventuresome, and something of a ladies man.

I have heard that relatives with the "Brown" surname may have surviving letters and civil war items. My grandfather (Joseph Edgar Manduka b. 1901 Phila) had said he had the uniform and sword and my father claimed to see it as a small boy.

His military records at the KEW in the UK are quite complete, but I only have seen part of them. My research is partially published in the book "Coast of Conflict" by Michael George, including a marriage certificate. Exactly how many wives he had may never be know, nor all the offspring. The sons are William Edgar, Arther (or Authur), Vincent, Roland, Theodore, and at least one daughter Mary E. Most were born in Philadelphia, but the oldest perhaps born in England and/or New York.

Most of the mercenaries in the Crimean war were given a choice to go to India or the Cape Colony-many died there. A small group went to Canada with a land grant. I have never determined if Wlad was ever in Canada, or anywhere else other than New York and Philadelphia, or Baltimore after 1856. There is a gap in the record of about 2 years. So he may have been anyplace.

He was an educated man, as he was made an officer upon enlistment in the KGL at Dover. That meant he was literate and perhaps, or almost certainly had prior military experience.

The origin in Poland ("Polen" on the UK service record) is a mystery. Manduka is certainly not a Polish name. It is variously written "Manduke", which in German would have a similar pronounciation. The name is so rare it is difficult to research. Manduka's exist in Poland, Italy, England and France. It is even possible it was a poorly transcribed Russian name that just survived. The real root name is most likely "Manduca", which is fairly common maltese-Italo name. When pronounced in a slavic language, it may have made sense to write as Manduka to maintain the hard "C" (K)sound. The "C" at the end would have been perhaps wrongly pronounced as a soft "C" , creating confusion hence the change.

The Manduca family has a long and deep military tradition with important contributions all over Europe. The trouble is identifying the break point where the name changed from Manduca to Manduka, if indeed it is the actual name, which I think likely. I think this is the most promising line of future research, unless the guy was fighting in India and just took a name from a chessboard or sanskrit upanishad "Manduka". This is far-fetched, unlikely, but interesting.

He (Wladyslaw, UK KGL enlistment docs) says his father had the same name and was a farmer. Frankly I am not sure how much is true or fiction, and perhaps he went to the British war to avoid some trouble on the mainland. I doubt I will ever know. I feel there is some amazing tale buried in this I just can't uncover yet.

So that is that. I am still trying research in Europe with little response. I do not get any inquiries from any families here at all, so at this time, my project is complete. Note that there are several Manduke families whose name is incorrectly written or pronounced, usually at Ellis Island. It is my belief that these much later arrivals are unrelated to Wladyslaw Manduka. Some have suggested his father arrived here also, but that is unproven. An old family legend said that the Manduka's fought as mercenaries in the American Revolution. That is an old family story, said long before I resurrected this guy. Although in character, it remains unproven.

It has been a lot of fun over the last 10 years bringing this patriarch back to the family. He was long rejected and maligned, perhaps as he was said to be harsh on Mary and the children. This concludes this research.

Another mystery is a ghost of a character, another simultaneous "wife" one Lucynda Papavich (Sp?, handwritten US pension files 1897)This woman from Baltimore claimed to have married Wladyslaw in Lomza, Poland sometime in the 1880's, and travelled back with him to Baltimore.

What the heck was an old man (back then) doing in Poland at that time-how did this man have the wherewithall to do all these transoceanic trips-he has several different US entry events, and it all appears to be the same man-sometimes from England, Germany, and even one saying he came from Russia. Papavich is a Russian name and the English fought the Russians in the Crimea-a connection? Who knows?

She could't prove the marriage but the pension examiner did seem to believe her. Mary got the 6 dollar a month pension and died shortly afterwards, around 1900. I cannot locate the grave of Mary Elizabeth Manduka. But she ran a small rooming house in Camden, NJ and was cared for by son William.

Although I would love to discuss this heritage, the board remains silent. I can be reached at manduke1956@yahoo.com.

I must also sadly report the death of my Aunt, my mother's (Mae Hatfield Manduke)sister Alma Elizabeth Hatfield Loughran of Upper Darby, PA in March 2008.
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