I am sorry for posting again; I promise this is my last post for a while.
Thanks to all who have been helpful.

I have my great-grandmother's funeral Mass card, on which her name is Marya
Bogielczyk. The card is in Polish, and she died 4 Kwietnia (April) 1932. I
know Marya's last name was Rubin because that was on her daughter's (my
Grandmom's) death certificate. This is a great mystery. Why would someone
name a little Jewish girl "Maria?" I do not think it was ever Miriam. This
woman apparently lived and was buried as a Catholic. The only clue I have is
my grandmother's younger sister who died a few years ago. When we asked her
if her mother was Jewish, she paused for a long moment, then nodded
slightly. She was an elderly lady and devout lifelong Catholic... so we did
not press the issue. (Her mother died when she was only 14.) I am thinking
that Maria Rubin may have been the child of a mixed marriage, of Jewish
father and Catholic mother. Did such marriages happen in Poland in the late
19th century?

Regards,

Jennifer Schu Glazewski
Wayne, PA

I have translated many Jewish vital records >from Polish and I have indexed
many pages for JRI. I have seen the name Maria on at least several
occasions. Also, I saw it in some publications listing Jewish given names
in Poland. Therefore one may only conclude that this name, commonly
associated with Catholics, was also occasionally used by Jews. As for mixed
marriages at the turn of 19th century I encountered some instances only
among secular or assimilated Jews, mostly in large cities.

Peter Jassem
Toronto, Ontario
jassep@...

I am not certain about Poland, but I have one on record on an extended
family member for what was Hungary and now Romania. The register notes that
the father is Jewish and the mother Catholic. Course Transylvania had one
register for all religions denoting religion in a column where Poland and
Ukraine have separate registers for each religion.

Leslie Gyi nee FEIG