Monday's Moment: Careful on bridges.....

 

Polish Origins Tour - Day Three

On the third and final day of our Polish Origins tour, we were going to visit the birth places of my grandfather's parents. We passed a lot of cows that morning.

The super interesting thing, is both were born in the Baranowo parish. Our first stop was the town of Dłutówka. 

There was a small church here in Dłutówka, but Ula thought it was a newer church that did not exist when Małgorzata Laska was born here in 1880. Małgorzata (Margaret was her Americanized name) went by Maggie and her parents were Walenty Laska and Maryann Sadowski. Ula did point out that Małgorzata's maiden name was indeed Laska but there was no record of any relations. 

Ula said this house was very typically for the type of homes from that time period. Małgorzata likely grew up in a similar style home. Małgorzata was 18 years old when she immigrated to America in 1898.

Apples growing on a tree and house nearby selling fresh honey.

We then drove about 10 minutes west to Baranowo. We stopped at the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. It is estimated the church was built around 1910, so likely there was a smaller church in Baranowo they were both baptized in. 

After visiting the church in Baranowo, we continued driving west another 5 minutes to Czarnotrzew. Józef Laska was born here in 1878 to his parents Jakub Laska and Marianna Dusak. Jakub sent Józef to the U.S. to avoid having to serve for the Russian government in the Polish Army. Józef boarded the ship, Westernland, in Antwerp, Belgium, and arrived at Ellis Island on September 6, 1899. Józef became a U.S. citizen in 1923! Ula said that getting older and reliable records is very hard in Poland. A lot were destroyed in the two world wars. Ula said priests would also burn records so that parents, like Jakub, would not get in trouble for sending their children to the U.S. It was interesting in that Józef and Małgorzata were born in the same church parish about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from each other, but did not meet (re-meet?) until they were both living in the U.S in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. They were married in 1903. I would like to think they met and where chatting about where they were from and realized they came from the same parish back in Poland. 

This 'village' was literally a side street with a handful of houses. Ula went into the building that had the sołtys sign. A sołtys is a village elder and it is where you go to pay your taxes. Ula asked if there were any Laska's in the area still.

We had some minor success....someone with the surname Laska lived on the street. Ula went in and spoke with the man. He stated that his mother had gone to U.S. and returned to Poland pregnant. No one spoke much about it. The man had no interest in talking to us. 

We stopped by a nearby cemetery and we found a headstone with a family name!!

It appeared to be a father (Stanisław) and his son (Józef). The father died in 1982 at the age of 75 and the son died in 1989 at the age of 60. I do have to say, I see a resemblance to my grandfather! No clue if or how I might be related to these fellows. 

Joe and Caroline at their 50th wedding anniversary party in 1989.

While my family names are relatively rare in the U.S. (I never met anyone I wasn't related to with the last name Piasecki, Wiśniewska, or Laska), Ula did say she knew people in school growing up that had those last names and they were all relatively common!

While driving around Poland, we saw a lot of these around. Little random crosses at the side of the road. Ula stated that in pre-automobile days, it was a lot to get to the church for services. So these provided small villages a holy place to meet to pray close to their homes and going to the church was saved for big events (weddings, baptisms, etc).

On our way back to Warsaw we stopped at the Kurpiowski Museum in Wach. It was an interesting place. Pretty much people are cleaning out a home and donate all the old stuff to him. The owner has it organized by type. The website gives a better idea. 

I thought the old spools were neat. Of course....we found a cat (who was keen to show off her babies).

We then stopped for lunch and returned to Warsaw. It was such an interesting tour. Richard enjoyed seeing the countryside even though he knew nothing of my ancestors who's villages we visited. We got a picture with Ula before we went our separate ways. 

These last two maps show our total trip. While we drove a lot and had ancestors from all over the country, when you look at the whole country of Poland, we barely scratched the surface.

I'll end with a photo of Josef and Maggie Laska!

Polish Origins Tour - Day Two

We woke up in beautiful Toruń. We had a great vantage point from our room to get some photos of some old townhouses. 

After breakfast, we checked out and loaded our luggage into the van. We then did some more sightseeing in Toruń. We found the interesting Renaissance granary on Piekary Street. The windows were designed to look like the bags of grain that were stored inside when it was built in the first half of the 17th century.

We checked out the Leaning Tower of Toruń. It was built in the 13th century. There are legends as to why it leans, but no one really knows.

We found the Gingerbread Walk of Fame. It has bronze plaques shaped like ‘Katarzynka’ (Toruń gingerbread) engraved with present day famous people connected with Toruń. 

Janusz Leon Wiśniewski is a Polish scientist and writer. He wrote a book who's english translation was titled 'Loneliness on the Net'. I wonder if he is related to Julianna (and therefore me)....as he's from the same general area she was from!

Clarissa and I opted to do a gingerbread making class, while Richard and M wandered around the city. Our class was full of a couple school groups of children, which made it interesting.

Gingerbread, the famous ginger spiced cookies, hail from Toruń. They have been made here for over 700 years! It starts with honey and sugar, you add a lot of spices (in the class we had to guess the spice being passed around - which includes allspice, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper....I don't typically associate pepper with a baked good!), then your usual flour, egg, baking soda, water.

We used the original method of cookie making, of course the process is more streamlined for cookies sold in the shops. 

Here's some shots Richard got around town. 

We then all met back up and headed out to Radzanów. This is the village that Antoni was born in. Radzanów is about 47 miles (76 km) from Płonne, where Julianna was born. While 47 miles is a little over an hour drive in modern day, they lived in the time before cars were invented! Ula told us that it appears Antoni Piasecki's parents - Jan Piasecki and Julianna Różycka (or Ruzicka) moved around a lot for work. Jan's job on record was something like field laborer, so he would move the family to where the work was. 

We found the Saint Roch Parish church. The building was under construction. So while this is the Parish that Antoni's parents were married in and Antoni was baptized in, this would not be the same building (but likely the same location).  

So a fun part of the tour was when we were in a town and as we would be wandering around the church, Ula would go off and talk to the locals. She would ask if there were any families still in the area related to whoever was born in that town. In Radzanów, we were told this house was built by one of Antoni's grandparents (it's been a while since we took the trip, but I think it was the parents of his mother (Julianna Różycka) who built the house). 

We stopped at the cemetery just outside of Radzanów. We did not see any family names in the cemetery. One thing we did learn was that in Poland, once a grave is no longer being maintained the plot will be reused by someone new. So likely I do have ancestors in this cemetery, they are just underneath a raised grave that was built on top. 

A view of the landscape, likely land that Antoni's father once worked.

We then drove on to Ciechanów, where were staying for our second night. Here's where we traveled our first and second day.

Once in Ciechanów, we checked into our hotel and walked around John Paul II Square (with the town hall on one end) to find some dinner. 

We also spotted this interesting street sign ("ul." translates to street). 

After we ate, we walked over to Castle of the Dukes of Mazovia. The Duchy of Masovia was founded in 1138. From what I gather, a duchy was districts within the Kingdom of Poland. It appears like the Kingdom of Poland broke apart into duchies, reunified, broke apart again (several times), and were finally reunified for good in 1526.

Miniature statue of a Duke of Mazovia. It is estimated the castle was built in the middle of the 13th century and used as a residence in the 1420s. The information sign also said that the castle was originally built on an artificial island and was connected to the town via a 985 foot (300 meter bridge). Places like this always make me ponder.....did I have ancestors that worked or lived in this castle a 1000 years ago?!?!

The two cylindrical corner towers. The east tower served as an arsenal and the west tower served as a prison. The towers are more than 65 feet (20 meters) tall!

People perspective for size! The castle is open to tour, but it was too late in the day and it was closed.

The sky began to get beautiful behind the castle as we were leaving!

We then walked over to pedestrian street as someone had a hankering for ice cream. We also caught the most spectacular sunset while walking along the street and back to our hotel.

I'll wrap up this day with a photo of Caroline (Antoni's youngest daughter), her husband, Joe, and their two kids.