My mother was sent to New Zealand from Iran - we are trying to gather as much information as possible - we have the following information:
Gałęza Dybka Wojkrow Zyma Kremerówka Chodorów Surnames: Gałęza Dybka Wojkrow Zyma Looking for any info on these surnames. My mother (surname Dybka) has on her birth certificate Chodorów, Bóbrka which was the nearest town. From what I understand her parents (Michal Dybka & Maria Gałęza) were living in the village of Kremerówka - where my mother was born in 1935.
One of my mothers sisters married into the surname Wojkrow, another Zyma. My spelling might not be 100% perfect.
My grandfather (Michal Dybka) - well his father was Andrzej Dybka was from Przeworsk, from a village called back then Gorliczynska. Its a street name now I understand.
My grandmother (Maria Gałęza) came from a village near Jaroslaw - maybe Laesanska or Laesainska.
In the 1990 Poland census (14yrs ago now) there was only 1 GALEZA registered - The Galeza was in Bielskie region.
How did your mother end up in Iran?. Was she orignally from eastern Poland?
Many Polish citizens were taken from towns that belonged to eastern Poland prior to the start of WWII. This areas was invaded by Russia and people were taken to Siberia. Many ended up being released during an amnesty and made their way to Persia and then shipped all over the world including UK, Africa, Mexico with New Zealand offering to take some also.
Many of the towns in that area of Poland are now part of Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania etc as this land was never returned to the current day Poland. My parents were born in this region of Poland and it is very difficult to find their towns and villages. My mother was born in Hermanowice in the Wilno district. When I search for this town online it shows up as a town in today's Poland but it is not the same as pre WWII town.
Yes she was taken by train to Siberia - and ended up in Persia and arrived in New Zeland as an orphan - she was very young and details a few and hazy, hence my quest to try and find out as much as possible my child will one day want to do a family tree and it would be nice to have the answers. Sorry shouldn't have said Iran
Have a few websites but this forum won't let me post links as I'm only new and haven't done enough posts for that. Hopefully the site into below is sufficient for you to search them and bring them up
Have a look on youtube at the clips for A Forgotten Odyssey - Poland USSR WWII 5 parts - this gives you lots of background history on this topic.
I've found a bit of into on town of Bobrka at this rzecz-pospolita.com/wig0.php3 scroll down and over to the rh side.
Look up the Wirtualne Muzeum Kresy Siberia and click on english - they are still having a few teething issues with this website. They have started a rememberance wall and are collecting names and details. There are links on this site to the NZ group for Siberian refugees.
Lets see how this message is accepted. I type a whole response but lost it when I had to edit out links and website.
I can read some Polish and have a few contacts that may be able to answer questions.
A conversation I had on the weekend with a 74 year old fellow in my neighbourhood (Kazik) was taken with his mother, younger brother and sister to Russia. His father was off fighting somewhere. He told me with tears in his eyes how he watched his little sister die first, then his mother. On his voyage through to Pahlevi, Persia, his brother became sick so was taken to hospital and they were separated on different boats to Africa. He heard from someone in Africa that his brother had made it to a camp in the east somewhere of the same country but no one helped them make contact. No doubt there were many children suffering under the same circumstances, the Red Cross and authorities at the time must have been inundated with displaced and lost people and children. His father also died during WWII.
He finally made contact after 35 years with his brother living in South Africa and Kazik (Kevin) ending up in Corrigin, country Western Australia.
Stating the obvious here but it really helps if you talk to people who have experienced this first hand especially if they were old enough to remember more about their circumstances and not an orphaned child at the time. This is where the net and various associations come in handy.
There are bits and pieces of info popping up on the net everywhere about Kresy Siberia even on yahoo. It's probably a matter of using different terms of search. Try Iran and Poland Iran. I found "Iran and the Polish exodus from Russia" website. Even if you can't find specific detail on your family, sometimes reading the accounts of others provides the picture for your own family's experience.
sorry to keep posting but I found this on archives govt nz. Go to their website, click on what we have and search holdings with the words Polish refugees. It comes up with about 20 listings of archive holdings.
Polish Refugee Children 1944-1946 Over 700 Polish refugee children arrived on the US warship General Randall, 31 October 1944, with about 100 Polish adults. The children were placed in a camp at Pahiatua. Within a year or two about 500 other Poles, related to the children, arrived. A few went home after the war but most stayed in New Zealand.
Child Welfare, Army, External Affairs and Labour created records. Possible Access restrictions.
•Polish Children: index cards & files [(ACGB 8312) CW W1043 & (ACGB 8313) W1983] •Polish Children’s Camp, 161 Files 1944-1949 [(AAYS 8707) AD 91] •External Affairs [(ACIE 8798) EA 1 90/13/1-20] •Labour [(ACGV 8814) L 1 22/1/178/3-4] Naturalisation records from 1949 hold information on Polish children who became New Zealand citizens. Secondary sources may be useful, such as:
•The Invited: the story of 733 Polish children who grew up in New Zealand Krystyna Skwarko, Millwood Press, Wellington, c1974 (Lists child immigrants.) •Forsaken Journeys: the ‘Polish’ experience and identity of the ‘Pahiatua children’ in New Zealand Theresa Sawicka-Brockie (PhD thesis, University of Auckland, 1987)
Dear Slinkyhypo, How are you? I am Josefa's older sibling. Thanks for your help about Persia and New Zealand, and we appreciated the help to those records which are fairly easy to find. I do know how my mother and her sisters got to Persia ,then to New Zealand. What would we really like is the the family's history before WW11 ???? Is there, any army records showing on Dybka!!! I believe, that the land was given to my grand father "Michael Dybka" as payment for services in WW1.
They had 27 hectares, and possibly work as a Station Master, in the remote part of Eastern Poland now Ukraine. They grew Beetroot, which was then processed into sugar, and also bred Horses for selling to the army. My grandfather was on the border area of prewar WW11 Poland. Cheers
I noticed you were looking for info on Kremerowka The LDS has microfilms of the area around Chodorow. If you need the numberes of the films i can give them to you. I have family that i found in kremerowka. also i am going to be getting pictures of the church and the school that was built there.
Hello mtelega, Thank you, and yes we would be interested in what ever information you may have. Sorry I did not get back sooner, but New zealand is in a recession, and I have to look for a job!! ( if I can found one that will accept an older person) Cheers Ligia Dybka Vluggen
Kremerówka used to be placed between Żyrawa (now Zhyrova) and Chodorów (now Khodorov). Look at the two maps. I think Kremerówka is part of Żyrawa today? Not sure but it looks like it is.
Some shocking facts also places and surnames connected with military settlements after the WWI
