Vintage Photos of Polish ancestors

On duty with the reserves in 1934.

• 
  1934.jpg
  

Primary school in Boryslaw around 1926.

• 
  Boryslaw.jpg
  

Little boy in white sitting down in front is my grand-father. I worked it out to be 1903 +/- a year.

Iniewicz (last name)
my last name is Dziubczynski

will it ...work ...

• 
  Iniewicz.jpg
  

Very nice. I think this thread will turn into a showpiece eventually with people
sharing photos and even a finding aide tool for names/surnames..

Keep emm coming :)

interesting :) ...

From left to right - my father's maternal grandmother and paternal grandmother

• 
  scan0002.jpg
  

The above picture was taken in Calumet City, IL around 1940, but both of my great-grandmothers were born in Poland (then Galicia, Austria).

Very nice Koach.

keep emm coming. :)

This is another of my father's paternal grandmother. She's standing next to her nephew's plane at the airstrip in Joliet, IL.

That's all I seem to have. I wish I had pictures of my father's grandfathers. We used to have pictures of his paternal grandfather from his wake. It was held at the family's house in Joliet. He had a striking resemblence to Joseph Stalin.

• 
  scan.jpg
  

This is a photo of my great-grandparents on their wedding day in the early 1900's. They both emigrated separely from Poland. My great-grandmother came to the states through Austria and so she was registered as Austrian. My grandfather used to tell how people would tease her about being Austrian because it would get her all riled up and get her to start insisting she was Polish.

• 
  197595186_f991595e14.jpg
  

Very Nice Irishy :) I have a few that look like this, this pic is from about 1906 -1909?
Am I close?

I have one similar, and the date is about 1908..

Yes you are close. My great-grandparents were married sometime between when Aneila arrived in the US in 1911 and 1914 when my grandfather was born. I can't recall the exact date and I am peeking at the forum from work (shhh) so can't look up the exact year.

Theres a lot of Poles some other Eastern European immigrants who arrived in America in the 1840's in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.

Just to let you know.

This is my uncle who died in 1971 in canada

• 
  Tony
  

he looks like a very handsome fella.. did u get to meet him?
that was the downside in my family, so many gone long before I was thought
of :(

Sadly no I never met him I was just under 1 when he died:0(my older brother was very close to him though. yes he was gorgeous so was my mother and her mother and father must be the polish genes eh. my brother David has 3 sons the middle one who is now 26 just looks like Tony:0)

my grandfather and his brothers taken in poland in the 1920s.

my grandfather and his brothers taken in poland in the 1920s

• 
  mumsdad.jpg
  

same thing happened in my family.. all my grandparents died and only one was alive
2 years of my life. so I barely remember,, I only remember the funeral when My
mom was crying alot, and I didnt want her to cry.

all we have is pictures..

awww i know the feeling, my polish gran died when i was 16 so i do have some lovely memories to go with the pictures too. I'm sure your mum could or has built up a lovely picture from her own memories of them for you? :0)

I have the pictures of our family.. not my mom anymore :(

she passed in 2002 of cancer..

She did some photo work ( putting names on pictures ( old pics) etc ).. and
Now I have the whole bag of the albums and loose pictures.. some I have put on
CDS to share with family because they dont have what I have as I dont have theirs
so its a sharing family thing :)))

I'm so sorry to hear that hun but do sort of know how you feel I lost my dad to lung cancer on 27/09/02 not nice eh xxx.

Think that was really lovely of your mum to do that for her children god bless her x.

I have a wonderful picture of my great grandfather Michael Nestor and great grandmother Pauline Cywinski from 1909. They married here in the US soon after immigrating. They were both from a village called Rohatyn in Eastern Galicia. They were both tailors by trade. Michael died in a coal mine disaster in 1919 in Wilkes Barre PA. He was a very handsome man, and very proper. Pauline and Michael owned their own house (within 10 years of coming to he US). She became a housekeeper after his death and took in WWI boarders. She was very proper too...proud of her Polish heritage. When she learned that my father was marrying an Irish/English woman (my mother), she threw a hissy fit because he was marrying outside of his ethnic group.

Just came back from a trip to Poland, had a great time lost two days at a weding and hooked up with pleanty of relatives I'd not met before.

One aunt pulled out a box full of photo's and proceded to show them to me explaining to me who the particular relative was. It was all quite macarbe, because all the pics I was being shown were of aunts, uncles, cousins and indeed one of my Gran dead, lying in the coffin rosery beads entwined in her finger's.

All the time I was thinking please show me a picture of someone in a happy pose saying cheese for the camera. What can you say though...."Oh yes now thats a good one of uncle Piotr, he looks realy well there. How did he die?"

This happend on several occations with a few different people, and they all had the same photo's. I couldn't build a conversation arround those images, it's as though there was only one person who had a camera and he only went to funerals.

Bizzare quite bizzare.

Got some good ones of my own though :0)

this was not unusual, because I think it was encouraged to stick within their own
but after certain time periods, it was just accepted. there was nothing anyone could
do. I heard same stories.


as akward as it sounds, people do ask.. health information is a asset to the family
because so many things are genetic , and i have asked-without sour looks they tell
me and I offer any new info to them, because its a form of preventative medicine..

it doesnt hurt anyone to be informed and knowlegable of family health issues. and
if you can get info further back , then hang onto it, because its vital and might help
in your care if its a direct family member or close sibling.


I suppose at a certain stage in our lives we realize how distant all of our families
have become, and hope one twinkle in the eye, spark of interest for pictures and
family knowledge might be the person you send all of your history to.

so maybe your aunt was looking for that spark , that you might have yawned thru
or just didnt look interested in.. so many of us have done it, I regret that I didnt
start sooner. because all my family is almost gone, except for one aunt/uncle who
seemed to surpass everyone.. I dread that call.. I hope it takes quite a few more
years truthfully.

I wish My parents were here to share all the found memories/interesting facts
and new relatives that I have found over the last 4 years of doing this. :)

I think we all should take a little bit more time to listen and understand :)

Met a elder cousin on this trip who at first meeting I warmed to...She was definately the rebel in the family.

I was at that time back in the Lemko village of Bodaki where my mother came from.She eventualy explained that she had literaly been blanked by her father for marrying a Polish man. She left the family home with nothing but made good, now she has her own home and family in a nearby town, and sadly regrets the rift with her father was never repaired before her father died. Now she just visits the village and family from time to time.

My mother married a polish man, I wonder weather that had been a major factor why she never returned to her homeland.......

This is a picture of my great grand uncle (brother of my great grandfather Waclaw Ejsmont). I believe this picture to be from WWI. I believe him to be in a Polish uniform, but I've heard possibly a Russian or German uniform? Anyone think differently? I'm fascinated by this man and would love to hear other opinions.

UPDATE: For some reason the pic wouldn't upload.. :( Nevermind.....

mine have done it too. dont feel bad, I am surprised that my dads made it up on
the independence day thread.. eventually I hope that his pic ends up back in this
thread where it belongs.. :))))

What is your uncle Frank's last name? Where was this taken? I'm from Michigan. What city in Michigan was this taken? What is your uncle's last name?

I'm from Michigan....it looks strikingly familiar.

great photos...can you post more?