Genealogy / Wladyslaw Mikolajczyk, Polish Communists 1938 [3]

Hi Polonius,

Thank you very much for the link which throws up a number of areas for speculation.
The two Mikolajczyks mention in the list, Kornelia and Ludwik were my Grandparents and parents to Wladyslaw. I was told that my Grandfather was one of the founder members of the Polish Communist Party.

The fact that there was a Franciszek and a Wadyslaw in the family is worth checking out, even though the surname appears to be Mikolajewski.

As I mentioned, Wladyslaw appeared to be the black sheep of the family, and maybe travelled to Russia and joined the Communist Party there under an assumed name or a Russified version of his Polish name - Wladyslaw son of Ludwik.

One other family connection, is Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, 1901-1966, who was Prime Minister of the Polish Republic in Exile 1943-44. and later Deputy Prime Minister in Poland. Apparently he fell out with the communists in 1947 and escaped to America. Stanislaw was Kornelia's cousin. Stanislaw was a member of the Polish People's Party.

Regards,

Richard.

Just checked out the family roots and confirmed that Ludwik and Kornelia Mikolajczyk had three sons, the eldest being Franciszek, the second being Wladyslaw and the youngest being Jerzy. This would seem to fit in with the two named members below Ludwik Mikolajczyk in the membership list.

Richard.

UK, Ireland / Help Renouncing UK Citizenship and gaining Polish one [24]


Hi,

You wrote about giving up Polish Citizenship 'God knows why'.

Two possible reasons, my father, an ex-army officer became naturalised British in 1967 and gave up his Polish nationality so that he could visit his relatives in Poland. Without renouncing his Polish nationality he would have been imprisoned by the Communists.

I was born in Britain and had dual nationality. I gave up my Polish nationality in 1969 so that I could visit Poland. If I hadn't, I could have been called up for two years National Service when I arrived in Poland.

Richard.

Genealogy / Bruchnal and Drohobycz [3]

Thanks,

I'll check out that web site.

Richard.

Hi,

From the Gazeteer on the site you mentioned, I have found out that Bruchnal is part of the Jaworow parish and is 8 kilometers south-east of Jaworow (which is halfway between Jaroslaw and Lwow. Jaworow is now called Yavoriv and is in the Ukraine, while Bruchnal is now called Ternovytsya.

On the 1908 map of Eastern Hungary and Galicia, I found Drohobycz, south-west of Przemysl. It is now known as Drohobych and is in the Ukraine.

Thanks for your help.

Richard.

Genealogy / The surname HESS [10]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies and the explanation.

Checking through the records again, I have found that between 1802 and 1813 the name Esowicz is used, while between 1818 and 1861 the name Hess is used. As there is no overlap of names, for the moment I will go with the theory that around 1815, the usage changed from Esowicz to hess.

Checking the two cemeteries in the family village, which have burials from about 1830 to the present day, I have found 18 members of the Hess family but there are no graves with the name Esowicz.

Richard.

Genealogy / The surname HESS [10]

Hi,

The family name is Wasiewicz and one of the biggest concentrations of this name is in the Przemysl area were my family came from.

I believe in Poland, Wasiewicz means son of Wieslaw or Waclaw.

Richard.

Genealogy / Getting records from Poland (are records of Poles moved from churches to the archives)? [21]

Hi, This is a summary of my own search at a small town/village in South East Poland.

I visited and found the local council office held birth, marriage and death records from 1890. They would look up a specific record and read it out to you but would not let you take a photo of the record. They would supply an official copy for about 120 Zl.They would not let you brouse through the records.

A fellow researcher suggested I try the Parish Church for the ' Spiz Parafialny' which was the church equivalent to today's elector's list but had additional information. The Parish Priest told me that the Communists had removed the records and they were lost. Subsequently a relative in the village told me that her mother ( the local school teacher) had perused the records recently and that they were still housed at the Priest's House. he had lied about their availability on instructions from the Bishop.

The Archives in Przemysl held B,M,D records for the town from 1784 to 1861. They were very helpful and would have made the records available but their opening hours were somewhat limited and I ran out of time.

Subsequently I found that the LDS (Mormons) had photographed the records. They are not online, but I was able to order the records on two rolls of microfilm. The cost was 16 dollars and I had them sent to the nearest Family Research Centre (which was attached to the Mormon Temple near where I live). I was able to view them there over a period of ninety days.

I went to the following site: familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

I clicked on Library Catalogue in the Library tag and then clicked on place search. Entering the name of the town I was searching for gave me a list of the records they hold on that place. I then ordered the recordes I wanted. It took them about three weeks to send the films from Salt Lake City, USA to France.

The gap between 1861 and 1890 is covered by information from the 'Spiz Parafialny'.

One complication is that the details I was looking for at the Council Offices could also be in either the Roman Catholic books or the Greek Orthodox books ( in fact the council had GO records from 1880 rather than the 1890 for RC records.

Richard.

Genealogy / Getting records from Poland (are records of Poles moved from churches to the archives)? [21]

Hi Steve.

I've sent you the details in a private message.

Richard.

Genealogy / Decipher a Polish name please: ONUFISC or ORUFRISC ? Czyzyk surname [16]

Thanks everybody,

I think the suggestion of Onuphrius is the correct one. Not a name I have come across but Wikipedia explains it's a saint's name used by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches. The record comes from Bircza, near Przemysl, an area where the eastern catholic church was strong.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onuphrius

Sorry Isthatu2, I can assure you the record is of Polish names (words) written in Latin not Cyrylic.

So the name could be Onuphrius Czyzyk. I wonder what that name would be in Poland today.

Thanks.

Richard.

Genealogy / Decipher a Polish name please: ONUFISC or ORUFRISC ? Czyzyk surname [16]

Thanks Zazulka and Isthatu2,

You learn something new everyday, certainly a name I have never come across before, but I see it gets plenty of hits on Google.

isthatu2 - I know what you mean. Apparently the villages in that part of Poland all seemed to have a Roman Catholic church for the Polish members of the village and then an Eastern Catholic or Greek Orthodox Church for the Ukranian members of the village.

I have found a few family lines that are split between the differant sets of church records.

Richard.

Genealogy / Decipher a Polish name please: ONUFISC or ORUFRISC ? Czyzyk surname [16]

Thanks, Polonius.

On further study of the birth records, I have come across a number of names that are new to me. I presume they are in Latin. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cajcharus
Cajitany
Jojajczyk?
Feitko

Not sure whether I am mis-reading the hand written names above or whether they are names I have never come across.

The following crop up regularly. I don't know whether there are modern equivalents.

Cunnegunda
Gasparus
Theela
Pelagia
Apolonia

Thanks, Richard.

Genealogy / Decipher a Polish name please: ONUFISC or ORUFRISC ? Czyzyk surname [16]

Thanks Boletus for the speedy and very informative reply. This has helped to clear up quite a few grey areas I had.

I've just re-checked the photos of the records, as follows:

Feitko - big blob of ink but it looks like Fedko rather than Feitko so could well be your suggestion of Fredko or Ferdinand.

Jojajczyk - Taking another look at this, It suddenly hit me that the name is Josephus. They used a f for the first s and the jc is actually p.

Jofephus written long hand looks like Jojajczk - believe me.

While re-checking those, I came across Paraisba or Para_ska as a female name. Any suggestions.

Thanks Richard.

Genealogy / Decipher a Polish name please: ONUFISC or ORUFRISC ? Czyzyk surname [16]

Thanks once again Boletus.

I have two parallel records, one for Feitko (Fedko) Fedun married to Marianna in 1818 at house No 5 in the village, and then Theodore (Teodor in Polish) Fedun married to Maria who died in 1831 at house No 5 in the village. It looks like these could be the same people and Fedko could be a diminutive form of Teodor.

I came across this web site which has proved useful.

polandpoland.com/common_polish_names.html

I'll incorporate the information you supplied and update my records. Thanks, Richard.

Genealogy / Locating my relatives while visiting Poland (first generation Polish-American) [4]

Hi travelling to Poland to meet relatives you have kept in touch with doesn't appear to be a problem. On the other hand unearthing new relatives and going to meet them seems to pose some problems. My own efforts to do this have sometimes been blocked by a reluctance for the people to divulge too much information.

Possibly they fear that relatives returning from places like America (emigrated 1900's) or Isreal (wartime escapees and post war emigration) might start asking what happened to their family's property and start wanting to claim it back. When I returned to the family home village, I found three strands of the family, but my own seems to have been erased from the records, and none of the 'distant' relatives remaining would admit to knowing our side ever existed let alone how they were connected to the present day survivors.

Genealogy / Searching for a village in Southern Poland (Baddi?) [11]

Harry, you are right. I should have said the area belonged to Czechoslovakia, became part of Hungary and now is part of Slovakia. So I was looking in the wrong part of Southern Poland.

Genealogy / Searching for a village in Southern Poland (Baddi?) [11]

Polonius, the name of the village came via a friend in New Zealand, so I have no doubt that the name I have of Baddi, could be a long way from the original pronunciation of the name.

Genealogy / Searching for a village in Southern Poland (Baddi?) [11]

Sorry I didn't make it clear. The person I am interested in was born in 'Baddi' but I gather that afterwards, the family settled in that part of Czechoslovakia that changed hands. In the absence of any more precise information I am working on the principle that in those days few people travelled great distances so I am hoping the two locations wouldn't be too far apart.

Genealogy / Searching for a village in Southern Poland (Baddi?) [11]

Thanks Polonius, Bajdy near the Slovak border sounds like a good bet to start with.