History / National Service (Conscription) in Poland during 1938-1968 period [3]

Merged:

Conscription in Russian Poland before Druga Rzeczpospolita (Second Polish Republic)

Cześć Wszyscy. Our dziadzia emigrated from Wiślica to the US in 1913 when he was 17. He returned only once, after WWI as a member of Haller's Army with which he remained after Cud Nad Wisłą and the end of the Polish-Bolshevik War. Wiślica is still small; prior to WWII with the local Jewish population I believe that maybe 2000 people lived in the area and unemployment was high. I read recently that at the end of the 19th century, many young men, as young as 17, emigrated from Galicia because of conscription into the Austro-Hungarian military. This Wikipedia page suggests that Russia conscripted men who were older, beginning at age 21: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_Russian_Empire

Never thought to ask our dziadek but might he have decided to emigrate to the US to avoid conscription as well as a lack of career opportunities?

Dzięki.

APB.
P.S. Wislica.org is a new site with marvelous photos taken in 1915: wislica.org/archiwum-austryjackie/

News / Polish Pope, John Paul II has been canonized today [with John 23rd] [85]

JPII was undoubtedly a very charismatic guy. I stood on the stage as a singer at the Mass that JPII said in Ottawa, during his tour of Canada back in 1984. As we were singing the recessional piece at the end of the Mass, he removed the vestments, turned toward us with a big grin and while walking toward us, waved his arms like a conductor. Soon many of the 400,000 attendees were shouting, "Vive le pape!" See attached photo of the venue at Lebreton Flats, just west of downtown.

Found another photo of JPII visiting Wiślica in 1966, the village in which our dziadek was born in 1896.

Cześć.

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Language / Grammar of traditional birthday song "Sto Lat" [13]

Serdeczne appreciate your effort. (Not a native Polish speaker.)

Language / Grammar of traditional birthday song "Sto Lat" [13]

I agree that "For (S)He's a Jolly Good Fellow" is similar in that respect, but to me that's merely a coincidence, whereas "Happy birthday to you" is obviously directed at the celebrant. I suspect that there's a grammatical rule that I don't understand about Sto Lat and "niech żyje nam." Can anyone explain? Dzięki.

Genealogy / Anyone know the name Neugewirtz? [15]

Yes, it's possible that they changed their surname upon entry to the USA, or at some point in the years after. Some of my father's Neugewirtz ancestors in the London area before WWII changed their surname to Newman, and converted to Church of England. Here's an interesting article from the USCIS that shows how good many immigration inspectors were at writing names. I was impressed to read that many inspectors spoke three languages:

uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/genealogy/genealogy-notebook/immigrant-name-changes

I can ask my father if he knows of Karol. There were several Neugewirtz families living in Czulice near Krakow before WWI, and Karol might have moved with his family to Kraków proper. Do you know how they were able to survive the Holocaust? Where did you get your information?

Language / Grammar of traditional birthday song "Sto Lat" [13]

Dzięki, Wulkan, but what's wrong with "niech żyjesz nam"?

Language / Need help spelling a Polish word (Mosiek?) [5]

I recommend Prof. Swan's online PL<->EN dictionary at the University of Pittsburgh. It's outstanding:

Several powerful search features are available even if you don't know how to spell a word correctly.

Seems that Mosiek is to Jewish men as "Paddy" is to Irish. Paddy, derived from Patrick, became a rather derisive label for male Irish immigrants in the era before equal-opportunity labor laws came into existence. For example, my dziadzia told a story of looking for a job in Chicago before WWI, and hearing that a restaurant was hiring dishwashers, went to the restaurant to apply in person. The manager, hearing Franek's accented English, chased him away, shouting, "Didn't ya see the sign in the window, polack?" The sign read, "Dishwasher wanted. No Negroes, Irish, or Polish need apply."

"Mosiek" is derived from Moshe, from Hebrew as written in English, or mojżesz. It wasn't uncommon for Jewish men to call themselves Mosiek. My mother said that more sophisticated Polish speakers referred to wyznania mojżeszowego, rather than "żydzi."

HTH.

Life / Is Poland a poor country? [578]

On a global scale, Polska is relatively wealthy, compared to, say, Eritrea, where the per-worker annual income is $640, and inflation is 14%. When I traveled to Polska and Ukraina in 2005, annual per-capita GDP in U$ was just over $8K, according to the Dept. of State. Now it's $13.6K, and inflation is 4.2%, and the GNP is expanding at about the same rate.

My friends in Warszawa observe that there are now twice as many cars as there were when Polska joined the EU in 2004. But housing is expensive, especially compared to N. America, though not surprising, given N. America's relatively low population density. I looked at a new housing tract near Lublin in 2005, and the homes were >400K pln, equivalent to about U$100K at the time. So if a couple with an annual joint income of 100K pln wanted to buy in that tract, it'd be a bit of a squeeze to cover the mortgage, especially if they had coupla kids.

When our dziadek was a farmer in the Kresy wschodnie east of Równe after WWI, they had no electricity or running water, and used oil lamps at nite. Many people who I know wouldn't camp the way that my mother's family lived. But my mother says that they never lacked for anything, and she remembers that everybody was happy until, of course, WWII started.

So, Polska isn't a poor country, and it's economy is growing even while it's population isn't.

HTH.

Andrzej in The OC.

Genealogy / Anyone know the name Neugewirtz? [15]

Hi, LadyVerney,

I wonder if we're related. My paternal grandmother was Rosina Neugewirtz, born in Czulice, which is about 18 km northeast of Kraków (or Krakau in German when Kraków was in Galicja, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to 1918), sometime in the late 1890s. She died of an aneurism in London in 1930 when my father was just a toddler.

I can ask my father because, thankfully, he's enthusiastic about genealogical information, and he has many names in his ancestral database. And the name Immerglück also sounds familiar from my discussions with my father.

If you're still looking, lemme know.

Best regards.

Andrzej in The OC.

Hi again, LadyVerney; I'll send you a private message as you're probably not following this thread any longer. I'm eager know if we're related, and my father (almost 85 years-old) would also be interested.

Andrzej in The OC, SoCal.