Kowalczyk is an extremely popular surname in Poland.
As for Marusarz and Zakopane - Jan, Stanisław and Helena represented Poland in winter sports before the war. They were also couriers because of their excellent skiing skills. Helena was killed after being captured by Germans. You can read about them online.
It's hard to say if you're related.
There are over 5000 Reszkas in Poland according to moikrewni.pl. but only 36 Klosseks - six of them live in Katowice - there's even a bakery (piekarnia) run by a Klossek family in Katowice.
Hello! I realize this might be a long shot, but I'm looking for information on my great-grandfather, Jan Zmuda Gal. My grandmother doesn't remember much about him anymore, but over the years some family members and I were able to piece together some info. Here it goes.
He was born in the early 1900s, we think in Odrowaz. His mother was named Magdalena, and he had a sister named Mariana. We believe the two women ended up in the United States in the 1920s. My grandma recalls (this with a pinch of salt because she really doesn't remember much, she's 79) that they were traveling together and at some point, got separated and he ended up in Buenos Aires with a group of male friends. I looked in the cemla database and found a few Jan Zmudas, but the only one recorded as being born in Odrowaz came in a ship called Guglielmo Peirce, on May 21, 1926. This person was 26 at the time, so it also fits the timeline we have. According to the migration records, this person was married but I could find no records of his wife. I have theorized that it was an error. I have requested the records to the Argentinian migration office, but I'm still waiting on the results.
This is what we know for sure though. He worked in Buenos Aires as a constructor for a few years before he came to Paraguay, to work in a town called Villeta. This might have been around mid-1930s. There, he met my great-grandmother, Juana. She was around 17 when they got married, in 1936-37. Their first daughter, Francisca, was born October 04, 1938. Another son, named Juan Regis (b. May 24, 1940), my grandmother Pelucia (b. April 07, 1942), another son and daughter but I can't access their info right now. I might update this when I have that. My great-gradma died a few years ago and she remembered even less about her husband's origins.
What my grandma recalls is that he spoke very little Spanish. He mostly talked with other Polish immigrants, and he absolutely hated it when his family talked Guaraní (an official language in Paraguay, spoken mostly colloquially). The marriage broke up in the late 1950s, and he died around 1966. My grandma was in her 20s.
Any info you might have that could help me track down my ancestor would be very helpful!
My Great Grandfathers name was Michal Gall . He immigrated to America in the Late 19th Century, with his wife, the settled in East Chicago Indiana. They had 8 Children, one being my Grandmother. Michal died n 1919
But the family remained in the same area, my father was the grandson of Michal and Magdalena Gall. I have their complete family history.
