Genealogy / ORP Błyskawica Crew Records? [46]

Loubie666.

I have a keyring that I purchased from the museum on the ship some years ago. It is a representation of the ship in metal and looks like it could be used as a bracelet. What's your email address, I'll send you a photograph of it. Also the museum on the ship might have the item you are looking for. Can't see any bracelets in photographs I've looked through, but not many bare wrists as they served in some very cold seas! You can get in touch with the museum at :- muzeummw.pl

Regards Stefan.

Genealogy / Gonsecki / Zakrzewski - Polish Ancestry [8]

Yes - he speaks English.

I have taught myself Polish over the last 5 years so can get by quite well when I travel there now.

I can tell you that if you can't speak the language it would be a bit difficult doing something like this. My friends family was also from near Lwow with the same sort of family history so he had a smattering of Ukrainian as well. We could never have travelled there without him in my opinion. Many of the village names changed when it became Ukrainian - also that language has a different alaphabet. When you finally get to see the registers they are written in Latin and Polish!

He's in Poland - I'll send him an email and ask if its OK to pass his details on to you. This may take a few days.

Reagrds, Stefan.

Genealogy / Gonsecki / Zakrzewski - Polish Ancestry [8]

Hi Robert,

My father was from near Lwow and came to the UK in the war. He never spoke about those years and unfortunately died at the young age of 58 in 1978. I have been researching my family history for a number of years and eventually tracked down the church records from his village.

It is quite complicated - at the end of the war as you know the area around Lwow which used to be in Poland was incorporated into Russia / Ukraine. Most of the Polish families were moved out - "relocated". Whole villages were moved en masse on "transports" to the western side of Poland to land that used to be in Germany - but was made part of the new Poland. In effect the whole of Poland shifted to the left (and became smaller I think). Ukrainians were then moved in to the old Polish villages.

I always thought the church records would have been destroyed by the Russians / Ukrainians during this process. However the village church ministers jealously guarded these records and took them with them to their “new” villages. So for instance the village where my father was from was relocated to three separate villages on the Western side of the new Poland. But the same church minister administered to the three new villages – i.e. the communities stayed together. I understand this was quite a common arrangement.

Anyway after some considerable research and help from a friend in Poland we tracked down the location of the new relocated villages. We made contact with the minister and gained access to the parish birth, marriages and death registers. This way I was able to build Dads family tree (from knowing nothing) all the way back to the early 1800’s. I have visited twice to examine these registers (still jealously guarded!).

A few years back I visited the village near Lwow and found the farm where he was born – we were made very welcome and invited in for a meal by the Ukrainians that now live there (who were the same family who were “given” this house at the end of the war after the Poles were relocated.) I also found people in the village who still remember my Dads family (the original Ukrainian villagers were allowed to stay.)

In the new villages which used to be German the Polish families likewise selected their houses – the early arrivals getting the best properties! In all there were three “transports” from Dads village. These may have been trains with cattle trucks. We also found out that was certainly the case when he was deported to Siberia early in the war.

We also found long lost relatives in the new relocated villages and found out the fate of my father’s parents (my Polish grandparents - he never knew what happened to them) – they died in the mid-1950s.

I have learnt a lot about what happened in the lands around Lwow during and after the war – it is only in more recent years that much of this portion of history has started to be discussed and documented more fully.

So the records you are looking for may well now be in Poland. My friend could probably find out some information for you – he is a professional guide and does this sort of work. I could put you in touch with him if you like – send me an email.

I hope may be of some help to you.

Regards, Stefan.

Genealogy / ORP Błyskawica Crew Records? [46]

I have known of this forum for some time and have been meaning to register to pass on some information which may be useful to other users. I think now may be the right time as there are some new posts.

My father was the Stefan Paliwoda mentioned in the article in the New Poland Express the link to which can be found above.
Dad died in 1978 and never spoke much about how he arrived in the UK – we didn’t even know he was on the Błyskawica. I have found out all of this in the last ten years by some quite thorough family history research. There were a few things key to that research that may be worth mentioning here for other people interested in this topic.

The first is that all of the individual records of the crew are held in the following location and are available for a small fee (compared to the value of the information they contain). It was £30 when I secured Dads records 4-5 years ago. Those records cover his life from 1934 to 1947 when he was finally disbanded from the PRC (Polish Resettlement Corp). The records are available from:-

Ministry of Defence APC Polish Enquiries
Building 28B
RAF Northolt
West End Road
Ruislip Middlesex HA4 6NG
Tel. 0208 833 8603
Fax. 0208 833 8866.

A phone call can confirm they have the records you require and the current cost. You will have to prove by birth certificate that you are the next of kin in order to receive a copy of the records.

The icing on the cake for us was that Dad has won 5 medals that he never even claimed and they were still available for us. (I am now the proud owner of these medals).

Other good sources of reference are the book on the Błyskawica available from the museum in Gdynia which covers all of the active service of the ship from the time she was built.

Another excellent read is “Poles Apart - Polish Naval Memories of World War Two” by Hazell Martin if you can get hold of a copy.

In answer to one of the questions posted – I think there is a crew association and it meets periodically in Gdynia – some of the last surviving WW2 crew members have attended this in the past. The ship museum in Gdynia may have some details of this and when it may next meet.

I have taught myself how to speak some passable Polish (that was difficult!) and now visit that beautiful country as often as I can. I found all of my research fascinating and it eventually resulted in the journey of a lifetime all the way to the farm outside of Lwow (now in the Ukraine) where Dad was born.

I wish you all the very best of luck with your research – I’ll pop back here from time to time to catch up.

Kind Regards, Stefan.

PS Thanks for everything Dad and RIP.