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Posts by Oberschlesien  

Joined: 6 Sep 2012 / Male ♂
Last Post: 31 Dec 2013
Threads: 1
Posts: 25
From: USA, Texas
Speaks Polish?: No
Interests: Silesian History

Displayed posts: 26
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Oberschlesien   
31 Dec 2013
Genealogy / German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde) [18]

Beate Schlesien: Last year I was exchanging emails with this lady originally from Zebowice / Zembowitz, who was related to the Warzecha family from Biestrzynnik, she now lives in Germany. She was able to find out from the German Red Cross that Josef Warzecha was killed in Katowice / Kattowitz on January 25, 1945 when he was 17 years old. I guess he was drafted into the Wehrmacht at the last minute before the Russians invaded Upper Silesia. I have been able to find his birth record, his father was Paul Warzecha and his mother was Agnes Lipp and he was born on March 11, 1927. I still don't know what his rank was, but I guess he was probably a private, since he was so young. If you want to see if anybody in Biestrzynnik remembers him or has any other facts or pictures of Josef Warzecha, it would be nice.

Josef Warzecha birth record
Oberschlesien   
24 Dec 2013
Genealogy / German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde) [18]

My great, great, great grandfather Johann Warzecha's (born 1826) father was named Matheus Warzecha (born 1799) and his parents were Johann Warzecha and Marianna Widera. On Johann Warzecha birth record his father's first name was spelled Matheus, but on Matheus Warzecha's birth record it has it spelled as Mathaus on one side and Matusz on the other.

Matheus Warzecha birth record
Johann Warzecha birth record
Oberschlesien   
23 Dec 2013
Genealogy / German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde) [18]

Beate Schlesien: Thank You for the beautiful pictures of the Warzecha family from Biestrzynnik. Do you know what kind of uniform Stefan Warzecha is wearing in the last picture? Those pictures are so good maybe you would like to submit them to this website, that has pictures of Silesia. fototekaslaska.pl

You can find most of my research on the Warzecha family from Biestrzynnik on the website Find A Grave. findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GSmcid=47777319&

There is supposed to be at least one Warzecha that still lives in Biestrzynnik named Werner Warzecha, he has a paint and body shop.


  • Werner Warzecha paint and body shop in Biestrzynnik
Oberschlesien   
23 Dec 2013
Genealogy / German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde) [18]

Hi Beate Schlesien: It is good hearing from you, yes we might be related. I can't speak German or Polish, only English. I don't have any pictures of my Johann Warzecha (born 1826) but I have a picture of one of his sons, August Warzecha and family. August Warzecha was my great, great Grandfather. I would be happy to see any pictures you have of the Warzecha family from Biestrzynnik.


  • August Warzecha and Family
Oberschlesien   
17 Apr 2013
Genealogy / Are Silesians people German/Germanic? [178]

These articles explain about the German Silesians.
iz.poznan.pl/news/452_Silesia.pdf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_minority_in_Poland
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Minority_(political_party)
users.ox.ac.uk/~oaces/conference/papers/Michael_Fleming.pdf
brendankarch.com/research/dissertation.pdf
Oberschlesien   
14 Mar 2013
Genealogy / Help finding Lesser Poland village, Kasinka Mala, in Limanowa county / WÄ…growiec [4]

Merged: Information on the village of Lechlin, near Wagrowiec (Wongrowitz)

Does anybody have information on the village of Lechlin near Wagrowiec (Wongrowitz)? My great great grandmother was from this village, her maiden name was Kaminski or Kamienski and her mother's maiden name was Lukaszewicz (spelled Lukasawitz) on an American record. Are the people that live in this village today, mostly descended from the people that lived there in the 1870's, or did the original inhabitants get expelled after WW2, and the village is now inhabited by settlers from other Polish regions? Also would the original inhabitants have been considered Polish or Volksdeutsch by the Germans during WW2, and would they have served in the German Wehrmacht?

Old Postcard Of The Parish Church In Lechlin

Old Postcard Of The Parish Church In Lechlin
Oberschlesien   
13 Oct 2012
History / Polish conscripts to German army [132]

This is a website about Poles that served in the German Wehrmacht.
wehrmacht-polacy.pl
Oberschlesien   
17 Sep 2012
Life / Polish-American Polka Music in Poland [60]

Hills of Shiner Polka by: The Czechaholics
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xfy8AVO9ouU

Haymaking Waltz by: The Dancehall Boys
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9ZhLjgI8zrg

can we see some discussion, please.
Oberschlesien   
15 Sep 2012
Genealogy / Warzecha [3]

Merged: What was Generaladmiral Walter Warzecha's ancestral village in Silesia?

Does anyone here know what was the home village of the German Generaladmiral Walter Warzecha's father Max Warzecha in Silesia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Warzecha



Oberschlesien   
14 Sep 2012
Travel / Monuments, statues, memorials of Poland [25]

pawian: Thanks for the pictures of the monument with Stalin's name removed, it makes me feel better. I used to feel that it was some kind of vendetta against the people of Szczedrzyk. Here is a website with other monuments dedicated to the German soldiers from Upper Silesia.

lechnijakowski.com/mniejszoscinarodowe/pomniki_foto.html
Oberschlesien   
14 Sep 2012
Life / Polish-American Polka Music in Poland [60]

[Moved from]: Polka and Waltz Music

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HCbgTD8rGN0

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5ab3uztaqPg
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=efwR-zSeCA4
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DFiqytHO4hw

Red Wine Polka by The Dujka Brothers
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9Id1aOq4kxU

Band from Radawie (Radau) near Zebowice (Zembowitz) in Upper Silesia.
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FZkIcQc1ToA

Black Gypsy Waltz by: The Dujka Brothers
youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eXYBbIoOxkA
Oberschlesien   
14 Sep 2012
Travel / Monuments, statues, memorials of Poland [25]

This is the German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Szczedrzyk (Sczedrzik-Hitlersee). It was the center of a controversy when it was being cleaned and the name of the village from the Third Reich era "Hitlersee" became visible. The newspapers were saying that Szczedrzyk was full of Nazis, so they were made to carve out the name "Hitlersee" from the monument forever. It was in this village that my ancestor Johann Warzecha, born in the nearby village of Biestrzynnik was baptized in 1826.









Oberschlesien   
14 Sep 2012
Travel / Monuments, statues, memorials of Poland [25]

This is the German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde). Josef Warzecha, Paul Mehlan, and August Mehlan were distant relatives of mine. The names listed under Ermorde 1945 were civilians that were murdered by the Soviet Red Army when they invaded the village near the end of World War II.







Oberschlesien   
13 Sep 2012
Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Ziemowit: The older people in Panna Maria can usually still speak Polish. When I went to the visitor center in Panna Maria about 8 years ago, there was two older women working there and they started trying to speak Polish to me, but I only could speak English, so they talked to me in English also. I would not be able to tell if they spoke Polish good or not.

The first settlers came from around the village of Wielka Pluznica near Toszek or Gross Pluschnitz bei Tost. That was the home village of father Leopold Moczygemba, who first came to Texas to minister to the German immigrants in Texas in 1852, then he saw how the German settlers were prospering in Texas, so he wrote to his brothers back in Pluznica to come to America also. They passed the letter around the area and got a group of Immigrants together and left in the fall of 1854. So the first group was from Pluznica and the surrounding villages. One of the letters that is studied the most was from Johan Moczygemba from Pluznica.

My Ancestors Johann Warzecha and Margareth Kuczka were from Biestrzynnik and went to church in Szczedrzyk, and they came to Texas in the spring of 1855.

There is two books on the Silesian immigrants called Silesian Profiles and Silesian Profiles 2. Johann Warzecha and Margareth Kuczka were in Silesian Profiles 2. His brother in law Johann Kuczka was in the first book Silesian Profiles.There is a map of the villages in Upper Silesia that the immigrants came from on the website. silesiantexans.com/maps.htm It is the second map, the first map is one of where the Silesians settled in Texas.
Oberschlesien   
13 Sep 2012
Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Funky Sanoan, the Silesians of Panna Maria, pretty much stayed to themselves. If you read some of the books about Panna Maria by T.Lindsay Baker, they say that there was a family of German Catholics that lived in Panna Maria and had a store there, and they all learned to speak Polish. They also tell about how the American cowboys after the Civil War would ride into the village and shoot up the place and ride their horses into the church. They did this because the Silesians were suspected of having Unionist sympathies during the Civil War. Some of the Silesians would change sides if captured by the Union forces, because they did not own slaves and had no real loyalty for the Confederacy. After all they thought they were coming to the United States, not the Confederate States, only a few years before the war.

I got my email contact in Germany, who grew up in Upper Silesia, to read the old letter from Johan Moczygemba and she said that it was about 90 percent like the modern Silesian language she spoke at home growing up. She was taught standard Polish in school and had to learn standard German when her family moved to Germany in the late 1970's.

I went to Serbin once to look around, but the museum was closed on the day I was there, so I just explored the cemetery and looked at Jan Kilians cabin.
Oberschlesien   
12 Sep 2012
Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Polonius3, yes my ancestors originally went to Panna Maria in 1855, they were in the second group of colonists to Panna Maria, but they moved to Yorktown, Texas by 1862. Johann Warzecha was a sergeant in the confederate army, and survived the Civil War, but died in 1869 at the age of 43. He was digging a water well on his farm and suffocated after hitting a shallow pocket of natural gas.
Oberschlesien   
12 Sep 2012
Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Slavicaleks, the name sounds Czech or Bohemian, but what the person considered themselves, is about the only way to tell if they were German or Czech. They were technically a citizen of Austria, but could have been ethnically Czech. There was the German admiral Walter Warzecha who had a Slavic or Polish surname, but was completely Germanized and was considered a German.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Warzecha
Oberschlesien   
12 Sep 2012
Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Lyzko, I consider English my mother tongue, because I was born in America. My ancestor Johann (Jan, John) Warzecha and Margareth (Malgorzata, Margaret) Kuczka came to Texas in 1855, from the village of Biestrzynnik, which was spelled Biestrzinnik back in old Prussia, and Imperial Germany. The name of the village was given the real German name Ringwalde in 1932. My father was half Silesian and half Irish and Scotch/Irish. My mother was all German, but her father was low-German speaking and her mother was High-German speaking from South Bohemia near Honetschlag (Hodnov), then in Austria, now in Czech Republic. My parents only spoke English and I only know a little of the German, Polish, and Silesian languages.

I email this woman in Germany who was born in Upper Silesia and then moved to Germany when she was 13, and she is a distant relative of mine and tells me about Upper Silesia and what happened to my family, since my ancestors left in 1855.

There is a German War memorial in Biestrzynnik with the names of at least three distant relatives of mine on it, Josef Warzecha, Paul Mehlan, and August Mehlan. I would like to know more about Josef Warzecha's service in the German Wehrmacht, like which branch of service he was in, and what was his rank, and where he was killed.







Oberschlesien   
12 Sep 2012
Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

I found a couple of Wikipedia articles that explain the Silesian dialect.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlesisch_(polnischer_Dialekt)
And also the less Germanized version spoken in Texas, by immigrants that left in the 1850's, before Bismarck's intense Germanization policies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Silesian
Oberschlesien   
12 Sep 2012
Genealogy / What does Germanised mean? [29]

Your ancestors probably meant that they were Germanized, but taking the language or culture of Germany. The German minority in Poland today is mainly located in the rural villages near Opole (Oppeln). Most of these people have Polish surnames and are Catholic, but speak the Upper Silesian dialect known as Wasserpolnish (Water Polish), which is an archaic dialect of Polish that has many German words added during the time Upper Silesia was in Germany.
Oberschlesien   
8 Sep 2012
Genealogy / German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde) [18]

Thank you boletus, for the reply. You are correct, I am the person who put that memorial on Find-A-Grave.

This is a picture of the names on the German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik. Josef Warzecha, Paul Mehlan, and August Mehlan were distant relatives of mine.


  • The German war memorial in Biestrzynnik.
Oberschlesien   
7 Sep 2012
Genealogy / German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik (Biestrzinnik-Ringwalde) [18]

Does anybody here have information on the Josef Warzecha, who is listed on the German war memorial in the Upper Silesian village of Biestrzynnik. During Prussian times the name of the village was spelled Biestrzinnik, and in 1932 the village was given the new German name of Ringwalde, because the village is ringed or surrounded by forests. I would like to know what Josef Warzecha's rank was and in which branch of the German Wehrmacht he served, and where he was killed.

My ancestor Johann (Jan, John) Warzecha was born in Biestrzynnik in 1826 and was baptized in the parish church in the nearby village of Szczedrzyk, which was spelled Sczedrzik in Prussian times, and given the new German name of Hitlersee (Hitler's lake) during the Third Reich. Johann Warzecha married Margareth (Malgorzata, Margaret) Kuczka and they had two children while living in Biestrzynnik, the first was named Josef Warzecha born in 1850 and the second was Ludwig Warzecha born in 1853.

The whole family came to America in 1855, but little Ludwig Warzecha died on the ship coming to America and he was buried at sea. The Warzecha family first settled in Panna Maria, but later moved to Yorktown, Texas. Johann Warzecha served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War reaching the rank of sergeant. Johann and Margareth Warzecha had four more children here in Texas, Constantina born in 1856, August born in 1859, Maria born in 1862, and Stanislaus born in 1868.

Johann Warzecha died at the age of 43 years, while he was digging a water well on his farm near Yorktown, Texas probably suffocating after hitting a shallow pocket of natural gas.

If anybody here knows about the Josef Warzecha listed on the German war memorial in Biestrzynnik, please let me know. Thanks!