Like many people, I was not interested in my roots when I was a teenager. I always knew my family was from Poland and that my grandfather came to the US when he was three years old, but I never probed for more information. He had many brothers and sisters, but I never really got to know them well and of course, I was not interested in hearing about our roots while they were all still alive.
My exploration of my roots began about 10 years ago, when I did an internet search of my surname KOLAVIC and found only a few results. My grandfather always said that our name had a K at the end, but googling Kolavick was even less fruitful. Since my grandfather had already passed away, I wrote to his youngest sister Dutchie for help. What she told me was a complete surprise – the original spelling of our name was KULAWIAK – but she did not know the reason for the change. We discussed several possibilities and finally I decided that if someone had sloppy penmanship and scribbled the name very quickly, the spelling might indeed look like Kolavick. This is probably not the true reason, but it sounded good to me!
For 10 years I put away my family history research. Last fall, I finally went back to my genealogy efforts and asked Dutchie to work with me. Dutchie was the last surviving child of Polish immigrant parents, and unlike her oldest siblings, she was born in the US. At 88-years old, she was sharp as a tack and remembered lots of stories from her mother and older sisters.
Dutchie and I became long-distance research buddies. Although I did most of the physical research, she was an invaluable source of family memories and my biggest cheerleader. We also pulled in my cousin Sissy, the daughter of Dutchie’s oldest sister Stella. Stella was the matriarch of our family and the unofficial keeper of the family history. I don’t know why, but I always assumed that Aunt Stella had collected and preserved our family history. I soon found out that I was probably the first in our family to research our roots. Now that I knew I was starting from scratch, I decided that I would travel to Poland and find our ancestral village – this sent my work into overdrive because I wanted to collect as much info as possible before I departed on my journey.
Next part soon…
Shellie
Shellie,
My father ( Jan Piekelnik )came over from Piekelnik before WW 1 and served here in the Army. My mother came over after the war apparently in 1920,( I believe) She came from Lipnica Weilka and they were married in Cleveland, Ohio in 1922. Both have passed and I am trying to connect with andyone over there that might be related. I too wanted to go over as a younger person but Mom died in 1933 and left Dad with 5 little ones and money as you know was tight so it was just a dream and still is. Would love to hear from you and maybe meet somewhere. There are also others that are looking for relatives in the same area. Dad americaized his name so if looking for him– John G. Pekelnicky here.
Julia, Thanks for the nice message. I would love to talk with you further. Have you visited the village page I created for Piekielnik?
The village page is located here:
http://forum.polishorigins.com/viewtopic.php?t=383
Hi Shellie,
My name is Ewa Gal, I’m not from Odrowaz, I’ve been there a couple of times visiting my mother-in-law. I found your site by accident and got sooooooo exited that I even called my father-in-law (in the middle of the night) to ask him about all those people that you’ve mentioned in your posts. Most of the last names are very familiar to me because we have friends with those last names. Honestly he does not think you’re related because Gal is a very popular last name there, but he promised to call his elder mother in Poland and ask her. Let me tell you what I know about my husband’s family which I hope will help you in some way. My husband’s name is Stanislaw Gal he was born in 1979 in Odrowaz, he’s one of 5 children of Jozef and Bronislawa (Kulawiak) Gal. He was born in Odrowaz but lived in a nearby village Zary, which now is part of Odrowaz Pdh. His grand parents names are (father side)Jozef and Maria (Zachemska) Gal, (mother side)Jan (my husband does not know his 1st wifes name) and Stefania Kulawiak. If you find this information helpful in your search let me know, send me an email and I would be more than happy to help you out in any way I can. If you think you have any info related to my husband’s family I would appreciate it as well. Thanks and good luck
Hi Ewa,
Thank you for contacting me. It has been my greatest wish to be contacted by someone with direct ties to Odrowaz! You have made my wish come true. You have both Kulawiak and Gal surnames in your family! I would like to talk with you some more – I tried to find you in the member list, but I don’t know your user name! Please leave me a private message with your email address (not here, I want you to keep your contact info private). I have much to tell you and much to ask you. Best Regards,
Shellie