Wanderlust: Polska 2014. Part 3: Sońsk and Ciemniewko.

April 23, 2014

Last breakfast at the Warsaw Hilton included fresh herring with sour cream. The best I have ever had, and a delicious cup of coffee from that divine coffee machine. All the staff pronounces Dunn as Dune. It’s cute and sounds Irish.

Magda Smolka was promptly there at the meeting time. We headed for her car and proceeded to the town of Sonsk.

We headed for Ciemniewko in Magda’s car.

At the town we went to the city offices. We had to wait our turn to look at the city records. Two nice ladies at the desk spent a good half hour going through the records for us. Sadly, they could find no information for us so we left there and went to lunch. Two teenagers on the street told us to try the restaurant we went to, they were right, the food was delicious. We ate at a little bar and had some delicious pierogi. The bill was a very inexpensive 40 zl.

So we headed for Ciemniewko in Magda’s car. On the way we saw my first stork walking in the field! What a thrill!!! We went on to see many storks that day, many in their nests.  Seeing the storks of Poland is on my bucket list.

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Seeing the storks of Poland is on my bucket list.

Next we headed to the home of my cousin Anna Zalewska. We share a common ancestor, Mikolaja Chojnowski. She has a beautiful dairy farm outside of the little village. She has become a passionate genealogist and had a 600 page family tree! We spent the entire afternoon till 8pm discussing and talking about our shared ancestors.

My cousin Anna Zalewska.
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We spent the entire afternoon till 8pm discussing and talking about our shared ancestors.

 

We headed to our agro business B&B in Gasiorowo. We had a delicious homemade dinner cooked by the wonderful chef and proprietor.

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Młyn Gąsiorowo

 

Great day in Poland!

Carol

 

2 comments

  1. I met my cousin Anna Zalewska online years ago. We were both looking for our Chojnowski ancestors. Her sincere passion for genealogy is unusual and so very much appreciated. Our great-great Uncle Teofil Chojnowski lived in the USA and Poland. He traveled back and forth over the Atlantic Ocean more than once and we both have photos of him. Even though I am a head taller I think Anna and I kind of look alike. 🙂 Anna, her husband and daughter were wonderful to Mike, Magda and I and made our stay in the area a dream come true!!
    I cannot say enough good things about our guide/translator Magda Smolka. She lived in England for 2 years and speaks perfect English. She knows exactly where to go in each city office to find information, and at the Archives. Hiring her with Polish Origins was the best decision we made. She is intelligent, comical, a good conversationalist, an excellent driver and more! She is also famous in the genealogical world as she was one of the 3 people who started The Poznan Project. How lucky we had her with us!
    The agribusiness we stayed at all 3 days was called Młyn Gąsiorowo. I loved it there. The small town of Gasiorowo is the hometown of my Great Uncle Felix Grzeszkiewicz, what a thrill to see it. The view out our window was like looking back in time, and each morning a rooster woke us up. Staying in a very small town in Poland working on the genealogy, meeting the family and eating some of the best food ever was quite a treat.

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