When the death record microfilm arrived at my local LDS family history center, I searched for my grandfather’s oldest sister Anne, whom Dutchie said died of Diptheria when she was around 5 years old. There were no other Kulawiak families in this parish, so it didn’t take long to find a Kulawiak death in the index. The full record was in Latin, but something didn’t look right. As I slowly deciphered the information, I realized that this 1909 entry was not for a child, but for a 76 year old man…..my great-great grandfather Andreas Kulawiak! But my family was from Odrowąż, why wasn’t he there?

Andreas Kulawiak Death 1909 (click to enlarge)

If I read the entry right, his wife Rosaline Stafira preceded him in death. Stafira? There was that surname again. We always thought her surname was Pagac. So, did my widower g-g-grandfather die unexpectedly while visiting his son’s family, or did he move with his son’s family to Lusławice while my g-grandfather was over in America? And what happened to his wife Rosaline Stafira. Did Andreas have a 1st wife named Rosaline Pagac and a 2nd wife, also named Rosaline? Here is my wild guess: I think both names belong to Rosaline and one name was her father’s surname and the other name was her mother’s surname. I can’t wait to get to Odrowąż with Zenon and find out!

Although the church records didn’t help me figure out why my Kulawiak family was in Lusławice, they did give some clues about when they moved there……probably around 1907 or 1908. I just can’t figure out why! Some family members told me that our family owned a hotel somewhere in Poland, while others said that Aniela ran a hotel (but may not have owned it). Other family legends suggested that our family did own a hotel but my g-grandfather gambled it away. Dutchie said that she didn’t believe that one and she never saw or heard of her father gambling. However, she never mentioned her great-grandfather and I bet she never knew that he was living with her family in Lusławice (she died before I received the microfilmed records). Was he the gambler in the family? Was this hotel in Lusławice or Odrowąż? If the hotel was in Odrowąż, did my family leave because of this gambling incident?

The LDS family history center microfilm was so helpful and saved me several hours of searching church records in Lusławice. Now I have more time to look for other clues on my tour with Zenon. By the way, I can renew my “rental” of the microfilm at the LDS family history center and after the 3rd renewal, the films then stay at that location where I can go to them again and again. This will be very helpful in case I find some names in Lusławice that I want to explore when I return from my tour. My tour beings in 3 days!

Shellie

From ship manifests, I knew that my family was from Odrowąż but they were living in Lusławice when they left for America. Like Odrowąż, there was more than one village in Poland with this name; so again, I had no idea where to start looking. In May of 2009, my uncle Teddy gave me the most important piece of family history that I’ve encountered since I began my research. When I told him that I was going to Poland to find our family home, he began to search for old documents belonging to my grandfather. What uncle Teddy found took my breath away. My grandfather’s Marriage certificate, naturalization certificate and a baptismal record showing his grandparents names Andre Kulawiak and Rosaline Pagac and his birthplace, Lusławice in Brzesko county, Zakliczyn!

My grandfather's baptism (click to enlarge)

Now that I knew which Lusławice they were in, the question was what the heck was my family doing there? The Latter Day Saints (LDS) did not microfilm the church records for Odrowąż, so I hope I will be granted access to them when I visit in person. However, the LDS did microfilm the Lusławice records, but I heard that church records were in Latin and very hard to read. Since I didn’t think I could read the records, I put off ordering the films. It took me several weeks to finally decide to order them. It cost about 5 US dollars per roll and took about 2 weeks to arrive at my local LDS family history center.

When the baptismal films came in, I eagerly ran through them to find my grandfather and his siblings. The records were indeed written in Latin, but the spelling of our surname was the same. The records really were not that difficult to read. I did not find any records for Frank, Stella or Anne, so these must be in Odrowąż. I did find my grandfather’s entry in 1908, but there was something strange about it. The old baptismal certificate that I had listed his grandmother as Rose Pagac, but the church book entry listed Rosealine Stafira! Also, the name of the midwife on his certificate did not match what was in the book! I think I solved part of the mystery when I later found the record for his younger sister Jane, born in 1911.

Ted and Jane Kulawiak Baptismal Records (click to enlarge)

This record lists her grandmother’s name as Rosaline Pagac and the midwife’s name is the same as what was on my grandfather’s baptismal certificate. The baptismal certificate was dated 1912. Aniela must have requested the certificates in preparation for the move to America. I think the priest was in a hurry and probably opened the record book to Jane’s entry and filled out both certificates at the same time.

Shellie

Ted (Kulawiak) Kolavic

For all of my life, I never knew what my grandfather looked like as a young boy, or even as a young man. Dutchie had some wonderful photos and later my father and uncle found some photos for me. I think it is hard for some people to imagine their grandparents as youngsters. It was especially so for me, since I had never seen any photos. Through these photos, I found that my grandfather was quite athletic and handsome too. As a young man, he excelled at all kinds of sports, loved to swim, and was even a volunteer fireman.

Young Ted Kolavic With Friends and Wife Verna

He was quite good at gymnastics and was a regular member of the local Turners. We all went to the Turners for gymnastics when we were kids, but I never really understood what the term Turners really meant until I recently visited their website: http://www.kcturners.org/amhistory.html

Grandpa married a nice Polish girl named Veronica (Verna) Ference and they had 2 boys. Like any good Polish man, my grandfather knew what the tavern meant to a Polish community. So he opened Ted’s Ravine Tavern, a popular hang out for local steelworkers. Just this year I found out that his older sister Stella also had a tavern, almost directly across the street! Now there’s an interesting case of sibling rivalry! Grandpa loved to sing, and if you attended his church, you could not miss his wonderful voice as it rang out from the midst of the congregation. His passion as an adult was hunting and whenever I visited him, I begged him to take me to the storage room to see the bearskin rug he had in there. That’s how I remember him best; a big game hunter with a voice like a Broadway star. I will never forget his voice teaching me to spell Constantinople. He’d sing the word and then spell it out in his singing voice. I loved it and I’ll never forget it. I never realized until I started writing this story that this was part of a real song! And, of course, I found it on YouTube: watch?v=10SvHhGG3Xg

I am positive that if he were alive today, my grandfather would love singing Karaoke with us!

Ted Kolavic Sportsman Father Barkeeper

Up next: How I found my grandfather’s birthplace.

Shellie

Happy Birthday Sissy! Sis is the daughter of my grandfather’s oldest sister Stella. Since there was over 15 years difference in age between Stella, the oldest, and Dutchie, the baby of the family, Dutchie and Sis seemed more like sisters than aunt and niece.

Stella and Sis were who our family turned to for memoires and family reunions. I was young and not interested in family reunions back then. Oh how I wish I could turn back time! I think that one common emotion that is encountered during family history research is regret. To think that I had such a fascinating family and I didn’t even realize it until they are now long gone. This work has made me realize how important it is to appreciate your family while you have them with you.

Last fall, around October of 2008, I found our family in the 1930 census and I identified the address: 416 Highland Avenue, Aliquippa, PA. The family moved from Export to Aliquippa in 1920 shortly after my g-grandfather Stanislaw had a close-call in a mining accident. Aniela said that her sons would never work underground and she searched for a better place to live. Someone told her that in Aliquippa, men worked above ground in steel mills, so she asked someone to take her there to visit. When she came home, she announced that she rented a house in Aliquippa and they were moving immediately. That didn’t go over very well with my g-grandfather, who refused to go, but in the end as the rest of the family drove off, he gave up and joined them. From then on, my coal mining g-grandfather was a steelworker. I was back in my home town to visit my parents and took my mom down to Aliquippa to find the house. I found the house and jumped out to take photos. I was so excited to find it.

Green House at 416 Highland Ave

Dutchie was also excited when I told her that I had photos of the house, because she thought it had been torn down. She told me that my g-grandmother Aniela had a big brick oven in the back where she would bake and bake and bake loaves of wonderful bread. When they sat on the porch, they could see the steel mill and the Ohio river. That’s when I started to realize that something was wrong – it didn’t seem like we were talking about the same street. But I was so careful about finding Highland Avenue and I know that I was standing in front of house 416….then we realized that I WAS on the wrong street. There were 2 Highland Avenues in the Aliquippa area, one downtown, and the other across Constitution Blvd from West Aliquippa, which was just about a mile or so away. We had a pretty good laugh over that. Last week, I asked my father to drive over to the correct Highland Avenue and take a photo of the house. This is what he sent to me:

416 Highland Avenue. West Aliquippa

The house and grandma’s brick oven were gone. I hate to think that the house is gone, but we had a good laugh over my mistake!

Shellie

My great-grandmother Aniela “Nellie” was born March 26, 1800 in Odrowąż to Adalbert Kadłub and Josephine Gal. From family stories and Ellis Island records, I found 3 siblings: a brother Jan Kanty Kadłub who settled in Export PA and was later known as John Kanty Kadlup. A sister Agnieszka (Agnes) Kadłub, who came to the US around 1906 with her brother Jakob and married Jan Wallos, later known as John Wallace in Export, PA. Jackob must have gone back to Poland, for I was unable to find any information about him. Agnieszka had several children in Export, but she she died around 1918. I tried to find a death certificate for her, but since I did not know her exact date of death, I had to request a records search. The PA vital statistics office could not find a death record for her. That was frustrating, because if the death date is unknown the state of PA charges $34 for a search of their records and you don’t get a refund if they can’t find a record. Also, you can not provide spelling variations unless you fill out another request and pay another $34 dollars.

Aniela’s father Adalbert Kadłub died rather young and Aniela married Stanislaw Kulawiak when she was around 15 years old. Dutchie had an old photo of Jozefa Gal Kadłub, taken in Poland. I think Aniela looked a lot like her mother. Here is a photo of Jozefa (date unknown) and 2 of Aniela taken around 1923 and in the 1940′s.

Josepha Kadlub and 2 views of Aniela Kadlub Kulawiak

Dutchie told me that the Kadłubs had red hair, which I found to be very interesting. I thought that red hair was unusual in Poland, but I’m beginning to realize I might be mistaken. I’ve seen a few websites that state if you pass three redheads in Poland, you’ll win the state lottery!

Several of my family members have described Aniela as a strong-willed woman with a head for business, born well before her time. She made beautiful clothes for her daughters and baked thousands of loaves of bread in her outdoor bread oven. She raised her children in Poland while her husband worked in the coal mines in Pennsylvania and then she took the family to America in 1912. Dutchie told me that her mother knew that the trip would be long and hard, and sewed rugged leather pants for her sons to wear. She explained to her sons that these special leather pants were very strong and would last through the difficult journey to America. Later that day she found her little boys (my grandfather Ted and his brother Frank) out in the yard. While one turned the grinding wheel, the other had his little butt pressed against the wheel, testing the strength of the new pants! I hope she caught them before they ground holes in their new pants!

Aniela Kolavick and family beauties

Wow! My ancestral village tour is coming up fast! I have been trying to collect as many photos and other information as possible to take with me. If anyone reading this blog has been to Odrowąż in southern Poland, please add a comment and tell us about it.

Shellie

Dutchie had a portrait of her father, done when he was a young soldier serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He was probably conscripted at age 18, around 1888. I know no other details and the Austrian war archives had no record for him. Later I plan to check the Warsaw archives. The portrait was in the family as long as anyone could remember. There were all kinds of stories about Stanislaw’s military career that stretched from being a diplomatic courier all the way to being a general in the Kaiser’s Army. By now, no one really knows what he did in the Army. So when Dutchie told me about this portrait, I couldn’t wait to see it. The original was misplaced, but my cousin had a copy and sent an image by email. I think the portrait was probably done around 1890, maybe later if it took several years to reach his rank.

Stanislaw Kulawiak Military Portrait

I don’t know how long he served, but Dutchie thought he was still in uniform when he decided to marry Aniela. She was reportedly 15 when they got married, so that puts their wedding around 1895. I have not sought out any experts yet for their opinion, but I did spend many hours looking for the significance of the stars and the red pom poms on his chest. The pom poms turned out to be a marksmanship lanyard: http://www.austro-hungarian-army.co.uk/badges/lanyard1.htm

And the stars on his collar suggest that my g-grandfather the general was really a senior non-commissioned infantry officer. Although this portrait is generally accepted to be my great-grandfather, I’ve been a little skeptical. It’s a drawing, so it’s difficult to tell, but in my opinion, the eyes just don’t seem to match those of my g-grandfather. What do you think? I hope to come across more portraits of soldiers while I am in Poland – I find them very interesting.

Stanislaw Kulawiak 1920's thru 1940's

Another interesting feature of my g-grandfather was his handlebar mustache. You can see by his photos that he always had one. At one time it was about 9 inches long! He loved that thing and spent many hours trimming and grooming it. Dutchie told me that one day while he was sleeping, her oldest sister snipped off one side of his mustache. He was so angry! I wonder if he snipped off the other side and started all over again.

Measuring the Handlebars

Shellie

My family history research would not be possible without my grandfather’s sister Dutchie Guy. When I resumed my research in the fall of 2008, she was the last surviving sibling and thus, was the most important source of first hand family information. Born Frances Ann Kolavic in 1921 in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, she was the youngest daughter of my great-grandparents Stanislaw and Aniela (Kadłub) Kulawiak.

No one ever called Dutchie by her given name, Frances.  She told me that when she was a little girl, she had to memorize a poem about a Dutchman and she went around the house reciting the poem over and over again. Her brother Frank started calling her a little Dutchman and the nickname eventually became Dutchie.  From then on, no one ever used her given name.

Dutchie 1920s 1950s

Dutchie was a war bride. Her husband, Frank Gajewski, was also from Aliquippa and in the early 1940′s he was part of the Army Air Corps 33rd Air Depot Group at Robins Army airfield (later Warner Robins Air Force Base) near Macon Georgia.  They became engaged with the intention of marrying after the war, but when Dutchie and her sister Irene took at trip to Georgia to visit Frank, in May of 1943, they suddenly decided to get married that weekend.

Dutchies wedding 1943

During my Valentine’s weekend visit (2009) Dutchie showed me dozens of photos taken by the military photographer. Several times while we studied the photos, Dutchie mentioned that her sister Irene was wearing Miller Red Cherries shoes. I never heard of this designer, but figured that his shoes must have been something special back in those days.  Finally, when we looked at the last photos and Dutchie said “There’ s Irene in her Miller Red Cherries shoes” I couldn’t stand it any longer and asked about this brand of shoes. With a laugh, Dutchie told me that Miller Red Cherries was a gentleman who was stationed at Robins Field when she got married. Dutchie and Irene bought their wedding and bridesmaid clothing at a little shop in Macon, Georgia, but they came up short on war ration coupons and didn’t have enough for Irene’s shoes. Miller Red Cherries came to their rescue and generously shared one of his ration coupons so that Irene could have shoes for the wedding.  Ever since, they referred to Irene’s shoes as the Miller Red Cherries shoes.

Like many women, Dutchie went to work during WWII and worked at a plant making and inspecting 500 pound bomb casings. When the war ended, she and Frank finally began their married life together. A short time later, Frank had their surname changed from Gajewski to Guy.  He was frustrated with so many people incorrectly pronouncing his name (correctly pronounced Guy ef ski). So from then on, Dutchie was a Guy and she’d say “You’ll remember me, I’m one of the good guys.”  When Dutchie was in her 40′s, she went back to school and became a teacher at my elementary school.  I was so excited to see my aunt every day at the school, and she was one of the most beloved teachers at Center High School in Beaver County, PA.

Earlier this year, I located the grandson of Dutchie’s uncle, John Kanty Kadlup, who was Aniela’s brother. Aniela also spelled her maiden name with a p on the end, but the records that I have found show that the original name was actually Kadłub. John’s grandson has a photo album with photos of his grandparents, but cannot identify many of the other people in the album. Dutchie suggested that we go see the album. We would also visit her birthplace in Aliquippa, catch up with Sis and the rest of our family, and also explore Export and Mt. Pleasant, the coal mining towns where our family first lived before Dutchie was born. But our trip back home never happened; Dutchie passed away unexpectedly on April 25th 2009, shortly after I purchased our plane tickets.  I guess I just thought that she’d live forever because she was so young at heart and so very active. I had a hard time moving on with my research without her, but I am so thankful that her niece Sis is interested in my work and continues to help me work through some brick walls.

Dutchie 1967-2009

Shellie

Based on Dutchie’s and Sissy’s memories and stories handed down over the years, we knew that my great-grandparents, Stanislaw Kulawiak and Aniela Kadlub were born in Poland – somewhere near Krakow.  Dutchie said her father served in the Austro-Hungarian Army and married Aniela when she was 15 years old.  They had 5 children in Poland and 3 in the US.  My grandfather, and Sissy’s (Sis) mother were born in Poland and Dutchie, the baby was born in the US.

Dutchie told me that her father Stanislaw Kulawiak went to Export PA around 1910 to work in the coal mines and Aniela and 4 children followed a few years later.  On a 1910 ship manifest for Stanislaw, we found a notation that he traveled to the US twice before – in 1898 and 1907. We also found out that although Odrowaz was listed as their birthplace, my g-grandparents residence was – Luslawice – and not Odrowaz.  This was suprising news and we still don’t know what led them to this location.

On Valentines Day 2009, I traveled to Dutchie’s retirement home in Florida to show her all of the information we found and to pour over her photo albums.  There, for the first time, I saw my great-grandparents Stanislaw Kulawiak and Aniela Kadlub, and Aniela’s mother Josefa Kadlub.  It was also the first time I saw what my grandfather and his siblings looked like as children.

Kulawiak Family

Dutchie had many stories that Valentine’s week, and luckily I brought my digital recorder and caught every minute of our visit together.  I left for home with lots of precious memories and family information.  The whole way home I beat myself up for letting so many years pass by and for not spending more with my own grandparents to learn more about my ancestors.  When I got home I lit up the phone lines and called all kinds of relatives to beg for photos and info.  I scoured the internet for email addresses and postal addresses of anyone with my family names trying to establish long forgotten connections.  I found that there was little to no existing genealogy research on the surnames Kulawiak or Kadlub.   Those who did have some research were not directly related to me, or we have yet to find our common ancestor.

Around this time I also stumbled upon Polish Origins and started posting some questions about my surname.  I posted a query under “Origins of surnames” and eagerly waited for an answer.  Zenon was quick to reply and told me that Kulawiak meant “lame” or “cripple” – not the elegant meaning I was hoping for, but nevertheless, it answered my question.

I wanted to start researching Polish records, but I was really at a loss and didn’t really know where to start…  I knew that I wanted to go to Poland and find my ancestral village.  I wrote to Zenon for advice and he graciously offered to help me.  I was discouraged because I wanted to find my ancestral village, but didn’t know where it was – there were several villages named Luslawice and Odrowaz in Poland!  The only clue that I had was that my family members always said they came from Krakow.  Then one day when I was talking to Dutchie, I mentioned that the Polish Highlanders were called Gorale and she suddenly remembered that her mother referred to herself as Gorale.  Zenon told me that it was almost certain that the Odrowaz that we wanted was the one near Nowy Targ in Malopolskie – in the Polish Highlands.

Aniela Nellie Kulawiak

More details and stories coming soon!

Shellie

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