The next day, we went to the church at Wysoka Strzyzowska.

Wysoka Strzyżowska

The priest was amiable, ribbing me about my lack of Polish skills. He let us look at the original parish records of births, deaths and marriages, which went back to the early 1800s. The aged books were in remarkably good condition, given that they were over 100 years old and had survived two world wars. After a bit of searching, we hit paydirt. We found the birth record of my great-grandfather Wladyslaw, his siblings, his parents and forefathers. All told, I was able to trace ancestry back to the late 1700s, discovering three earlier generations about which I had known nothing.

Church in Wysoka seen from the parish cemetery.

Me at the cemetery.

But an even better surprise awaited us. With a more extensive family tree under our belts, we called in at the shop in Wysoka about living Wlodykas. The good news was that many Wlodykas in Poland were living in the surrounding area. The challenge was that there were many Wlodyka families to sort out. A series of housecalls followed — a Wlodyka family down the road, then another, then another — all to no avail. One family showed us their elaborate genealogy, but we had no connection. The fifth house brought us to the village leader (soltis), a thoughtful Wlodyka woman with a twinkle in her eye. As Zenon went through the liturgy of Wlodyka names and marriages, I could see her considering and thinking about the information. Yes, some names resonated with her. She then spoke of some people that we found in the church records. We hadn’t told her about these, and, upon further discussion, it became clear that she and I were indeed related. We both descend from a farmer named Stanislaw Wlodyka, born c. 1820 in Wysoka. She even phoned a removed cousin in Rzeszow, who is the first cousin of my grandmother. As a nice bonus, it turned out that Zenon and her husband were related as well.

Such a great discovery! My Wlodyka kin lives where my great-grandfather Wladyslaw was born (1884), as was his father Antoni in 1852. A cottage still stands, the home of the Wlodykas, dating to at least 1850.

The old Wlodyka's house.

I never thought that I would find my Polish relatives, let alone relatives still living on family lands. I took a while to soak in the soothing rural atmosphere before retiring for the day. Zenon and I stopped by the house on the following day, where some more family members gathered to meet and greet us. I showed them the genealogy that I had put together, and exchanged email addresses. We now stay in contact, and I have sent them a large diagram that shows the Polish and American branches, updated to include the findings from my trip.

My newly found family.

Zenon and I then followed up with the Niemiec research. We went to the nearby church in Dobrzechow, and searched through the records. Again, remarkably preserved books. Success here as well — records for my great-grandmother, her siblings, parents and ancestors. As with the Wlodyka side, I was able to extend my Niemiec records back to the late 1700s. Time did not permit me to return to Kozlowek to look for relatives again. I had to press on, returning to Krakow, a side trip to Auschwitz, and then on to Slovakia and Hungary.

Beautiful interior of parish church in Dobrzechow.

Obviously, a wonderful trip. Zenon provided great service, and I couldn’t have done this without him.

Mike

Mike Maxwell
November 26, 2010
mmaxwell AT nu.edu

My grandmother’s parents came to the US from Poland during the great migration wave of the early 1900s. Until the year 2000 or so, I never knew much about the details of their lives in the old country, other than the husband’s name Wladyslaw Wlodyka and his wife’s name Bronislawa Niemiec. For many years, my sole piece of genealogical documentation was my grandmother’s American birth certificate from 1915. It listed her parents’ home country as “Austria” at the time. A little map research lead me to conclude that their homeland was Galicia, given that they were ethnic Poles. Over the past 10 years, I gathered more information from my older relatives, as well as from online sites such as Ellis Island Records (www.ellisisland.org). I also stumbled upon a blog of Nancy Maciolek’s trip with Zenon. She highly recommended his services, which I kept in my records. In August 2010, I finally took the step of travelling to Poland in search of my roots, with Zenon as my guide. My goal was to search vital records at the churches of my great-grandparents’ hometowns, and to look for living relatives. I had no information about relatives remaining in Poland, although I knew that some branches did not emigrate.

Setting out on my journey, I had a mix of solid and flimsy information to work from. Luckily, Zenon and Nancy had actually photographed a census entry of Bronislawa’s childhood household in 1895 in the village of Kozlowek (Galicia indeed, east of Frysztak, between Tarnow and Rzeszow). This matched a mailing address for Bronislawa’s sister from the Cold War period. So I was fairly confident about the Niemiec connection in Kozlowek.

The Wlodyka connection was much less certain. Multiple sources indicated that they came from “Wysoka”, but there are several towns in Poland with the Wysoka forename. Family tradition went further to say that Wysoka was “near Tarnow.” Zenon and I identified Wysoka Strzyzowska as the most likely candidate. Fortunately, Kozlowek and this Wysoka are only 5 km apart (3 miles), so we wouldn’t waste too much time and travel if this Wysoka was the wrong one.

View Larger Map

Armed with these leads and clues, I met Zenon at Krakow train station. He drove us through the green countryside to Kozlowek, my most solid reference point. We pulled up to the grocery store in the village center, walked in, and began asking about Niemiecs in the area. It was immediately obvious to me that Zenon’s services would be money well-spent. I did not know any Polish, and no one at the store spoke English. It would be this way for the most part, with the younger generations knowing English and the older generations — those who would know the most genealogy — speaking Polish.

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Entering into Kozłówek

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The people in the store seemed surprised, perhaps a bit bemused, that a strange American would show up in the middle of the workweek with questions about distant relatives. They were eager to help, and directed us to a Niemiec woman across the street. She thought that we had a connection, and took us to speak with her parents. Alas, we could not establish a firm family connection, but I was encouraged that our “cold calling” method resulted in dialogue and helpful pointers from the locals.

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"Strangers in our cemetery."

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Mike