The blog is adapted from Abraham’s article in “The Macon County News”, with his permission.
Little did I know five years ago when I first “re-discovered” my Polish family in rural Eastern Poland, that I would return to Poland for the eighth time on May 25 for the wedding of my third cousin, Monika. Nor did I realize that it was not through language, but vodka that I would strengthen those family ties.
Monika married Maciej in Eastern Poland May 25. In attendance were two American cousins she never knew existed until five years ago. At nearly midnight, the wedding party and guests were handed sparklers, providing a beautiful wedding scene of “cold fireworks.”
In 2015 Abraham returned and took his mother to show her newly-found family in Poland and to discover more family in Lithuania. Our team was again privileged to organize the tour.
The blog is adapted with permission from Abraham’s FB entries when he was relating ‘hot off the press’ the adventures they were experiencing :-).
Kamianka, Poland
Mom meets her family in Poland. Sharing family stories and laughs with some homemade cakes in the Polish countryside.
Back in Kamianka with Polish family, mom and Meghan.
This is a fragment of a story published by Abraham Mahshie who we had the privilege to assist on his Genealogy Tour last year. This year, Abraham returns to Poland and Lithuania with his Polish-American mother to introduce her to the family he rediscovered after 67 years.
Ojcze Nasz. The “Our Father prayer” with newly-found cousin by our common great great grandparents’ grave. Click on the picture to listen to the prayer.
The village was so small; I could almost count the wooden houses on one hand. An old man with bushy grey eyebrows stepped out of one of them and greeted us: ‘Yes,’ he said, in Polish, ‘ I remember a man named Boleslaw Jadczuk.’ The old man walked barefooted into the quiet road and pointed us toward another house. In front of it was a small vegetable garden with a single sunflower. Zenon turned to me, ‘It is never this easy.’
We knocked and an old woman answered the door. ‘Is this where Boleslaw Jadczuk lived’ Zenon asked.
‘Yes,’ answered the woman.
Did he have a brother named Ludwik who immigrated to America?
‘Yes.’
On a Sunday in August I drove to a farming village in Eastern Poland where I believed my ancestors lived more than 100 years ago. I was led there by the elegantly inked words in a 67-year-old Polish letter that belonged to my great-grandfather, Ludwik Jadczuk, who had immigrated to America in 1913.
The only clues to my family’s whereabouts were in the letter written by Ludwik’s brother. It began, Village of Kamianka, 3 August 1947.
(…)My Polish-American mother was perhaps the happiest of all. She called her cousins in Syracuse, New York, where Ludwik had first settled and where she had grown up, to relay the joy. This summer, I will take my Mom to Poland to meet the family. We’re both taking Rosetta Stone Polish classes to prepare. And Mom did something else to bridge the gap: She rallied a representative from each family to send a box to Poland with photos and mementos from America ? five in all ? to replace the parcels lost three generations ago.”
