March 9: Jadwiga was a Fearless Female

Lisa Alzo's blogging prompt for March 9 asked about a family document. As is often the case, closer scrutiny of a document leads to more questions, and tardy posting of this story.

I had had my grandfather's 1910 passenger manifest for the Kroonland of the Red Star Line in my files for years before I looked to the next line. Peter Szymanowicz was recorded as "Franz," although his surname is spelled correctly.The date and ship matches the information that he gave on his Declaration of Intention to become a citizen. I knew my grandmother, Walerya, stayed behind in Russian Poland until he got settled, so I wasn't looking for a travelling companion. When I did, it became obvious that he came to this country with his sister-in-law, Jadwiga Zawacka. Her name is spelled phonetically on line 22 below as "Zawadzka."

The manifest says that Jadwiga was 19 and that the closest relative left behind was her father,Wincenty. Peter lists his wife, Walerya, as his closest relative in the "country from whence alien came." They both gave their last place of residence as Siedlec, a city about 20 miles southwest of their village of Drohiczyn. Jadwiga and Walerya's brothers were already living here. It is hard to make out the script on the second page of the manifest, but they were coming to Easthampton, MA to join their oldest brother and brother-in-law Witold. 

That's when I took another look yet again this week.  The names of to whom they are travelling do not look identical.  The 1910 City Directory for Easthampton lists Witold Zawacki at 2 Harrison Avenue.  It appears that the address is indeed given as "Haryson Ave" on the manifest, but Jadwiga's entry looks like #16, and although the surnames are spelled the same, it is not the same first name.  Their brother Karol came later than 1910. I am going to have to investigate who lived at 16 Harrison Avenue further.

Jadwiga was married within a year to John Szysko in Easthampton.   They had two sons, Adam and Henry, 

Fearless Females: Walerya Zawacka Szymanowicz

The March 2 prompt asks for a photo of a female ancestor.

I didn't know my grandmother. She died when my father was only eleven.  This shot was cropped from a family portrait taken about 1927.  The portrait is especially precious because it was sent to me from a relative in Drohiczyn, Poland several years ago.

This photograph was proudly sent back to the family in Poland fifteen years after she emigrated.  It is a classic photographer's portrait, with formal attire, down to the twins in their sailor suits. She left Poland with a toddler in her arms, having lost her first son a year before.She may not have been fearless, but she faced those fears as she sailed from Antwerp, following her husband and her brothers and sister to Easthampton, Massachusetts.

She had six more children born in Easthampton. She kept house, learned English, applied for citizenship, and was a founding member and President of the Polish Women's Aliance when a new chapter was formed. They bought a house and moved to Northampton, where they opened a neighborhood grocery store. She faced uterine cancer, and traveled to Boston hoping for a cure.

When you look into her eyes, you know she faced it all head-on.

Flood Damage

Our flooding in Western Massachusetts this week, resulting from Hurricane Irene, is eliciting comparisons to historic storm events.

My father was born in Easthampton, MA on 1 August 1925 of Polish immigrant parents. He and his twin brother were the youngest of seven children who lived to adulthood.

Through my research, I was able to show him a few things that he hadn't known: the house where he was likely born in Easthampton, a death certificate of a brother in Poland, a baptismal certificate for his oldest brother Bennie in Poland.

As is often the case, some family stories were not proven by the record evidence, but there was a kernel of truth. My uncle Henry thought that there was a baby who had died on the voyage to New York. Instead, we learned that the first child of Piotr and Walerya Szymanowicz had been born in their village of Drohiczyn in eastern (Russian) Poland in 1907 and died just short of his second birthday. Their second son, Boniface, was born a few months after the death of the first. It was the second child who took, and survived, the trip aboard the SS Finland, arriving in New York 23 August 1910.

Piotr and Walerya had six American children in Easthampton, MA and both became citizens themselves. Often the case among immigrant families, the oldest son left school early and began working to supplement the family income. Bennie also began the citizenship process as a young man, filing a Declaration of Intent in the Hampshire County Court. We know he worked in a gas station and had shares of Cities Service Company.

In March of 1936 torrential rains fell on the Connecticut Valley, which had seen an unusually large snowfall in previous months. The thaw, the rain and the ice breaking up in the river combined to produce record flooding. The Szymanowicz family had a small neighborhood grocery store adjacent to their home at the corner of Holyoke and Hawley Streets in Northampton, MA. The flood waters rose, filling their basement and the store at street level. Dad remembers eating "mystery meals" from the cans that lost their labels on the shelves.




Pleasant Street, Northampton - Photo from WGBY

When the water receded, river silts were left behind. Bennie developed a skin infection from contaminants that were deposited with the river silts as he attempted to clean up his parents' property. These were the years before common use of penicillin, a wonder drug that we take for granted 75 years later. Bennie died at age 27, on 14 April 1936 in Northampton. His pall bearers were Knights of Columbus, of whom he was a member. He was buried in St. Stanislaus cemetery in Easthampton beneath an Italian marble statue of Immaculate Mary.

Marching Through Siberia

American history students generally focus on "our" wars: the Revolution, Civil War, the "Great War," WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, and now Iraq 1 & 2. How much do we know about Japanese history, outside of WWII? The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 included many ethnic Poles among the 300,000 troops who were transported across Siberia to the Manchurian front in the winter of 1904. Family lore has it that our grandfather, Piotr Szymanowicz, was conscripted by the Cossacks and traveled to Harbin, and probably further toward the front. Before he died, his remarks about being in China were recorded in the hospital record. This may have been "his" war.

Nothing is known about Peter's early life in Poland. The vital records in his own hand are his date of birth, recorded on his petition for Naturalization, his parents' names, recorded on his Social Security application, his marriage, his children. We have no information about any siblings. The ship manifest says his last place of residence was Siedlce, which was the Polish province south of the Bug River. He was a fisherman who came from a fishing region.

Born in 1881, he would have been 23 when the Japanese attacked the Chinese coast at Port Arthur in February 1904. The Russians may have wanted a diversion from domestic political unrest, and wanted to secure the valuable trading center of Harbin, but their participation in the war went badly and became very costly. The Navy suffered from the length of the trip from the west to the East China Sea, and the infantry was seriously delayed coming across Siberia in the winter. Was Peter among them? The photo came from Google images, but it gives an idea of what they might have looked like at that time.

Drohiczyn nad Bugiem, Our Polish Roots

Detailed gazetteers of historic Poland give valuable insight to the land our ancestors left behind. Because the information was compiled only a few years before the wave of migration from Eastern Europe, it provides a snapshot of their home town. I found a great deal of information in
Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich : Warszawa 1880-1902. T. 1-15 or Geographic Dictionary of the Former Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Lands.

Drohiczyn-laki, on the east bank of the Bug River, was within the Bielsko region, Grodno Govern. The population was 1,402, having grown from 173 residents in 1800. The demographics consisted of 682 men and 720 women; 384 Catholics, 498 Jews, and 530 Russian Orthodox. There was one Catholic church, two orthodox Churches, and a school up to third grade.

The Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity was established about 1350. In 1660 the Jesuits had established a "collegium" and high school. There were 285 students in 1784. There were also ruins of a seventeenth century castle.

The town was populated by farmers and fishermen, boasting one windmill and no industry. A large farmers market was held four times a year. The community was often flooded by the river. A ferry provided access across the river.

Today, Drohiczyn is a seat of the Roman Catholic Bishopric. There are three church-monastery complexes from the 16th and 18th centuries. A small Jewish cemetery remains in Drohiczyn. although there are no longer Jewish inhabitants. The oldest known grave stone is from 1876.

Between Niemirow and Drhoiczyn, this portion of the Bug River is known as the Podlaski Gorge. River trips are offered by boat or barge, where travelers can view "its lofty banks where towns with magnificent pasts and historical monuments are situated."