Stephen Szabados - Memories of Dziadka: Rural life in the Kingdom of Poland 1880-1912 and Immigration to America

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Most of the information for this book is based on information that I found from my grandfather's documents, stories that he told me, and from my memories of him when we lived with him. However, to tell the complete story of a Polish immigrant, I used information from many other resources.

I owe a special thanks to my cousin Pawel Zawistowski who supplied me with details of life in Dmochy Kudly as experienced by his mother, Cecylia. My son's father-in-law Glenn Sittig gave me some fascinating insights into his life while growing up on a farm. Craig Pfannkuche, who is a wealth of knowledge, deserves my thanks for help finding the train schedules that aided me in recreating my grandfather's train trip from Philadelphia to Bloomington, Illinois. Joan Huff, my good friend, and fellow genealogy volunteer at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, helped one more time with her proofing and editing skills.

Once again, my wife, Susan, and my family were patient with me as I sat writing and editing my manuscript. My friends in genealogy were also very patient as I described the book to them so I could form some of my ideas.

Thank you all.

INTRODUCTION TO DZIADKA

T his book is about the life of a Polish immigrant from the Russian partition of Poland. I describe the main character as my grandfather. However, this can be the story of many of the Polish immigrants who arrived in America in the early 1900s.

The book begins with a description of the area where my grandfather was born. It continues with an account of his activities that he experienced during his early life in rural Polish Russia. The third chapter describes the customs and traditions that his family celebrated as he grew to manhood. Chapter Four discusses the possible reasons for his decision to leave his family and the land of his birth. Chapter Five describes his trek across Poland and Germany to the port of Bremerhaven, his experience in the port, and his voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean. The next chapter discusses his arrival in America and the process for admittance to the United States after leaving the ship. This chapter also describes his train trip from Philadelphia to Bloomington, Illinois. Chapter Seven details his life in America.

My goal is to share the stories of the lives of Polish immigrants to make it easy for other people to read and understand the hardships these brave people endured. Most readers know the stories covering their immigration and their lives in America, and I hope to add more understanding of the daily lives of the Polish people living in the rural areas of Poland and the sacrifices that occurred boarded the ships. I use my grandfather as the central figure in this book, but this is not his biography. I use the details of my grandfather's life but add accounts of other people to tell a complete life story. My grandfather was not a person whose accomplishments you would generally find in history books. However, his life is an example of a typical Polish immigrant in the early 1900s. I chose to tie all of the stories and information to one person to make this a more exciting story. I felt this method would be easier to show the impact of various facets of someone's life.

When writing your family history, remember to "put some meat on the bones of your ancestors." They were more than the names and dates on the documents. Use the pictures in the family albums. Save and label these precious photos. Find stories that tell how they interacted with their neighbors, friends, and family. Include information about social history and the events that may have impacted their lives. Ask yourself what their lives were like and find accounts that will explain their actions.

I find that family history is not just a collection of names, pictures, charts, and documents. I use summaries to help organize my research. These pages act as quick reference sheets and allow me to find information faster. At first, my summaries are lists of facts, but as they grow, I begin to see stories coming out of the information that I find. My summaries allow me to see my ancestors come alive. They were human beings who interacted with the people and were affected by the events around them. Each document that lists them is a snapshot of their lives, and I believe that each detail should be captured and analyzed. I find that my written family history shows their relationships between the facts and the people. I try to envision how each event might impact their lives.

My grandfather was a big man. At least he seemed that way to me when I was young. He was 6 feet tall and about 210 pounds. My earliest memory of him was that he was always at home and did not work. I usually found him sitting on the front porch watching over the neighborhood. When the weather was terrible, he sat in his rocker in the living room and watched TV. I found out later that he had suffered several strokes starting in 1949, and these prevented him from returning to work at the railroad shops. He and my grandmother lived off the disability pension that he received from the Railroad Retirement Administration.

During the 1950s, grandpa, grandma, uncle, my parents, my sister, and I lived in my grandparents' house on West Mulberry Street in Bloomington, Illinois. This period was a time that allowed me to ask my grandfather about his life in Poland. However, he was a quiet man and talked very little. I did have some interest in learning more about my Polish roots, and I did ask him questions about his life in Poland. However, he was reluctant to describe this part of his life. My persistence did yield some details, but fifty years later, when I began my genealogy research in earnest, he was no longer with us, and I wish I had gotten more from him.

The foundation for this book is based on the details that I have found about my grandfather in documents such as his military papers, passenger manifests, census records, railroad retirement papers, and land transactions. I also included the oral history that I remember and my descriptions of the many aspects of his life that I saw myself because we lived with him or next door for 15 years.

My research encouraged me to seek out other resources to add more details to my family history of my grandfather. I found some of these details in accounts written by other researchers about their ancestors or in books dealing with other aspects of Polish life or Polish history. As I did my genealogy research, I took a particular interest in any accounts on Polish life. Any stories of life in Polish Russia were of specific interest to me, and I took more time to study the information and take notes.