SPOTKANIA RODZINNE

 

Summer meetings 2005
July 5 - 12, 2005

This summer, no extensive "discovery" trips were planned in view of the ongoing search in the Archives of the City of Lublin for the ancestors of the Zamosc branch of the Family (../ksiegi_metrykalne_parafie.htm). Instead, we took care of some "current oustanding business". See the "travel map".

1/ 05.VII. - Shortly after arriving in Warsaw, we visited the Election Headquarters of the Presidential Candidate - Prof. Dr Zbigniew Religa, a prominent member of the Wajszczuk Family (#0090 on our Family Tree).


Election logo - displayed on our webpage

Election Headquarters of
Prof. Z. Religa in Warsaw

Election banner -
"With the heart for Poland"

Election posters

2/ 06.VII. - Next day, we visited The Warsaw Rising Museum. On the recently completed Memory Wall, we located the names of our three relatives, who fought and died in this Uprising in 1944. We also visited the Offices of the Museum and provided them with the addresses of the website (www.wajszczuk.pl) and of their individual pages on our Family Tree.
The Museum complex and exhibits are very impressive, contain a large amount of well organized information - everyone should see it! (http://www.1944.pl/).


Warsaw Rising Museum

Memory Wall

A bell commemorating
the Rising Commander -
Gen. Antoni Chrusciel, "Monter"

Three Wajszczuks names
on panel # 203 of the Wall

3/ 08.VII. - "Going east" - On the way to the wedding of Andrzej Stefaniuk, our Webmaster's brother, we stopped in Siedlce, where we met with the cousin Anka Swiderska (0079) and visited together the family graves in the cemetery. (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/spotkania/cmentarze_e.htm). Later, we met for the first time a distant relative - Jacek Michalowski (M057). Then we passed through Trzebieszow (where we met cousin Barbara Miszta (0156) to discuss future Family search activities), Drelow (where we picked up our webmaster/quide - Pawel Stefaniuk) and arrived for an overnight stay in Sosnowica. Our lodging was in a private manor, where General Tadeusz Kosciuszko (the same one!, i.e. the Polish and American hero) once stayed. According to the local story, he was refused there the hand of the owner's daughter and shortly afterwards left to fight in the American Revolution.


Grave of Andrzej
Swiderski (0081)

Waldemar (0087) and
Jacek Michalowski (M057)

"Kosciuszko Manor"
in Sosnowica

View from the window - forests,
lake, meadows, fields

4/ 09.VII. - Today, (Saturday), we attended the wedding of Andrzej Stefaniuk and Anna Hawryluk which was held in the ancient town of Parczew.


Basilica in Parczew

Bride and Groom -
just after the ceremony

Groom's Parents and ...

Aunt and Sister-Sister

5/ 10.VII - Lublin - Today, we visited Prof. Wac-Wlodarczyk in Lublin (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/spotkania/spotkania2004/lublin_e.htm), (he is the one, who was instrumental in organizing the last year's meeting in Zolkiewka devoted to the memory of our uncle, Dr Edmund Wajszczuk - https://www.wajszczuk.pl/spotkania/spotkania2004/zolkiewka_lublin_krasnystaw_e.htm). We met there his cousin, Stanislaw Wac, who is currently conducting for us a search in the Archives (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/english/ksiegi_metrykalne_parafie.htm). We had an opportunity to discuss future search plans.

6/ 11.VII - Wlodawa - it is an ancient town, "of many cultures and religions", located on the banks of the Bug river, currently forming a border between Poland and Belarus. At one time, somebody mentioned to us about a Wajszczuk family supposedly living there? We stopped at the central Post and Telephone Office - no names of Wajszczuks were found in the telephone books!


Church of St Ludwik
and Monastery

Russian Orthodox Church -
under renovation

(#4) - Central square -
Old Market Square

Viev across the Bug river -
to Belarus

- Okuninka - This is a very popular lake resort, not far from Wlodawa, going south and also near the border. We went there to meet Dr Teresa Borkowska-Wojtowicz. She wrote recently, at our request, an extensive note of reminiscences about Barbara Wajszczuk (0084), (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/english/drzewo/tekst/0084barbara/0084barbara_powstaniec.htm) and her family (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/english/drzewo/tekst/0084barbara/0084barbara_wspomnienia_borkowska.htm). We stopped there to meet her and to thank her.


Carmen (0087), Dr Borkowska-
Wojtowicz and Pawel Stefaniuk

Dr Borkowska, her daughter
and grandchildren

Dr Borkowska and more family -
vacationing in Okuninka

Wild roses around the house

- Sitno n/Zamosc - Recent search in the Lublin Archives revealed that a Waszczuk family (apparently friendly with and close to the Wajszczuks from Wysokie) lived there at one time (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/polski/drzewo/parafia_sitaniec.htm). Also, apparently just after the War, a Wajszczuk family member temporarily stayed there? These facts suggested a possibilty that Wajszczuks or Waszczuks (mis-spelled name?) may be still living there? We went there to check it out! Unfortunately, at the time of our visit, the Village Administrator was not available, but we were told that in the recent past (several years) - no Wajszczuks or Waszczuks lived there.


Entering the Sitno Parish

Farm buildings in the distance

Here lives the "Soltys" -
Village Administrator

Old granary?

- Lublin - On our way back in the evening, we stopped to visit our cousin "Lilka" - Teresa Jaroszynska (0097). While there, we had a chance to examine and copy pages from old books, published shortly after the War, containing some information about Fr. Karol (0074) and his first cousin Fr. Feliks (0162) Wajszczuk, both imprisoned at Dachau during the Second World War. Fr. Karol perished there (http://www.drelow.siedlce.opoka.org.pl/wajszczuk/index_e.htm) and Fr. Feliks survived (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/english/drzewo/tekst/0162feliks.htm) and after the War lived in Paris and tought there at a Polish Seminary. The new information was added to their respective pages.


Gathering at "Lilka's" -
Teresa Jaroszynska (0097)

Lilka signing the
Election Petition

Her son, Maciek (0102)

(#4) Lilka and Waldemar (0087) -
reading old letters

7/ 12.VII - Obsza - We went there to visit Fr Edward Klopotek (0202), who is a parish priest there. Obsza is a small place located south-west of Zamosc. On the way there, we passed through the town of Krasnobrod, where we were able to visit a church and monastery founded by the Queen Marysienka Sobieska in the 17th century. The area is very picturesque. Fr Klopotek treated us with dinner and provided a large amount of important and detailed information about the history od the roman-catholic parishes in the area of Zamosc. This information will allow us to properly direct our futher archival search for the ancestors.


Krasnobrod - Church and
Monastery founded by Queen
Marysienka Sobieska

Obsza - Parish
Church and belltower

Fr Edward Klopotek (0202)
in front of his Parish house

Fr Klopotek searching
the books

8/ 18.VII. -Warsaw-Lomianki. Today we had a chance to visit our close cousins Halina Biernacka (0071) and her daughter Alina Filipkowska. We reminisced about the family in Argentina and their visit to Poland a few years ago (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/spotkania/argentynczycy_e.htm, https://www.wajszczuk.pl/wycieczki/2001/e_index.htm. Alina's son Robert "Kuba" joined us a little later - we never had a chance to meet him before, while he was working in the USA. We enjoyed the home grown fruits and home baked apple pie - a real one! Carmen and Kuba spoke spanish - he may try to translate Ana's (0064) poem book (https://www.wajszczuk.pl/arch/0064ana.htm) into Polish?


Alina Filipkowska (0072)
and Halina Biernacka (0071)

Alina and son Robert
(0073)

Anna Wajszczuk-Religa
(0090

Carmen (0087) admiring
unusual flowers

 


Text and photographs:
Waldemar J. Wajszczuk & Paweł Stefaniuk
(c) 2005