Vintage Photos of Polish ancestors

same thing happened in my family.. all my grandparents died and only one was alive
2 years of my life. so I barely remember,, I only remember the funeral when My
mom was crying alot, and I didnt want her to cry.

all we have is pictures..

awww i know the feeling, my polish gran died when i was 16 so i do have some lovely memories to go with the pictures too. I'm sure your mum could or has built up a lovely picture from her own memories of them for you? :0)

I have the pictures of our family.. not my mom anymore :(

she passed in 2002 of cancer..

She did some photo work ( putting names on pictures ( old pics) etc ).. and
Now I have the whole bag of the albums and loose pictures.. some I have put on
CDS to share with family because they dont have what I have as I dont have theirs
so its a sharing family thing :)))

I'm so sorry to hear that hun but do sort of know how you feel I lost my dad to lung cancer on 27/09/02 not nice eh xxx.
Think that was really lovely of your mum to do that for her children god bless her x.

I have a wonderful picture of my great grandfather Michael Nestor and great grandmother Pauline Cywinski from 1909. They married here in the US soon after immigrating. They were both from a village called Rohatyn in Eastern Galicia. They were both tailors by trade. Michael died in a coal mine disaster in 1919 in Wilkes Barre PA. He was a very handsome man, and very proper. Pauline and Michael owned their own house (within 10 years of coming to he US). She became a housekeeper after his death and took in WWI boarders. She was very proper too...proud of her Polish heritage. When she learned that my father was marrying an Irish/English woman (my mother), she threw a hissy fit because he was marrying outside of his ethnic group.

Just came back from a trip to Poland, had a great time lost two days at a weding and hooked up with pleanty of relatives I'd not met before.

One aunt pulled out a box full of photo's and proceded to show them to me explaining to me who the particular relative was. It was all quite macarbe, because all the pics I was being shown were of aunts, uncles, cousins and indeed one of my Gran dead, lying in the coffin rosery beads entwined in her finger's.

All the time I was thinking please show me a picture of someone in a happy pose saying cheese for the camera. What can you say though...."Oh yes now thats a good one of uncle Piotr, he looks realy well there. How did he die?"

This happend on several occations with a few different people, and they all had the same photo's. I couldn't build a conversation arround those images, it's as though there was only one person who had a camera and he only went to funerals.

Bizzare quite bizzare.

Got some good ones of my own though :0)

this was not unusual, because I think it was encouraged to stick within their own
but after certain time periods, it was just accepted. there was nothing anyone could
do. I heard same stories.

as akward as it sounds, people do ask.. health information is a asset to the family
because so many things are genetic , and i have asked-without sour looks they tell
me and I offer any new info to them, because its a form of preventative medicine..

it doesnt hurt anyone to be informed and knowlegable of family health issues. and
if you can get info further back , then hang onto it, because its vital and might help
in your care if its a direct family member or close sibling.



I suppose at a certain stage in our lives we realize how distant all of our families
have become, and hope one twinkle in the eye, spark of interest for pictures and
family knowledge might be the person you send all of your history to.

so maybe your aunt was looking for that spark , that you might have yawned thru
or just didnt look interested in.. so many of us have done it, I regret that I didnt
start sooner. because all my family is almost gone, except for one aunt/uncle who
seemed to surpass everyone.. I dread that call.. I hope it takes quite a few more
years truthfully.

I wish My parents were here to share all the found memories/interesting facts
and new relatives that I have found over the last 4 years of doing this. :)

I think we all should take a little bit more time to listen and understand :)

Met a elder cousin on this trip who at first meeting I warmed to...She was definately the rebel in the family.

I was at that time back in the Lemko village of Bodaki where my mother came from.She eventualy explained that she had literaly been blanked by her father for marrying a Polish man. She left the family home with nothing but made good, now she has her own home and family in a nearby town, and sadly regrets the rift with her father was never repaired before her father died. Now she just visits the village and family from time to time.

My mother married a polish man, I wonder weather that had been a major factor why she never returned to her homeland.......

This is a picture of my great grand uncle (brother of my great grandfather Waclaw Ejsmont). I believe this picture to be from WWI. I believe him to be in a Polish uniform, but I've heard possibly a Russian or German uniform? Anyone think differently? I'm fascinated by this man and would love to hear other opinions.

UPDATE: For some reason the pic wouldn't upload.. :( Nevermind.....

mine have done it too. dont feel bad, I am surprised that my dads made it up on
the independence day thread.. eventually I hope that his pic ends up back in this
thread where it belongs.. :))))

What is your uncle Frank's last name? Where was this taken? I'm from Michigan.

What city in Michigan was this taken? What is your uncle's last name?
I'm from Michigan....it looks strikingly familiar.

great photos...can you post more?

Great pics guys, this is the only pic I have that a cousin sent to me, is of a great great uncle and Aunt.

This is my great grandfather Waclaw Ejsmont. He was born in around 1885 and died in 1927 of 'black lung'. He was a classically trained violinist in Poland and a coal miner in Wilkes Barre, PA.

He came to the US in 1905 from the Bailystok area, married a Polish immigrant (Stefania Kishalewski, pictured) and started working in the mines immediately.

I'm in intrigued by this man and wish I could learn more about him.

** another pic failed to upload....sorry ***

My grandfather, dont know when this was taken, but he was born in 1913, Rodzom.




Ok, Photo was cut in half, nevermind.

Grandfather1

For anyone interested in old Photos, I came across this site of old pictures taken from a book of the Jewish in Poland.
There are many occupations and locations shown. I am not Jewish, but found them fascinating.

http://www.tachna.com/jlp/

Talking about old photos, here is one of my grandfather and 2 siblings of his. My grandfather is the one on the right. His brother Henry in the middle and another brother Albert. Maybe someone can recognize the uniform. I suspect the photo was taken about 1920-1922 time frame. Sorry. Can't seem to upload the photo. Can send it privately to whomever can get it uploaded easier.

I recently obtained some old family photo's from my mother. They're from my fathers side of the family. This one a portrait of my paternal grandmothers (Marya Sendor Pernal) brother Andrzej Sendor. No year was written on the photo, just his name. He died early in WWII, so this image is probably taken in the 1930's.

The second photo appears to be older based on the style of the image. No name or date was on it anywhere. Appears to be a hand colored b/w. If anyone could tell the era based on the uniform, it would be greatly appreciated. For now, I consider it an unknown relative, but there are some similarities between the two images.

grandmothers brother Andrzej

unknown relative

Here is part of the photo I made reference to in my previous message. It is of my grandfather. I suspect the uniform to be from the early 1920's. Thanks again

pt. 2

Servatius Albert, Henrik Bazyli, and Alexander Micheal Froelich are the 3 in this photo from left to right.

2 great uncles & grandfather

between 1905-1910? the photo
is in great shape .




I think the two are the same person, just older photo

the second one being older, I thought that before I read the post.
my uncle made the military a career till he died in 1942 january.

possibly this is whats the case..?

my Uncle is the first photo. ( first one I uploaded I think).

very nice pictures though.. thanks for Sharing.

That is so cool :)) I've just started doing my family albums; organizing...so much work to do! my babcia just recently died :( she left lots of old photos...I couldn't believe how much history ...a picture can have :)) maybe I'll try to post them here...

I love looking at old photos..they have so much meaning :))

Another possible unknown relative or family friend. After scanning this, I noticed some faded writing in the upper right, so I'll have to somehow see if I can get that to stand out. No notes were on the back. Appears to be a Captain from the shoulder marks, and with the cross on the lapel, a chaplain. First thought it could have been an older image of my great uncle Andrzej, but I don't recall any family verbal history about him being a priest.

Also, in the two images above, I accidentally reversed the title/notations under each (lesson learned from posting too late at night with too little sleep!). The one on the right is my great uncle Andrzej (his name is written on the back of the photo). The one on the left is "unknown" (unless it is him at a different time of his life).

Kapitan/Chaplain?

thats my guess... i took a better look, if you notice in the first photo you posted
as uncle andrzej, but is the other one, it looks like same man, the first photo
is prob him with out any decorations, the second photo is definately older
and is same man, my presumption. the last one you show me is a much older
version, the stars are his rank I would think?

can anyone help on what the above decorations mean?



wonderful Kasia :)

all pictures are like looking back in time. and one picture can tell a whole story.
keep emm coming, we all enjoy seeing them :)

I wish many of these photo's I'm scanning had some information on them as to the year they were taken, who is in them, etc.

This is an interesting one. On a photography forum I am a member of, another person there was able to translate the writing on the truck for me (I have to learn Polish some day!!!...sure would help with the geneological research I am doing).

Firefighter school/training camp no. 3 in Wisła

MPERNAL the badges shown in the colour photograph are;circular badge-national service,the silver colour for higher ranks other badge is national sports badge.for further information send copy to sikorski museum in london with a donation,they may identify the military unit from the numbers on shoulder they provide a most excellent service.happy searching.

Great Grandma Sophie Holick (maiden Rykowski) and my Grandmother :)

Very Nice :) this thread is really coming along. slowly but surely :)