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I always find the “Articles of Interest”section such a teaser that I decided tocheck the Internet for some of the publicationsmentioned. Since my great-grandparentsWincenty and Helena (Bodanowicz)Woroniecki were Polish speakers from theWilno area, I am particularly drawn to theLithuanian resources.It appears the Web address for LithuanianHeritage magazine should be www.lithuanianheritage.com (instead of .org).Thank you for the great journal.Joe Zadroznycurrently of Berlin, GermanyEditor: I appreciate your kind words,and you’re absolutely right about theproper URL for Lithuanian Heritage—a veryfine publication, incidentally. Thanks forthe correction!Subject: Galician RailroadI’m a longtime PGSA member andwanted to drop you a note to say how muchI appreciate the continuing high quality ofthe Rodziny journal and the articles thatappear therein. I was especially impressedwith the piece on the “Galician Railroad” byIwona in the Winter 2008 issue.Railroad development in the 19th centuryis a topic about which I would like tosee additional follow-up articles, especiallyregarding the various railroad travel routesthat were available to emigrés transitingto Atlantic seaports with ships sailing forAmerica. It would be informative to learnsomething about the logistics of how Polishimmigrants from the rural countrysidebecame aware of their travel options toAmerica, where they bought tickets, etc. I’msure this would be of interest to many readersof Rodziny.Lastly, I would like to put in my requestfor a translation of the Słownik geograficznyentry for the regional town of Jasło insoutheast Poland. I don’t think I’ve seenthis entry translated as yet, but it’s my impressionthis is a major regional town andmight be of broad interest to PGSA members.Chet Szerlag, Woodridge, IllinoisEditor—I passed your words on toIwona, and I’m sure she’ll do what she canto give us more on this subject. She saidLe t t e r s t o t h e Ed i t o r12 Rodziny, Spring 2008the main sources she used on her articleare as follows:Bissaga, T.: Geografia kolejowa Polski,1938.Dzięsieciolecie Polskich KoleiPaństwowych 1918-1928, MinisterstwoKomunikacji.Golsdorf, K.: Koleje w Austrii1837-1918.Wierzbicki, L.: Rozwój sieci koleiżelaznych w Galicji,1847-1890.As for the SGKP entry for Jasło, I translatedit years ago for the Polish GenealogicalSociety of Texas, and you can read it—enhancedwith nice photos—on their Web siteat http://www.pgst.org/places/jaslo.htm.Subject: Iwona!I desire to advise you of how much Ienjoy the articles by Iwona Dakiniewicz inRodziny. I also wish to advise you of thewonderful professional relationship I havehad with her for a few years now. She hasperformed some really detailed research forme during these years, and I have alwaysbeen more than satisfied with her workperformance. In the family research she hasdone for me, she has always been diligent,thorough, helpful, and reasonable. I wish tocommend her highly to you and to anyonewho wishes to have family research and/or guide-travel-tour assistance work donefor them. She is a wonderful researcher andvery considerate.Daniel Kobylarz-HughesSubject: Germans/Poles in MemelPerhaps you can point me in the rightdirection. In doing family research, I amtrying to find facts to support a familystory.The story is that Frederick William’s(born 1801) father and mother moved toMemel from (possibly) Poland because theyhad a Polish name. His father said to thefamily that from then on, their name wouldbecome Licht (German for light) because“Now we are Germans.” They were Protestants.He was a tailor. His wife’s name wasHenrietta.In doing a bit of online research, I canguess that one of the Polish rebellions (either1794 or 1831) brought them to Memel.Or perhaps (considering his first andmiddle names) they were part of the 20,000
efugees from Salzburg, or other areas, whowere invited to settle in this region by FrederickWilliam I.Would my guesses be accurate? Do youhave any other thoughts on Polish-namedpeople in Memel during the late 1700s toearly 1800s?Thanks for any help.Joanne RodgersEditor—I can’t answer this, but perhapsone of our readers can.Subject: Where is Wrzonca?I am having trouble locating my grandfather’splace of birth in Poland, and I hopeone of the readers can help.My grandfather, Josef S. Gembicki,came to the United States in 1913. He arrivedin New York on November 6, 1913, onthe SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. He camethrough Ellis Island, his place of birth islisted as “Wrzonca, Russia/Poland.” I havechecked old maps and new maps of Poland,and I cannot find this city. I have come tothe conclusion that I am reading it wrongon the passenger record, or maybe it is misspelled.Can anyone out there help?Karen Glynn51718 Red Mill RdDowagiac MI 49047-8775Editor—I’m printing your letter inhopes other members can help more. In themeantime, I might be able to help a little.I used the Steve Morse Web site, www.stevemorse.org, to view the manifest forJosef Gembicki’s arrival in 1913, and youhave read his place of birth correctly, inmy opinion. It does indeed seem to say“Wrzonca,” and gives his country of originas “Russia”—presumably that part ofPoland seized by the Russian Empire inthe late 18th century. “Wrzonca” is also theplace indicated as his previous residence.The problem is, there is no place in Polandcalled Wrzonca! But a little familiaritywith the Polish language solves that mystery.In Polish, the nasal vowel written asą is pronounced much like on, and it wasnot at all unusual for people to spell namesphonetically with on, especially if they werenot familiar with Polish. For that matter,even Poles sometimes did this. Universalliteracy is a comparatively recent developmentin Poland, and there was not alwaysLe t t e r s t o t h e Ed i t o ra consensus on the “right” way to spell aname when there was more than one phoneticallyaccurate version. So while Wrzącais the “correct” spelling these days, in olderrecords and letters it wouldn’t be odd to seeit as Wrzonca sometimes.That’s the good news. The bad newsis, there are nine places in Poland namedWrząca, and six of them were in RussianPoland. Wrząca can be a village of some 60people in Gostynin county, Mazowieckieprovince; a village of some 350 people inPabianice county, Łódzkie province (nearŁódź); a village of some 660 people in Sieradzcounty, Łódzkie province; a village ofsome 110 people in Kalisz county, Wielkopolskieprovince; a village of some 270people in Turek county, Wielkopolskie province;or a village of some 480 people in Kołocounty, Wielkopolskie province. There werealso places by this name in the Germanpartition, but I think you can ignore those,since the manifest says your grandfatherwas a citizen of Russia, not Germany.Without further information, there issimply no way to tell which Wrząca yourancestor came from. All I can suggest isthat you keep digging, in hopes of findingsome document that mentions the name ofthe nearest large town, or the county seat.That would allow you to focus in on one ofthose places. Otherwise, your only hope isto take them one at a time and dig around,hoping that you’ll get lucky and he camefrom the first or second one you check, notthe fifth or sixth!Incidentally, keep your eyes open alsofor documents that mention people namedGębicki, because Gembicki is a variantspelling of that name. We’re dealing herewith the other Polish nasal vowel, ę, whichsounds like en usually, but before b or pmore like em. In modern Polish, Gębickiis the more common spelling; as of 1990,some 1,438 Polish citizens spelled it thatway, as opposed to 390 who spelled it Gembicki.Of those Gębickis, 198 lived in whatwas Łódź province in 1990; another 109 informer Płock province (in which the Wrzącain Gostynin county was located in 1990);and 86 in Konin province (in which currentTurek county was located in 1990). So thesurname is spread all over, and we can’tpoint to any one of those places namedWrząca and say “that’s the only place in Polandwhere we find people named Gębicki/Gembicki.”Rodziny, Spring 2008 13
Page 1 and 2: RodzinySPRING 2008The Journal of th
Page 5 and 6: From Our Correspondent in PolandThe
Page 7 and 8: Fro m Ou r Co r r e s p o n d e n t
Page 9 and 10: Mo i k r e w n i.p l—A Re v i e w
Page 11 and 12: A Warsaw Cemetery AdventurePhyllis
Page 13: A Wa r s a w Ce m e t e r y Ad v e
Page 17 and 18: As k t h e Re t o u c h e roriginal
Page 19 and 20: MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDMOTHER WAS AN E
Page 21 and 22: My Gr e a t-Gr e a t-Gr a n d m o t
Page 23 and 24: My Gr e a t-Gr e a t-Gr a n d m o t
Page 25 and 26: Wh a t Do e s t h e -Wi c z Me a n
Page 27 and 28: Fr o m t h e Sł o w n i k Ge o g r
Page 29 and 30: Articles of InterestHere is a listi
Page 31 and 32: For a complete listing of books and

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