My Gr e a t-Gr e a t-Gr a n d m o t h e r Wa s a n En e m y Al i e n!!At right: A photo <strong>of</strong>the house at 1325Walnut St. Below:A Wardynski familypicnic. All photoscourtesy <strong>of</strong> theauthor.seated and said, “I am not so much mourningthe death <strong>of</strong> my son as I am worriedabout outliving all my children. Will therebe anyone left to see me to my grave whenI die?” This was a man who truly loved hisfamily. He died on January 19, 1963, at theage <strong>of</strong> 97; he had outlived two wives and allbut five <strong>of</strong> his thirteen children.In working on the family genealogy, Ihave developed a special appreciation formy great-grandfather. He accomplished allthat other <strong>Polish</strong> immigrants did in theirrelocations to the United States, but withan amazing speed <strong>of</strong> purpose and unerringdirection. In the 1894 city directory hewas listed as already working for the IllinoisZinc Co., one <strong>of</strong> the largest employers in thearea. The company operated a huge rollingmill on the riverfront that manufactured18 <strong>Rodziny</strong>, Spring 2008sheets <strong>of</strong> zinc and ran mines that providedcoal for its blast furnaces. On June 12th,1897, with three children already addedto his family, John Wardynski signed topurchase a lot from the Roman Catholicchurch in what would soon be the FirstWard <strong>of</strong> the town <strong>of</strong> Peru. The church hadalready built a school building in 1891, andin September <strong>of</strong> 1899 the <strong>Polish</strong> Church <strong>of</strong>St. Valentine’s was completed just one half<strong>of</strong> a block from the Wardynskis’ new homeon 1325 Walnut St. Now, both Peru and La-Salle had churches <strong>of</strong>fering services in <strong>Polish</strong>.Soon that ward, located between a ravineand the eastern town line that abuttedthe western limits <strong>of</strong> LaSalle, would becomea <strong>Polish</strong> community where bartenders andshop owners could welcome the hard-workinglaborers into their establishments withan enthusiastic “Dzień dobry!” John mightstop for a beer at Kulikowski’s Saloon whileAgnes could shop at Urbanowski’s Grocery,Meat, and Hardware Store. In October <strong>of</strong>1904, John Wardynski’s naturalizationpapers were finalized at the County Courtbuilding in the town <strong>of</strong> Ottawa, and he andAgnes could proudly acclaim themselves as<strong>America</strong>n citizens.On April 12, 1894, the SS Amerikaarrived in Baltimore Harbor with six passengersaboard who had declared theirdestination in the United States as Peru,Illinois. Jan and Michalina Skrzypczak werethe parents <strong>of</strong> Agnes Wardynski. With them
My Gr e a t-Gr e a t-Gr a n d m o t h e r Wa s a n En e m y Al i e n!!came her four younger sisters, Katha, Marianna,Magdalina, and Josepha. I’m surethat John and Agnes provided some or all <strong>of</strong>the money needed to finance their trip. Thefamily had sailed from the port <strong>of</strong> Hamburgafter leaving a village named Topola on theoutskirts <strong>of</strong> środa.Today, with only a few <strong>of</strong> my aunts andno uncles still living, the Skrzypczaks werepretty much a forgotten family. MichalinaSkrzypczak had first introduced herselfto me in the early days <strong>of</strong> my genealogicaljourneying when I was on one <strong>of</strong> my latenighttreks through ancestry Web sites. Iwas delving into the 1920 census takenin the town <strong>of</strong> Peru, Illinois, when this77-year-old woman appeared as the lastentry in a list <strong>of</strong> family members living at1501 Walnut St. This was the residence <strong>of</strong>my grandmother’s sister, Pearl, who livedthere with her husband, Joseph Wyciskalla,and their three young children, Edmund,Joseph, and Mary. That census listedMichalina as a boarder who had arrived in<strong>America</strong> in 1894 and was never naturalized.Two things first came to my mind whenI discovered this household shared by aSkrzypczak and the Wyciskalla family.First, this address had to be a nightmarefor postal delivery. Wyciskalla is a difficultenough name, but Skrzypczak is a pronunciationnightmare devoid <strong>of</strong> almost everyvowel. It is misspelled at the rate <strong>of</strong> about80 percent whenever it appears in legaldocuments, city directories, and newspaperobituaries. One must never assume thatone can find this name in any form similarto its proper spelling. The second thingcame in the form <strong>of</strong> a question. Why wasthis elderly lady living in the residence <strong>of</strong>my Great Aunt Pearl, who was obviouslybusy building a family in the early years <strong>of</strong>her marriage? My assumption was that shehad to be a close relative.Over the years, I was able to unearthall the ships’ manifests, the baptismal andmarriage records, and the governmentpapers that substantiated the Skrzypczaks’relationship to my great-grandparents. Theywere my only great-great-grandparents tohave emigrated from Poland and settledhere in the United States.But then, one night about a half-yearago, while I again was surfing the Net,checking out sites that might disclose theWardynskis’ origins in German Poland, Ityped the their name into Ancestry.com andbegan scrolling down through the differentareas. Eventually I came to AncestryWorld Trees and, to my surprise, the namesJohn and Michalina Skrzypczak appeared.And though that surname was misspelled(Skszypczak), I knew that this couple linkedwith the names <strong>of</strong> John Wardynski andhis wife Agnes Skrzypczak added up to mygrandmother’s parents and grandparents.And not only was Michalina listed butalso her parents, Joseph Maciejewski andBrigida Wozniak.In what turned out to be the greatestfreebie <strong>of</strong> my probing into the past, I realizedthat someone had handed me thenames <strong>of</strong> my great-great-great-grandparents.My next step was to discover whohad taken the time to construct this familytree online. After spinning around throughseveral revolving doors, I came up with thename Mary Zukowski, who lived in La-Salle, Illinois. Because <strong>of</strong> the research I hadbeen doing in the LaSalle-Peru area, I hadbecome a member <strong>of</strong> the LaSalle CountyGenealogy Guild. The guild is located onGlover Street, just a few blocks south <strong>of</strong>the Illinois River, in a great little buildingfilled with library tables that <strong>of</strong>fers lots <strong>of</strong>area for research, a plethora <strong>of</strong> old booksand documents (church records, city directories,obituaries, micr<strong>of</strong>ilms), and anexceptionally helpful staff. I first became amember <strong>of</strong> this organization in 2002. SinceMary Zukowski lived in LaSalle and wasgenealogically astute, I assumed that shewas a fellow member <strong>of</strong> this organization,and in searching through the Guild’s 2006Surname Index, I found her listed as member# 43. I am member # 4033. I obtainedMary’s address from the Guild Index andthen looked up her phone number in theLaSalle-Peru telephone directory.Each step in this genealogical discoveryprocess would bring me nearer to myunderstanding <strong>of</strong> the Wardynskis. Thisfamily bypassed the opportunities <strong>of</strong> settlingin the big city <strong>of</strong> Chicago where therewas an abundance <strong>of</strong> jobs and housing.Instead they opted to come to the town <strong>of</strong>Peru, Illinois. Why? In May <strong>of</strong> 1891, whenJan and Agnieszka arrived in the Midwest,a great white city was being constructedin Jackson Park on the southernmost citylimits <strong>of</strong> Chicago that two years later wouldopen as the World’s Columbian Exposition.Chicago was crying out for immigrant labor!Why didn’t the Wardynskis follow the over-<strong>Rodziny</strong>, Spring 2008 19
Change language