Sunday, June 13 - Sierakowo and Zegocin

This is our checkout day at Sierakowo.  We have had a wonderful time and feel like we have learned so much.  Our hosts have been wonderful.  We told them we would take a short walk after breakfast and Weronika asked if we would like her to come along.  Of course we agreed and had a great walk.   As we walked along the road, Weronika and I talked about the flowers, discussing the names of them in the German, English, and Polish. 

She asked me about a small blue flower and I said it was a cornflower, like in German, then sang a few bars of a german drinking song, Kornblumen Blau.   Weronika joined right in and we sang a few other songs as well.  She was pretty impressed I knew German songs at all. 

After the walk, we checked out and hit the road.  It is only about 200 miles, but most of those are not freeway miles, so it took us most of the afternoon.  In addition, we skirted the only big town, Posnan, to avoid traffic.  In Jarocin, we got in the middle of soccer game day traffic.  We arrived in Zegocin, about 7 pm.  I had emailed ahead to ask for dinner that night, knowing that we would be in a very small town, probably without a restaurant.  I was right - not even really a cafe.   In Poland, the large meal is mid-day and dinner at night is often cold cuts.  Our hosts asked if we would like a warm meal and since we had had no lunch, we agreed.  We had cabbage rolls in tomato sauce and boiled eggs with mayonaise.  All of it was good. 

They explained that they always eat mayo with boiled eggs.  After dinner, the hosts invited us to take a walk with them and we did so.  They knew were are interested in relatives, and so they gave us quite a bit of history of the village, including a stop at the former manor house in the village.  Poland had serfdom much later than many other countries, so the people who lived in that home in the mid 1800's would have owned both the town and the people in it, including his relatives who may have lived in the village. 

Manor House Zegocin

Our hosts also pointed out the church and other older buildings that may have existed when his relatives lived in the village.  He also asked around to see if anyone in the village was familiar with the surnames Guzek, Nurska, or Nadolski.  He eventually found someone who said the names sounded familiar and he believed his family was related to those families, but his father, now deceased would have known. 

Anyway, a nice walk to end the day and the start of another leg of this adventure.

Locating the Guzek Villages

Guzek is my married name and I have done only a little research so far on the Guzek family. Thanks to brother-in-law Jack Whiting who has done research and documented what he has discovered. His family history, distributed in 1994, indicates George Guzek and Justina Nurska came from the area of Rzegocin, Poznan, Poland. That's cool, remember the conference we will attend is in Posen or Poznan, Poland, so we will be in the general area in June.

At the time Jack distributed the family history, he was unable to find records of the birth of George Guzek, but he believes George was born in 1853 or 1854, the son of Francis Guzek. An entry in a later baptismal record lists George (father of the child) as Adelbert, the polish name for George.

Jack DID find a birth record in the Rzegocin Catholic parish register for 1845 listing the birth of Waununiu (Lawrence), born in Rzegocin to Fransiczek GULAK and Josefa Wodzynska. These MAY be the parents of George.

Jack's records indicate Justina Nurska was born to Jan Nurski and Agnieszka Mazurek on September 18, 1859 in the village of Grab. An 1880 polish census indicates Grab was in the district of Pleszew, very close to the river Prosna, served by a post office in Robakow, 5 km away, and by rail in Zerkow, 16 km distant.

We also know that Justina and George were married on February 7, 1879. They had 4 children in Poland: Isadore, Michael, Adam, and Eva, born Feb. 7, 1887. Shortly after Eva's birth, the family left Poland, following other members of Justina's family, and arrived in the US in summer 1887.

We also have family reports that Justina had a sister who also stayed in Poland after other families left. Her married name was Nadolski. Family members recall being in contact with this family in Poland from about 1950 to 1960.

Now for the place research! An 1883 map of the Posnan region found at www.library.wisc.edu/etext/ravenstein/mapdl.html shows Grab on the river Prosan, near Zerkowo and Rzegocin. Grab is just north and slightly west of Pleschen and northeast of Jarotschin on that map. Now to find the current names of these towns.

Back to http://www.kartenmeister.com/ . A search for Rzegocin indicates that was the German name and the Polish name is Zegocin, county Pleschen, province Wielkopolskie (formerly Posen). Rzegocin/Zegocin is located at East 17 degrees 47' North 51 degrees 59'. We also find the Catholic Parish was in Rzegocin, the Civil Registry was in Pieruszyce, and the population in 1905 was 531. I also located Grab at Kartenmeister, same name in Polish, county Jarotschin, province Kaliskie, formerly Posen, located at East 17 degrees 43' North 52 degrees 01'. Grab also belonged to the Catholic parish of Rzgocin, but the civil registry was in Lagenfelde. Grab had a population of 342 in 1905. I also find that there ARE LDS films covering these areas in the 1870's and 1880's.

I have also found similar information online at www.loc.gov/rr/european/egwinv/egwz.html the Library of Congress European Reading Room.

From Kartenmeister, there is a link to Google maps for the location (http://maps.google.com/?q=52.01,17.72+(Grab)&iwloc=A&hl=en ). A click on that link for Grab brings up a map showing Grab to be within about 50 miles of Posnan. When I zoom in the map, I find Zegocin about 3 miles from Grab. I enter the coordinates above in Google Earth and see that there are still small villages in these locations today!!!

Then I go to www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/guzek.html and find that there are 26 to 50 instances of the surname Guzek in Jarocin county today. There are 7 - 9 instances of the name Nurska in Pleszew county today. Side note, while at that site, I find there is a link at the bottom of the page to a similar map in Germany, so I can look up my other ancestors names - this is why we get distracted - one find provides numerous other leads to check out! Happy ancestor hunting!