Introduction to Apolonia Skrobot's Family

I want to give you some background of my grandmother Pauline nee Skrobot. Pauline was the second of 14 children born to Anna nee Barszcz and Walter Skrobat. Anna was born in Ropica Gorna, Malopolskie, Poland and immigrated in 1900. Walter was born in Gorlice, Moszczenice, Poland (Austria) and immigrated around 1892. They married in Oil City, Pennsylvania in 1901. I think she may have been married before but I haven’t yet found a lot of their background information. ***** Walter worked as a laborer and Anna Had 13 children, of which six survived. They supplemented their income at various times with the sale of alcohol at times it was not legal. Anna, as a mother of five with another one on the way, was arrested in 1916 for distributing illegal alcohol. At the time the county they lived in -- Venango County-- was dry--meaning the sale of alcohol was prohibited. Pennsylvania began Prohibition early, starting February 25, 1919 and going until 1933 In 1929, Walter was arrested for possessing and selling liquor. ***** The names of Walter and Anna’s children were Agnes, Appalolonia, Stanley, Adam, Mary, Victoria, Mary, Joseph, Casimirum, Genofain, Matthew, Helen and Jane. Apolonia and Vicky ended up married in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jane, Matthew, Adam and Joseph all stayed in Oil City. All of the ones in OIl City except for Joseph owned bars and restaurants. Apolonia went to Grand Rapids Michigan and married Anthony Raczkiewicz (my grandfather) in 1920. Her sister Vicky followed her there and married Frank Palczewski. The story is that Pauline left because her mother was harsh and kept having babies and expecting Pauline to help take care of them. In their mother’s will, these two sisters were treated differently than the siblings who remained in Oil City. Walter (Pauline’s father) ended up coming to Grand Rapids to live with her--the full story on that is not known. It is interesting that with their parents' background related to selling alcohol, that most of the siblings in Oil City owned bars and restaurants which Anna helped them purchase. Joseph served in WWII but didn’t own any bars or restaurants to my knowledge. Jane and her husband Adam, Matthew and his wife Kay and Adam and his wife Mary all owned various bars and restaurants: White Bridge Inn, Kay’s Smorgasbord, Skruby’s Inn and Little Dutch inn. Of the 18 notable people from Venango County (listed on Wikipedia), grandchildren of Walter and Anna married and connected to two of them: Mary’s daughter Eileen Schossler married Max Gabreski. Max’s father was “Gabby Gabreski” a top fighter ace in WWII and the Korean war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabby_Gabreski Mary’s daughter Henrietta married Ted Marchibroda (player for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals, Coach Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore Ravens and other teams) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Marchibroda. ***** Dave Adams (my 2nd cousin and Jane and her husband Bill Adams’ son) and I have worked together a little on genealogy though there has been only a little progress on the Polish records. We have worked together on numerous newspaper articles featuring the Skrobot family in Oil City. There are definitely some stories to tell on this side of the family!