Richard Streng & My Family History

In December of 2020, Jacek Raczkiewicz told me that when he was in his 20s, that he was incontact with a US relative who visited Poland and Jacek later visited him in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jacek remembers visiting the Grand Rapids Public Museum and Lake Michigan. Jacek helped me get in touch with Richard Streng. It turns out that Richard and his second wife Judy are active at St. Adalbert Church, where much of my family history occurred. I found out that Richard had done a lot of family research years ago. It turns out, Richard had connected with my two uncles Ron and Tony to ask them questions. He remembered that one of them owned a bar in Standale and lived in Coopersville and he remembers meeting the other one at The Cooper Top (a westside restaurant at the time.). Unfortunately, neither Ron or Tony knew any of the family history. Richard told me about his grandfather, Pawel Raczkiewicz. He told me that Pawel had been required to enter the Russian Army and when he returned, his parents were deceased. The family farm had been divided since they thought he was dead so he came to the U.S. We determined that our family connection was Jan Raczkiewicz and Apolonia nee Gołębiowska (my 4th great grandparents and Richard’s 3rd great grandparents.) Richard also told me about being in Warsaw 15 or 16 years ago. He had written a letter to a minister who forwarded it to Jacek’s parents and Richard and his wife intended to visit them in Tomaszow Lubelski. Unfortunately his wife became very ill so Richard contacted them to cancel the visit. Instead, Jacek’s parents (Miecyslaw and Stanislawa) and him drove 5 hours to come to see them, visited for a few hours and then the parents left. Jacek remained for the weekend and then helped them find the way back to the airport. Does anyone else from Poland remember this visit and have anything to add to it?