Jennifer Erichsen's birthday is October 25

Happy birthday to Jennifer (my 1rst cousin 1x removed.)

Shirley Raczkiewicz & Roy Longwell married October 26, 1957

Happy anniversary today to my parents, Roy Longwell and Shirley (Raczkiewicz) Longwell! In 1957, Roy Longwell (my father) and his friend Paul Plasman (later owner with his friend Bill Pearson of Bill and Paul’s Sporthaus”) were living on their sailboat Kismet at Bay Haven in Holland, Michigan as they restored it. Shirley often visited the marina because her older sister Lorraine and her husband, John Dykstra had a boat. Later, the Dykstras enjoyed their boat and slip and membership at Singapore Yacht Club in Saugatuck, Michigan with an active social life. ***** Paul was dating Shirley Raczkiewicz, who worked at St. Mary’s Hospital. Paul was in a serious car accident so when Paul was in the hospital, Roy was happy to bring Shirley to the hospital to visit him. With Paul’s blessing, Roy and Shirley eventually began to date. Paul was his best man when they were soon married at St. Adalbert’s Church, October 26, 1957. Paul recovered and went on to marry and start Bill and Paul’s Sporthaus with his friend Bill Pearson in 1961. ***** Since Roy wasn’t a Catholic, Shirley and Roy needed to promise to raise their children as Catholics. Shirley didn’t know that Roy was taking classes to be a Catholic as a surprise to her and she would have waited to get married if she had known. Shirley signed an “Ante Nuptial Agreement, Non Catholic Party” on September 19, 1957 which indicated that if she were given permission to marry a non-Catholic, that the couple would raise their children as Catholic. ***** Like her sister Lorraine, Shirley was part of the first generation of the children of Polish immigrants to marry outside of Polish Catholicism, though her husband Roy did later convert to Catholicism and embraced many of the social customs of the westside Polish people. Later Roy was confirmed when his daughter Paulette (me!) was confirmed. ***** From the newspaper: “Shirley married Roy Howard Longwell October 26, 1957 in Michigan. when she was 21 years old at St. Adalbert Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Parents of the bride were Anthony and Paulina Raczkiewicz from Grand Rapids, Michigan and parents of the groom were Leo and Naomi Longwell from Lake Odessa, Michigan. Maid of honor was Miss Dorothy Karas and best man was Mr. Paul Plasman. Bridesmaids were Miss Rosemary Host, Mrs. John Dykstra, Miss Sandra Dykstra, Miss Patricia Wysocki. Ushers were Ronald Raczkiewicz, Mr. John Dykstra, Jr., Mr. Anthony Raczkiewicz, Jr. Ring bearer was. Michael Lyon and miniature bride was Yvonne Denise Raczkiewicz. A breakfast was held at St. Hyacinth’s Hall with a reception in the evening. The couple resided at 115 Madison Avenue, Grand Rapids, Michigan after their honeymoon in North Dakota.”

Poznań

Here are some ideas of things to do in Poznań. The city has over 500,000 people and the metropolitan area has over 1 million. It is the second most prosperous city in Poland (after Warsaw.) I am looking forward to exploring its cultural and historic features. https://kidsinthecity.pl/things-to-do-in-poznan-poland/?fbclid=IwAR2iR32mFo3e-Kr9gyBMMwyyTSZM7cv97fW21sGsGMU5644eTb9uvXhyAdw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozna%C5%84

Paulina (Kurkiewicz) Kaszucka Died October 24, 1905

Paulina (Kurkiewicz) Kaszucka (my 2x great grandmother) died at 5pm in the afternoon on October 24, 1905 in Sabaudia at age 77. Paulina was a widow since her husband Jozef (Stefan Jozef) Kaszucka had already died but I don’t know the date. Paulina was Józef’s second wife. Jozef’s first wife Katarzyna Sokalewicz and their two (or possibly three) children had previously died. Jozef was a furrier of the Greek Uniate faith and Paulina was from a family of shoemakers and was of the Roman Catholic faith. ***** Her parents were Józef Kurkiewicz and Ewa nee Wisniewska (previous married name Rachanska.) She had 5 siblings, including Ignacy Kurkiewicz (Mike and his sibling’s great grandfather) who married Antonina Czarnopys. ***** There were two witnesses who reported Paulina’s death. The first one was Jan Raczkiewicz (my great grandfather) who was 40 years old. He was Paulina’s son-in-law. He was married to Katarzyna, Paulina and her husband’s daughter. Katarzyna was their 5th child and the only one who made it into adulthood. Her husband Jan was the only living child in his family. All of their children (except for Boleslaw -- the youngest) would have known their babcia Paulina. The other witness was Maciej Bender who was 42 years old. Both Jan and Maciej were peasants, residing in the village of Sabaudia. They traveled into the town of Tomaszow two days after Paulina’s death to provide the eye-witness confirmation of her death. -------------------- Took place in the town Tomaszów on October 13th/26th,1905 at 10 o’clock in the morning. Appeared Jan Raczkiewicz,age 40,and Maciej Bender, age 42, both peasants, residing in the village Sabaudia, and stated that on October 11th/24th of current year at 5 o’clock in the afternoon passed away in the village Sabaudia Paulina Kaszucka,widow, peasant,77 years old,daughter of Józef and Ewa, nee Wiśniewska, the lawful spouses Kurkiewicz. After eye-witness confirmation of the death of Paulina Kaszucka this act was read aloud to the illiterate declarants and signed only by Us. .

Tomaszów Lubelski

Tomaszów Lubelski is the city in Poland where a lot of action happens for the maternal and paternal families of Anthony Raczkiewicz (my grandfather.) He lived there until 1912 and had family continue to live there after he left. Some of his relatives moved from other places to live here or lived outside the city in small villages such as Sabaudia, Rogozno and Majdan Gorny. Their births, marriages and deaths were entered into records by the Roman Catholic priest even though a small number of them are actually Greek Catholic. ***** The city was founded by Jan Zamoyski, a Polish noble, in the 16th century. Originally known as Jelitkowo, Zamoyski renamed it after his son, Tomasz. In 1939, Tomaszów Lubelski was bombed and occupied by the Germans. It currently is the capital of the county and has under 20,000 residents. ***** Information from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomasz%C3%B3w_Lubelski ***** Video shared with me by Stasia Woj. ***** By Photo: Marcin Konsek / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44068044

Lorraine (Raczkiewicz) Dykstra Died October 23, 1969

What small household item holds special memories for you or your family because of a close relationship you had with the owner or an experience you had with the object? A modest set of pudding cups is a family “treasure” in our family. They were often used to serve pudding or tapioca. My mother received the pudding cups on the day that her sister Lorraine died. Lorraine (Raczkiewicz) Dykstra (my aunt) died at the young age of 47 on October 23, 1969, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Daughter of Anthony and Pauline Raczkiewicz, she grew up as their oldest of four children. When Lorraine and John were married in 1941, Shirley was only five years old at the time. Shirley enjoyed staying over with her big sister since they had a close relationship and also their family’s house on Milwaukee Street was small and crowded. “Uncle Joe '' always lived there and there were often boarders upstairs and in the little house behind the main house. Lorraine enjoyed Shirley’s visits also because Lorraine’s husband John was a truck driver who was gone for long periods of time and Lorraine didn’t like to stay alone. Their house was on a country road in Walker, with the houses far apart and fields and woods behind--very different from the city neighborhoods they grew up in. Shirley remembers doing many fun activities together such as sewing and cooking and outings such as going ice fishing and cross country skiing on Whitefish and Big Star Lakes. On the day of her death, Lorraine and her daughter Sandy drove separately and met at Shirley’s house to ride together to a large department store. While they were shopping, Shirley hung wet clothes up on the clothesline outside. It must have been a nice Fall day, not a cold and rainy one. Lorraine and Sandy returned, carrying their bags of purchases to show to Shirley. Their purchases included a big doll and pudding cups. One set of pudding cups had brown trim and the other set had black trim. Lorraine offered Shirley her choice and she picked the pudding cups with black trim. Before they left, Shirley invited them to stay for supper but Lorraine was feeling very unwell. Lorraine mentioned that she had meatloaf at home but was only going to have toast. Previously, Shirley had taken her sister a few times to the doctor but they determined it was just indigestion. Lorraine left and Shirley started taking clothes down from the clothes line. She was worried so she called their house and John was distraught. Shirley’s next door neighbor June Bowman drove her out to their house. When she got there,the ambulance was just leaving. Shirley believes it was a heart attack, based on where the pain was and said, “Back then they didn’t think women had heart attacks.” Losing her sister had a big impact on her younger sister, Shirley (Raczkiewicz) Longwell (my mother.) Shirely was 33 years old when her sister died. Because the pudding cups were so connected to Lorriane, and I was the oldest daughter and had the most memories of Lorraine, my Mother said, “that’s why you should get the pudding cups.” OBITUARY: Lorraine was 48 years old when she passed away unexpectedly at St. Mary’s Hospital on a Thursday night. Survived by her husband and daughter, two grandchildren, her parents, her grandmother Mrs. Anna Skrobat of OIl City, PA, two brothers (Anthony Jr. and Ronald R.) and sister Mrs. Roy (Shirley) Longwell. She was a member of the Women’s City Club of Saugatuck and the Singapore Yacht Club of Saugatuck. Funeral Mass at Holy Spirit Church, reposed at Alt Mortuary.

Leokadia Dubiel & Stansilaw Tryndoch

Stasia Woj and her sister Edyta (my newfound 2nd cousins) parents were Leokadia nee Dubiel and Stanislaw Tryndoch. Her grandparents, Jan Dubiel and Paulina (nee Raczkiewicz) (my great aunt) had 6 children in Rogozno, Poland: four girls and two boys. Leokadia (Lodzia) Tryndoch was the oldest child of Jan Dubiel and Paulina nee Raczkiewicz (my great aunt.) The family lived in Rogozno, Poland. ***** Leokadia (Lodzia) married Stanisław (Stasio) Tryndoch. He was born in 1913. Stasio was an uhlan, cavalryman in the inter-war period in Hrubieszów. The Uhlan date from the Middle Ages when they went in advance of the armored knights. By the time of the inter-war period, they were no longer using them to break through an enemy line. They retained the ability to move around quickly on horseback but then dismounted before fighting. ***** In the picture, he is seated on a horse outside of a brick stable with open wooden doors. His uniform includes a full length dark, heavy wool coat. The coat has a wide, pointed collar, large buttons down the middle and on the cuffs, and a dark leather belt cinched at the waist with a metal buckle. His rimmed cap has a metal badge in the center. His boots are dark leather with a metal buckle.