We met Henryka and Anna on Tuesday morning in Lubatowa to walk through the cemetery. Henryka showed us her husband’s and father’s gravesites. The cemetery was amazing, like nothing I had ever seen before or imagined.
Following the tour of the cemetery Henrika took us to the old home where she grew up.
Only after walking the old home site for a while did we learn that this was also the location of Michal Borek’s home. This was where my GGGrandfather raised his family! Where Jan Borek (GGrandfather) was born and raised before leaving Poland in 1903. What an amazing experience! I had obtained old house numbers from my earlier research but I was told that the house numbers had changed over time and that it would be difficult or impossible to track down the actual house. So to actually be standing on the land where Michal Borek raised his family was a huge surprise and an experience I will not soon forget.
After returning Henryka and Anna to their home we made our way back to the church in Lubatowa hoping to gain access to any records.
The church was locked and we were not able to find anyone that could help us. We did manage to get a few pictures through the doors before setting off to explore the village. Zenon began making phone calls to see if we could meet with the priest and see the birth/marriage records. We stopped at the town hall and discovered that there is an organization called “The Friends of Lubatowa”. Zenon was able to talk with the leader of that organization to see if he could help us in our quest – .no luck. Zenon did eventually get an appointment to meet with the Priest.
>After leaving Lubatowa we went to Rymanow to see if the church there might have any records that would help us. Again we hit a dead end. At that point Zeneon engaged a friend in Przemysl to go to the archives there and see what he could find. At this point I was specifically looking for records pertaining to my GGGrandmother Agata Wronski. With his help I discovered that the church in Rymanow was in fact the church where Michal Borek and Agata Wronski were married.
Again the church was locked. (Side note: I returned later in the trip with my wife to find the church open and we spent much of the day there).
Zenon also spent some time with the clerk at the county records office to see what they might have. After much conversation he agreed to take some time to look through the records. Ultimately no records were found.
Next we went back to Lubatowa to meet with the Priest. Zenon again had to employ his negotiating skills to try and obtain access to the church records. After much haggling Zenon gained a brief view of the records but again nothing of value to my research was found.
