I was hoping a trip to Osiek Piaseczny would result in some great discoveries! Maybe evidence of the mill from family stories (and visible in the previous photo), some Cybulskis still in the area, an old house – Genealogical research always has surprises. I thought the Cybulskis would be easy to track back to Poland because there were so many records in the microfilm showing large families. Alas, that was not the case. As we drove into the very small village, we took a picture of the village shrine. Many places in Poland have similar shrines created to protect the village.
This one at Osiek Piaseczny was especially colorful.
Below is an aerial view of Osiek Piaseczny from Google Earth. Most of the visible structures are barns. Even after 100 years, the village is
composed of about 10 to 15 houses, but none that appeared to be very old.
As we drove into the village from the west, the first house we came to had several men working outside a barn. Zenon stopped and started chatting with them. The discussion became quite animated and even with my inablility to understand Polish, I could see them shaking their heads ‘no’ and saying Cybulski. Not a good sign. The gray haired man on the left walked up to see what was happening and was probably wondering why everyone stopped working. He quickly entered the discussion. He began pointing; and when Zenon returned to the car, we found out that he knew the location of the old Cybulski home. Zenon was told that a wooden house belonging to Cybulskis was originally located where the soccer field is today but had been torn down many years before. So here is the soccer field.
Next we looked for the location of the mill operated by Jacob Cybulski, Pelagia’s grandfather. We did find a pond but it did not seem large enough to run a mill. Who knows what it was like 100 years ago. According to a story passed down through the family, one really bad year, Jacob did
not hold back the correct percent of milled grain to be sent as ‘tax’ to the Tsar. When it was discovered, the Russian government sent him to Siberia for several years. This story has never been substantiated. One of the dirt roads going to the village was lined with very old willow trees. We walked this road looking for a stream indicated on Google Maps. Only a dry gully was found.
Though there were no Cybulskis and no evidence of a mill, I was elated to be walking the roads and fields of my grandmother’s village. My mom would have loved it!
Adrianne