Today we met for breakfast at the inn and then the 4 of us headed back to Sucha.
We were to meet at Halina’s house at 9 am. We headed to Parish of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The woman in the office had the book out and marked for Julien’s record. The woman was kind enough to gather some other books so that we could search for Julien’s younger siblings. From the books we were able to find the birth records for Julia and Jan. So now we have all the family births’ information. We did not find a marriage record for Julien’s parents but Zbigniew noticed a record for Julien’s father’s brother and so he had us take pictures and then we looked for the brother’s birth record. So from all the information collected we suspect that the Julien’s parents were married at his mother’s parish.
We then toured the Parish of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary churches. There is the old church that was renovated and is 500 years old. Then there’s the new church that is 100 years old. They were both every beautiful. Next we were off to the cemetery. We visited all the graves and took pictures so we have the dates if they were on the graves. Halina and Jadwiga did not know where Julien’s parents were buried but assumed that maybe with other family members. As is the custom they will take and combine the bodies into small coffins or such to make room for new family members.
>After the cemetery we stopped and picked up flowers for Stanislawa and then back to her house. The conversation came to be about what life in the United States was like and information on what we did for work. They also questioned about retirement and what our houses were like. It was soon time to leave and do further exploring. They told us that we were always welcome and that next time we could stay with them. We promised to send copies of the pictures to them and after a few tears we went on our way.
Next we headed to the town where Zbigniew believed Julien’s parents were married. We searched for the church. First church was too new and then we found the older church which is St. Anne’s. We were able to peek inside from the vestibule. On the outside there were announcements of masses being said and there were two listed for Popielarcz family.
Zbigniew inquired at the parsonage when the office might be open. He was told after 6:30 am mass and the evening mass. We did not find a listing for the evening mass. So we decided we would be at the church at 7:15 am tomorrow. We then went back to Sucha for lunch/dinner. It was decided that we would drive back passed the church to see if the evening mass was at 6 pm. As luck would have it, mass was at 6 pm. We waited and then got in line to see the priest. He did not wish to give us the information but Zbigniew and the priest reached an agreement that Zbigniew would return at noon the next day to see what the priest was able to find. And based on if the marriage record was found then to look for the Julien’s mother’s birth record.
We finally reached the inn – this time before 10 pm. Zbigniew met us in the lobby to try and put all the information we learned into order. We had to use pictures and records and notes to help us figure it out. I also told him about my research in Kernave Lithuania and he was there not that long ago. It turns out that he took a client there and in researching there is a Pechulis in his client’s family. He said the village only had about 9 houses in it. I am going to share the Pechulis research with him. He asked if we wanted to skype with his client. Six degrees of separation.
(Read about Kernave visit here: Looking For Great-grandpa Ludwik)
Off to bed for an early start tomorrow to head back to Krakow for our noon meeting with Ewa. Zbigniew will head back down to parish for Julien’s mother’s information.