(This blog post series originally appeared on Paul’s blog (https://myplanc.blog/) and is published with his permission.)
Who are we and how did we get here? Difficult questions but learning about our Polish heritage might shed some light.
I’ve been itching for a challenge in these post-pandemic years, even as I get older. Something to match my curiosity and level of difficulty that makes the effort worthwhile. It was time for something intellectually and socially challenging rather than physical.
What is it about understanding your ancestry that makes it so compelling and frustrating? We learn little bits of obscure information as we grow up that become fragments of a bigger story as we get older. Just when you begin to appreciate the complexity of the world and your broader family picture, its easy to give up on trying to understand the mystery of it all. So, to my amazement, my interest in learning more about who I am and where I’m from came from my son Ethan (53 years young).
Ethan is a supreme techie and a naturally curious guy that got absorbed with the challenge of creating a family tree five or so years ago. He hunted for evidence of relatives such as ship manifests, photos, birth and death certificates. He joined Ancestry and explored other websites for information. For our Kiczek family (my father and mother’s side), the task was somewhat easy as we seemed to have settled in the southeastern section of Poland near Ukraine and Slovakia. Ethan’s mom’s family (Judy’s family) was also Polish so a there was a common history, even if those ancestors were from different towns, they were still from the same section of the country. My grandparents and Judy’s were first generation immigrants having been born in Poland around the turn of the century and having migrated to the U.S.
Coincidentally, we were fortunate to have met a distant cousin Krystyna Onacki, living in Roselle, NJ who was from Poland and helped us create the beginnings of the family tree. That meeting also gave us a renewed interest in learning more about life and history in Poland. Poland is now seen as a productive and progressive country. While it has had its recent share of right wing nationalists, it seems to have found away to move forward and become an independent country. Unique in its history, politics and pull of the Catholic religion its now become a destination for vacationers.
A few months ago Ethan proposed we take a trip to Poland and visit the places of our ancestry. He contacted a Polish genealogist, who helped tie up some loose ends in our family history. We geographically located the towns of our grandparents. Ethan’s son, Ethan Luke Pearson (14 years old), expressed an interest in joining our journey. I’m not at all sure other 14-yr olds would feel the same! But now we had three generations to explore a completely foreign country which binds us together. We fly out to Poland tomorrow, June 9th and expect to return in 10 days on June 17th with a circular itinerary that takes us around the southeastern region including Krakow and a tour of Auschwitz.
Of course there is the possibility that this will be a bust and boring – exploring too many small countryside villages, graveyards and churches. But it’s the mystery of it all, our planned visit to at least one relative and the likelihood that we’ll learn more about how alike and yet different we are that excites us. It should be fun and educational and a great way to connect generations.
Turn, Turn, Turn
For some reason, this upcoming experience made me think of the Byrds song “Turn, Turn, Turn” (aka Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 from the Bible). Always worth some contemplation… especially in a country such as Poland.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”
Update 6/9/24
We will soon be off flying from Newark to Rzeszów, Poland non-stop. We will have the benefit of using a custom genealogical tour by PolishOrigins Tours. In fact, it’s a good thing that we have a personal guide, Lucjan Cichocki, with us for the 10 days. He speaks both languages fluently which will definitely come in handy.
Paul Kiczek