A Tourist in Washington, D. C.

 This is what Washington D.C. might look like on a normal day in January.  This photo was taken January 29, 2010 at 10:00 a.m.  I was there attending a meeting.

See any wild groups of tourists?  Some idiot of a congressman whose name I will not place on my blog said yesterday that if you looked at the videos from January 6, 2021 you might think it was just a group of tourists.  Well, only if you are completely stupid and crazy.  

Unfortunately, trump plays to stupid and crazy and now the repugnicant party follows in step like the good little Nazis they are.

In case you are wondering what I am referring to, here is a video from yesterday: video

Zapieczne, Poland

 My paternal grandfather was born in Zapieczne, Poland.  You have no idea how hard it was to figure that out.

I had always been told that he was from Lodz, Poland.  When my Jewish friends heard my maiden name (which I use as my middle name), they would always comment about the name being common in Lodz and its variations.   The name itself is derived from the Jewish Ashkenazic name from the Yiddish female given name Dobroe, which means "good".  Diminutives are Dobkin and Dopkin.  The surname then was the name given a descendant of dobe.  Variants of this surname include Dobkowicz and Dubkowski.  And mine is another variation subject to several spelling variations.

My grandfather's information on the ship's manifest said he was from Rustok, Russia, a town I could not locate anywhere near Poland.  Census records only mentioned Poland as did others.  Then I found his World War II draft registration card.  That gave his place of birth as Zapiecrmyck, Poland.

Totally baffled I wrote to the Polish Consulate office in Chicago and got - NO response at all.  

So, I Googled.  It took awhile, but I finally found the town of Zapieczne (after being directed to a restaurant with the same name).  When my grandfather was born there it was in the Lomza District.  The borders of the administrative districts have changed many times over the last two centuries and today Zapieczne and Lomza are in two different districts.

I am guessing that relatives confused Lomza and Lodz.  Hey, they share three letters.  As for Rustok, I eventually found that 'Rostki  is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Jedwabne, within Łomża County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland.'  Rustok - Rostki, makes sense, especially if one was translating the Cyrillic alphabet to English.

A cousin found relatives still living in Zapieczne.  He found them on Facebook.  They shared family pictures of relatives we did not even know we had.  Hey, I just met this cousin within the last five years.  I knew there was family on Long Island, NY, but after my parents died I never heard about them.  Then my sister gave me my mother's stuff and there were pages from an old address book.  I Googled an address, found a phone number that was the same as the one in the book, and called it.  I spoke with the mother of the cousin I had yet to meet and it was amazing.  She had lived in the house that her father-in-law had built in 1952.  She died within the past two years.

Sometimes in order to build a family tree we must dig a hole twice as wide and sometimes twice as deep as the root ball.  It takes time and a desire to really know where we came from.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.

Y Counting the Years

 We always joked about my great-grandmother lying about her age.  Here is her funeral card.

If Louise was really born in 1883, she would have born a child when she was nine years old.  I think not.  In the transcribed records from Nadolany that are online, she was born in 1874. 

Reading records online and keeping track of ages is very interesting.   Parents have their ages recorded at each birth of a child.  It is not unusual for people to get younger as time goes on.   And never rely on the quoted age when reading a death record.  Especially when someone dies over the age of seventy.  Then it is anybody's guess as to the actual age.

I guess in the grand scheme of life back in the 17 and 1800's, how old you were was not really a big issue.  It certainly wasn't like you could retire and collect social security.

And I should be one to talk.  I told everyone I was 29 up until I was ready to turn 40.  Now I gladly say I am turning 75 this year and ask for the senior discount.