19 February 2008
My Remarks :
The little boy with long hair at the bottom of the photo, first on the left, sitting next to his a bit older brother Jurek (with short hair), is Ryszard Karczmitowicz. He discovered this photo on my website and realised that it is the same as the one he had since 1938. He contacted me after 70 years !

The link to his email in Polish is above. I have translated the email and inserted it on the relevant pop-up page about my visit to Dawidgródek in Polesie, pre-war Poland. On this photo I am sitting right in the middle, below a man (in a singlet) who is standing and supporting himself on the shoulders of two men. Actually he was the Postmaster in Dawidgródek. I am 14 years old.

• Later, Ryszard Karczmitowicz sent me some old, interesting pictures from Dawidgródek.
The link is in Chapter 4 - My visit to Dawidgródek in 1938
• Ryszard has also sent further emails in which he describes (in Polish) his trip to Belarus in 2002 to see Pinsk and visit his native Dawidgródek. See Emails in Polish

25 February 2008
(Refer also to previous Email 026)
Dear Frank,
I have checked the database (hard copy) of Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe /Central Military Archives in Rembertów near Warszawa (unfortunately it is not on-line, but their web site is: http://www.caw.wp.mil.pl/strona_gl.htm). Among the records of officers, NCOs, civilian workers for army and persons awarded medals during the period of 1918-39, I found some Rymszewskis: ....... (link below) ...... I hope this sort of information might be useful for your genealogical studies on Rymaszewskis. If there are some persons you are interested more just let me know. Maybe some of those above-mentioned names were your relatives? Best regards from Warszawa.
Tomasz

My Remarks :
The list of Rymaszewskis, sent by Tomasz Sudol, is located in Chapter 12: Ancestors (2): the records

25 February 2008
Just been looking at your informative web site.
You may be interested in my Polish Soldiers page as on my website.
Scott Reekie
         http://home.bendbroadband.com/scottishheritage
================================================================================
My Remarks :
Scott Reekie's website, named "Scottish Heritage", is a beautiful site, easy to navigate and read. It is his personal website of remembrances of his early years in the village of Earlsferry on the east coast of Scotland, where he was born in 1926. One of his very many pages is entitled "Polish Soldiers". It gives very accurate description and the fate of a large detachment of Polish army personnel stationed there during the 1939-1945 war, while they were being trained as paratroopers. Eventually they were dropped in action behind the enemy lines near Arnhem and Nijmegen in Netherlands.
If you love Scotland, and if you've been there like myself during the war years, have a look at Scott's site.

27 February 2008
Dear Mr. Rymaszewski,
My brother Duncan Payling from Melbourne contacted you last year (July 2007) about sailing home from India in July/August 1943 on the troopship Aorangi. I was seven years old at the time and I remember vividly the huge convoy of ships escorting us. My father Reginald Payling was a quartermaster sergeant at the time (I think). I remember especially our ship being sent to anchor in the “Orange” (probably Congo) River in W. Africa and the minesweepers laying mines across the mouth of the river so that the destroyers and submarines could go off to hunt for U-Boats.

Whilst we were waiting for them to return the local native children kept us amused by swimming and diving around the ship. We threw coins into the sea and watched fascinated as these children caught the coins in the water! My brother Reg, aged nine, broke his arm whilst we were playing on deck. Some of the crew took him to Freetown to have his arm set and put in plaster.

I cannot believe that you and our family were on the same voyage and we can remember everything so clearly. It’s a miracle of this Internet age that we can have found each other and be in contact 65 years later!

Later when we settled in our home in Sheffield, England we were visited by two Polish soldiers. The war was still on and they stayed with us for a few days. They left a beautiful album full of postcards of the Black Forest and one of the soldiers drew a beautiful picture of Jesus for me. I have treasured this picture for all these years and I still have it! Please see the enclosed attachment which is a photocopy of the original. Unfortunately it is not signed but I thought you might recognise the artist.

I never understood the connection with Polish soldiers before, but now I have read your website I realise that they must be soldiers who joined the Aorangi at Capetown. They must have made friends with my parents during the long voyage back to England.

I hope you find this interesting and would be stunned if you could actually identify the artist.
Kind Regards, Marlene Seedhouse
=======================================================
My Remarks :
This email is connected with the previous Email no. 030 from Marlene's brother, and my notes in Chapter 6 about my wartime voyage on troopship Aorangi. The picture of Jesus, drawn by an unknown Polish soldier in Sheffield during the war, is reproduced in the hope that some of my Polish readers will recognise it and let Marlene solve the mystery who the artist was.

15 March 2008
How interesting I found your web site.
My father Francisiek Poskrobko was born in Pinsk in 1905. He died in his eighties before I could talk to him about his life, my fault not his. Since I have tried to find out which POW camp or gulag he was taken to.
I do not speak Polish, which I wish now I did, as I have relatives in Poland which I am trying to contact.
Enjoyed reading your web site. Any suggestions where I might start.

20 March 2008
Kochany Pan Rymaszewski,
My name is Kristine Hanna Wyatt (nee Woytowicz, but my father changed our name after he and my mother came to the United States, for business reasons). I am writing to you because I am wondering whether we might be related. I found your website by Googling "Nacz, Eastern Poland." You see, my mother told my brother, Mark, and me all about Nacz, as that was where she spent many vacations. Her name was Maria Gordzialkowska, and she was born in 1914. Her little sister was Hanna. Her mother was Amelia Czarnocka. I think her father was Bronislaw Gordzialkowski.

She used to tell us about the relative who was sent to Siberia, and a bench in the park that had names carved into it, and the tree-lined aleja leading up to the house. Also about how, when she and other children would be a little too loud in the house, they would be told to be quiet because "the grandmothers" were sleeping. These grandmothers would fall asleep in their chairs by the fire in the living room.

I looked through your wonderful family tree and other information and didn't find any of those surnames, but I wonder if it's still possible that we could be family. The only other name I remember at this particular moment is that of her cousin Wanda Czereyski (sp?), but that was her married name. (My mother and her sister used to call Wandka's mother "ciocia z gorki" [sp?].) I have more names written down somewhere and could look them up if you think there's a possibility ... Either way, I must say I was so thrilled to see your website. It's so complete, so lovely and loving. Your children and grandchildren (and their children and grandchildren!) are lucky to have a record like this of their family.
Very sincerely, Krysia
===============================================================================

My Reply :
Dear Krysia,
Thank you for your nice and kind words about my website. It appears that your mother's parents Bronislaw Gordzialkowski and Amelia Czarnocka do indeed come from the same area, eastwards from Lachowicze, in former Eastern Poland (Kresy), as my ancestors do.

However, in my search I have discovered that there were quite a few places there, called Nacz. They were all private estates owned by various families and usually had an additional identifying name. On a detailed Polish military map of Eastern Poland (available on the internet), published between 1920-1939, I have counted in that area nine places named Nacz, marked as Fw. Nacz or as D. Nacz.   "Fw." is an abbreviation for "folwark", meaning "a grange", and "D." is an abbreviation for "dwór", meaning "a manor". They were: Fw. Nacz-Burakowce, Fw. Nacz-Kopan, Fw. Nacz-Gaj, Fw. Nacz-Lubicz, Fw. Nacz-Stryj, Fw. Nacz-(?), D. Nacz-Bryndzowska, still existing largest Nacz, now a village called Nacza (Nacha) in Belarus, then there was Fw. Nacz-Falskich and D. Nacz-Hlebowska. There is also a river, rather small, called Nacz river, flowing close to these places. The Nacz grange close to Burakowce was the birthplace of my father, where his father Aleksander, the brother of Rafal, who owned the adjoining Burakowce grange, originally lived. Aleksander then moved to his own estate Zascianek near Mala Plotnica, described in my Chapter 4.

All the above estates do not exist any more. After the annexation of Eastern Poland by the USSR in 1939, all private lands have been confiscated by the Soviet State, and the families destroyed. I understand that Czarnocki, your maternal grandmother's family, was a well known family of landowners in that area. Some surviving Czarnockis moved to Poland after the war. By the way, "ciocia z górki" means "auntie who lives on the hill" - I presume you knew that.
Wishing you good luck in tracing your roots and with my Best Wishes, Sincerely, Franek Rymaszewski.

Easter, 23 March 2008

I am attaching, in case you might be interested, a photo of my mother with braids in the garden at Nacz (according to the handwritten note -- po Polsku! -- on the back; I can't remember the exact words). It is the earliest picture we have of her, and we only just found it among my aunt's pictures after my mother died in January.
(I can't tell you how wonderful it was to find that picture. It completed her for me, and now when I think of her, I see that girl, and it helps me see her as a whole person.)
I hope you can download it, and that's actually why I'm writing from my yahoo account. I've found that people have trouble getting my attachments when I use the aol account.

Anyway, thanks again, so very much, for getting back to me -- and so quickly ! -- with so much priceless information.
All my best, Krysia

Easter, 23 March 2008
Hello and Wesolego Alleluja!
I am very impressed with your website. What a tremendous labor of love for your ancestors and family of the future. I commend you the results of your vast efforts. To that end I am looking for some advice as to how I can pursue my family genealogy in Europe. Any advice would be helpful and well appreciated. I know, from my father, that we also have family in Australia from the Rzeszotarski lineage. My mother is from the Zawacki lineage.

You must be overwhelmed by such requests. I also share a passion to help my family know their past and to have such documentation to pass on as our legacy of knowledge.
Thank you in advance for your kind response.
Jeff Tarski
Arizona,   Orange County, CA. San Diego County, CA. Imperial County, CA. Regional Developer
cell - 303-249-0349, voc - 480-718-9508, fax - 888-439-5284
================================================================================
My Reply :
Hi Jeff,
My genealogy on my website is a collection of various bits of information found through browsing the Internet, augmented by unexpected, generous contributions from interested visitors to my site. Being uprooted at the age of 16, I knew little about my genealogy. Originally, I created a modest homepage with an intention of explaining to my children, after I've gone, why we came to live in Australia. After several years the homepage evolved into a genealogical site through additions, changes, further searches and improvements.

If you wish to leave your family history for posterity start from scratch and start soon. I started rather late in life and now it is getting tiring for me to cope with site maintenance, correspondence, etc. I suggest you start by simply making a record of anything your father or other relatives, if any, know or remember at the moment, even approximately, about your family and your roots — before this valuable information is taken to the grave by some members. Then expose your page on the Internet. Eventually people will be emailing you, enriching your genealogy. At the same time email queries yourself to some namesakes found on the Web. Out of curiosity, I have "googled Rzeszotarski", and discovered that certain Edmund Rzeszotarski was buried at Naracoorte Cemetery. I never heard of locality Naracoorte but it is in South Australia. And from "Wikipedia encyclopedia" I noted that Zawacki was also spelled Zawadzki, and they had their own coat of arms, etc.

Of course, not everything can be found on the Internet. Therefore it would be very useful to find a relative or a friend in Poland, who could do a little research for you by visiting some good libraries where useful historical material, lists, indexes and publications are kept for viewing and reference only. One such library, for example, is Jagiellonian University Library in Cracow (Kraków).
Wishing you good luck in your endeavour,
Very Sincerely, Franek Rymaszewski

28 March 2008
What a work of love. I accidentally came across your website whilst doing my own research and was fascinated. I have no links to your family although all my grandparents were from Poland. I wish you many more healthy years.
Regards
Susan Monty (London)

12 April 2008
Hi Franek
I came across your website while trying to find details of the village where my family came from.

I was born in Australia of Polish descent. My parents separated when I was little and my mother spoke very little of her family and life in Poland. From reading your history I think she is about 4 years younger than you. She was very unforgiving and angry at life and refused to accept my marriage. I married in 1974 and have 3 children with 4 granddaughters, 2 grandsons and 2 step-granddaughters. I had no contact with my father who has since passed away.

I read your history of Poland with great interest. Some I already knew, some was new, much forgotten. Then there was the Christmas traditions. I do remember my mother saying that as children they put straw on the tables and covered them with white tablecloths. The children would then look for the first star before they could eat.

As a child I remember having the unleaven bread. She kept it in a box in her wardrobe. When we went to midnight mass she would collect some holy water in a jar. We would not eat until after Mass when she would sprinkle the bread with some of the holy water and each of us would have a little bit. We would then have "dinner". Family friends used to come to our place on the way home from church for "dinner" and end up going home about 5 in the morning. From memory we had salad and cold meat.

I don't really think we had any other Polish traditions. I think my parents were involved with the Polish community as I remember a play in a school hall. One of the stage props was a black painted fireplace. After the play I was running across the stage and brushed up against this fireplace. I got black paint on my favourite green dress. Dress had to go out as the paint would not wash out. The school is next door to a church where a Polish mass is held every Sunday. From the time my parents separated my mother insisted that we speak only English so as to improve her knowledge of the language. I asked her once to speak Polish when I realised that I was forgetting my Polish. She did for a day or two then stopped.

My grandmother (mother's mother) spoke Russian so for the first 3-4 years I grew up with Polish and Russian as my first languages and English as my third. My mother then had an agrument with her mother and didn't see or speak to her again until a quick visit a couple of months before Grandmother died. By this time I had forgotten all my Polish and Russian. As I had no contact with my grandmother I had no way of learning about the family history or culture. I did stay with her on weekends until the argument. Come Christmastime she would take me to church and St Nicholas would come and give each of us children a gift. Then later I would get a visit from Santa. One of the advantages of been raised in 2 religions.

For the sake of my children and their children I have been trying to find out something about my family - who they were, where they came from etc. My daughters have researched my husband's parents and have gone back to the 1600 and 1700's without even trying hard. I must admit trying to find out about my family means I am trying to find out who I am.

I have managed to finally discover my grandmother's first name, maiden name and date of birth. Also her husband's name and year of birth. Both he and his brother were shot by the Nazi's along with some of the other men of the village, in a local forest. I have the place of her birth, which is also where my mother was born. However I cannot find the village on any old map or any reference to it anywhere. I gather that it was a small village or outer suburb. Maybe it was totally destroyed during the war and never rebuilt. I'll keep hunting maybe one day I may find some reference to it. My mother did say once that when they heard the Germans were coming they also heard that they were burning the buildings. The villagers buried their prized possessions thinking that the Germans might burn the village and keep going. They did not realise that they would be taken away to camps and that many will never see their homeland again. She said that they were first invaded by the Russians. The only difference it made to them was that they had to learn Russian at school.

Remember my mother saying that there was an argument when they were preparing to come to Australia. The authorities insisted that they were from Lithuania but my parents were Polish. I have details of my father's parent's names and birth dates but that is all. No place of birth. This grandfather was also killed by the Nazi's. At first I was told that this grandmother also died then I was told she survived the war and re-married. I don't know the truth. What was left of my family were all taken to Germany. After the war several members returned to the old country. They smuggled out letters telling the rest not to go back. That was when my parents decided to migrate to Australia and my father organised for grandmother to follow.

I have tried to find information on my maiden name, my mother's maiden name and even my grandmother's with no luck. With my lack of Polish I cannot even write to anyone for information. I feel like I am hitting my head against a brick wall.

Sorry for rambling on. I guess I needed to "talk" to someone who will understand what it is like not to know your history. It is one thing chosing not to be interested like my mother-in-law and another wanting to know but unable to know. It's like a big piece of me is missing.

I am so pleased for you that you have been able to put together pieces of your life and your family. Sad that you were never able to return home - I guess the longing will never go away. At least you have something for your children and grandchildren to cherish and understand - understand the way of their forebears, the customs and traditions. And you have passed this on to others, like me.

We will always be proud of Poland - of what she was, what she has gone through, what she will be. And mostly proud of her people - who continue to hold their heads high all over the world.

Thank you
Jan

12 April 2008
Your website is interesting reading. My father Edward Mikolajec (not original surname) was born near Kraków in 1922. He never spoke of his life during the war and never saw his parents, brothers and sisters again. I have been trying for many years to locate any relatives still living in Poland/worldwide.
Your website answers some of those questions I wish I could have asked my late father.
Keep Well and thank you.
Catherine

Hi,
I was just on your website. Our book club just finished reading "The Long Walk" (Slavomir Rawicz) and I have to give the review about it tonight and was gathering some information about the "forgotten Holocaust." Thank you for your great website and I think that it is really cool that you have done this for your children.

I hope that you have been able to work on your geneology and that your website has been beneficial.
Thanks again, good luck and long health,

Kay Berry, St. George, Utah, USA

3 May 2008 - My Remarks :
Zbigniew Wolocznik's parents and ancestors come from Kleck near Nieswiez on the Polish pre-war Kresy Wschodnie (Eastern Borderlands), now in Belarus. It is the same area where also my family ancestors come from. In his email (in the Polish language - link above), Zbigniew writes to me, that recently he started to maintain an album of photographs and other materials dealing generally with Kleck, old family photos, and contemporary history. His Wolocznik family is related to Kuroczycki, Zmijewski and von Elimer families from the same area.

In addition, he has a good collection of maps and many photos of pre-war Polish Border Guards, i.e. KOP soldiers in Kleck (KOP - Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza), where his uncle had served. Other photos are of Prices Radziwills family in Nieswiez (Nesvizh), also unique pictures when the Red Army invaded Poland on 17 September 1939, etc.

It is a very interesting collection of historic photos and, in spite of being on a Russian website, it follows the rules of similar internet sites and therefore, after initial trials, it is not difficult to navigate. Some captions are in Polish, and many in Belarus language. Of course, if you understand Russian, there is no problem. The address is:   
    http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/Zbiwol1961/

9 May 2008
Hello,
I am Wojciech Górecki. My wife Renata is from Rymaszewski family. Her grandfather Antoni Rymaszewski (son of Kajetan) was born 12.02.1914 in Kuchczyce near Kleck, Nowogródek district - now in Belarus. He had to escape (with his brother Jan Rymaszewski) from this territory because Soviets wanted to arrest him. He moved to central Poland which was in that time under the German occupation. He stayed at Grojec where he married with Jadwiga Krawczykowska. They had three boys: Andrzej, Bogdan and Wlodzimierz (who is now my father-in-law) and one daughter Anna. Andrzej and Anna live in Grojec still. Wlodzimierz lives in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki near Warsaw. He married with Grazyna Wrzesien in 1970. They have two daughters Ewa and Renata - my wife.
Please, contact with me and tell if it is possible that your family and my wife's family are the same family.
Wojciech Górecki
My Remarks :
All this information about the above Rymaszewski family has now been included on my website in Chapter 13.

12 May 2008
Szanowny Pan Franek Rymaszewski,
Czesc! G'day! and Dzien dobry!
I only in the past hour discovered your fascinating website with your wonderful photos and priceless memories of the Second World War, etc.   !!! Falkirk, Polmont !!!

My Father, s.p. Gwidon Stanislaw Chelminski (photo >>>), also served in the Polish Army Signals Corps, specifically at Polmont ... He would have jumped out of his skin to see your photos, had he only lived, but unfortunately he passed away in February of 2000. Do you possibly remember him? He would have been nearly a year older than you, and would have identified himself as coming from Bydgoszcz (actually born in Strzelno), had lost his parents and sister in the Nazi attack on September 10, 1939, and had been on forced labor in East Prussia and conscripted into the German army until he crossed over to the Americans at Normandy in August of 1944. In the Polish Forces in Britain, he was nicknamed "Tytus" after the Yugoslav leader Tito (my Dad would raise his right arm in defiance -- maybe you might even remember about what?).
Please, please write back to me ASAP. I will be looking through my Dad's mementos for possible photos of you! Thank you so much -- as much for your service to the war effort as for your terrific historical website! Bog zaplac!
Sincerely, David Gwidon Chelminski

My Remarks :
I have sent a reply directly to David, but for the information of the readers I wish to explain that all young Poles forcibly conscripted from occupied Poland into the German army during the war have defected at the earliest opportunity to the Allies. Immediately they all joined the Polish Forces in Britain and were preparing to fight the Nazis. There were 89 300 such Polish soldiers, out of 250 000 total Polish Armed Forces in the West. In case some of them would be captured by Germans and executed for desertion, they all had their surnames changed in their army documents, which was noted in their records. After the end of war they all reverted back to their real names. So I think "Tytus" was such an assumed name of David's father.

18 May 2008
Dear Mr Rymaszewski,
I am pleased to see from your website that you are still fit and well and maintaining this wonderful website.
I am writing to ask your permission to use some of the photos and quote from parts of your family history especially those pertaining to the gulags and some of the maps.

I am writing an article about my husband's family's reasons for electing to remain in England after WW2 rather than returning to their homeland. The article is for Family Tree Forum ( www.familytreeforum.com ), a genealogy site to which I belong.
My father in law, a (member of) KOP, was on the eastern border when the Soviets invaded and was taken prisoner. My mother in law, like you was taken as a civilian. She was a teacher in Lwow. They elected to remain in England for the same reasons as yourself.
To quote from my article:
"It was done with a heavy heart; the free Poland they had fought for was now in Russian hands and their safe return to Poland was not guaranteed. For those that had survived the Gulags of Siberia the prospect of a possible return to them was not an option to consider."

I found your site this morning and have been engrossed for the last 6 hours; it is fascinating. My husband and I were horrified to read about the ex Soviet Russians taking part in the Anzac parade and how true your comments and warnings with regard to it.

I do hope you will be able to respond to this email; your permission to quote and use photos etc for my article will of course be acknowledged.
Regards,
Sto lat!!
Kathy Przeniczna

My Reply :
23 June 2008
Dear Kathy,
I am sorry you had to wait so long for an answer, but on 14th May I was taken ill following further complications with my damaged heart. I have just returned home after six weeks stay in two hospitals. I have survived again and I am not giving up. I still intend to live on my own and look after myself as before. There were about twenty emails awaiting for me in my Inbox. I have chosen yours as the first one to answer as I feel guilty that you were held with the preparation of your article for so long. Of course, Kathy, you have my permission to use any material from my website. I believe the reasons why so many Poles were scattered around the world during and after the WW2 should be reminded to the world. I hope it is not too late, or perhaps you can amend what you have already sent. I wish you success with your article.
With very kind regards,
Sincerely yours
Franek Rymaszewski

30 May 2008
Hi,
I have very quickly looked at your amazing website (and bookmarked it for closer perusal later). I arrived in Sydney as a baby on the New Australia in August 1955, so must have been the same voyage.

Marion (nee Cole)

18 June 2008
Hi: I just stumbled upon your website. I am also from Pinsk which I left in 1944 at the age of 9. I was wondering how does one get hold of old records from Pinsk. All of my family that would remember anything is dead. I would like to know something about my grandparents. I would appreciate any suggestions you could provide. Thank you. The best email address to use is nkl@coe.neu.edu
Nonna Lehmkuhl

My Remarks :
I am now 85 years old and have little time and strength to reply to messages asking for information impossible for me to provide. I am not an expert in genealogical sources or any other family searches. All the material on my website I collected just by browsing the Internet, piecemeal from other people. I have left Pinsk before the writer in 1940 (at the age of 16, and England soon after the war), and I have never been back there. I don't know much what's going on there nowadays.Let's only hope someone reading this website, who knew the family and grandparents of Nonna Lehmkuhl in Pinsk, will write to her email address published above.

Subject: Rymaszewski Website/GRUMOWICZ History
2 July 2008

I was fascinated tonight to come upon your wonderful website. I have been struggling with family genealogy for years. My mother is from Pinsk, Poland and, as you stated, records are hard to find. So, this time I googled "Pinsk, Poland" to see what would come up and I found you!

My mother, Lucyna Grumowicz, was born October 27, 1940 in Pinsk, Poland. She tells the painful story of how Russia took over Poland. Her father, Alfred Grumowicz (b. 1914), and her uncle, Waclaw Grumowicz (b.1920) were told that they were no longer Polish - they were Russian - and they were to be soldiers in the Russian army. Other young men in the area were told the same. Defiant, they rebelled and were imprisoned for their behavior. After escaping from prison the Russians were furious and rounded up all the wives and children of the escapees. At the age of around 2 my mother, her brother, Zbyszek and her mother Lubomira were sent to a reconstruction labor camp in Siberia. Her father and uncle fled and joined the Foreign Legion traveling through Italy and Africa. They eventually ended up in England and then made it to America where my mother rejoined them at the age of 20. She still lives in Warren, Michigan with her husband, Lech Korgol and their 8 children.

I cannot wait to get back to Michigan to share this information with her!

Much thanks,
Loretta Korgol Brown
Westlake Village, California, USA

14 July 2008
Dear Mr. Rymaszewski -
Thank you for your web site; I found it wonderfully informative.

Regarding General Anders, I suppose you know he asked to be buried at Monte Casino, in Italy, where so many of his men fought against the Germans so valiently.
Last Wednesday it was my honor to be present at the interment of the ashes of my teacher at the University of Michigan, Prof. Andrzej Stefan Ehrenkreutz, who died in Melbourne last April.
Near his grave, which is in the Veterans' section of the cemetery of the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, there is a memorial to General Anders as well.
We are nearing the end of an era, and young people need to be reminded of the sacrifices of those who have enabled their comfortable lives!
Thank you again.
Philip E Miller

19 July 2008
G'day Frank,
My name is Steve. I am a typical 6th generation Aussie of Irish descent but in 1985, while doing the usual working holiday in Earls Court London, I married a lady from Poland.
Jola was at that time a Solidarity refugee from Lublin and was living in the bedsit next door to me. Little did I know at the time but I had moved into the Polish part of Earls Court !
Anyway I brought her back to Australia, after a lot of unhelpful beaurocracy from the Australian Consulate, and we stayed married just a few years. We are the best of friends now and in daily contact.
The reason I am writing to you is something she never told me in all these years. Her father, who died in Poland when she was 3, was in the Anders Army. He survived the war and returned to Poland, married in about 1950 and died about 1956. His life back in Poland was apparently not happy and he died quite young. Her mother remarried and Jola didn't hear much about her natural father's past, just a few stories passed on occasionally from her mother.
But now at 55 she feels the need to know more. I have helped her track down the history of the Anders Army, which was all news to me even though I pride myself on my knowlege of obscure history. She at one time had a medal he won during the war but can't find it now. She has never returned to Poland as it holds bad memories for her and all her family there are dead now.
I have just emailed your website address to her and she may contact you. This is just by way of introduction if she does. But even if she doesn't, for reasons of not wanting to bother you, I'm sure the information on your site will fill gaps in her knowledge of her father's experiences in the War and help her understand why her life started out as it did .

Dzien kuya badzo (Hey I can't spell Polish I just mangle the verbal version! )
STEVE

26 July 2008
Hi, I looked with interest at your site, my father I believe was part of the forgotten army. He .... a few years ago, he told us a few things about the war but never told us all it. My niece is trying to find out as much information about his life as possible. His name was Sprenglewski. The reason for my email is to see if you could give us some advice on how we go about getting information and the sources of information that are available to us. Hope you can help. Kind Regards.
Rob Green

My Remarks :
If your father, Mr Sprenglewski, was a member of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during the Second World War, and did not return to Soviet occupied Poland after the war, he was demobilized in England. I have already given the address where army records of such Polish soldiers are kept in Email No. 043 and again in Email No. 048 published on my website. I am repeating it below. Also let's hope someone reading this website, who knew Mr Sprenglewski in the Army, will write to your email address published above.

• Ministry of Defence — Army Records Centre, Polish Section
Bourne Ave., HAYES, Middlesex UA3 1RF, United Kingdom. Tel. + 01- 573 3831 (extention 22)
They keep records of all Polish Armed Forces that served during the war under British Command, and also those that died on active service.

You may also try writing to the Search Section of the :
• The British Red Cross Society, International Relations & Relief Department,
Grosvenor Crescent, LONDON SW1 7EJ, United Kingdom.

23 July 2008
My Remarks :
In her email in Polish (link above) Mirka Rymaszewska (married name Sacewicz) writes that she is the daughter of Edward Rymaszewski, and granddaughter of Franciszek Rymaszewski and Apolonia nee Radkiewicz. The parents of Franciszek were Konstanty Rymaszewski and Teofilia nee Modzelewska. Grandfather Franciszek Rymaszewski lived in Kaczanowicze near Nieswiez. He was an elected chair of village council and during the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland in 1939 he was executed by firing by the KGB ( then NKVD). His wife Apolonia Rymaszewska was deported to Siberia with her two young sons. After the war in 1945, during the so called "repatriation", the family was settled in the West of Polish People's Republic in Miedzyrzecze.
See also Rymaszewski ancestors

28 July 2008
Dear Mr. Rymaszewski,
I have been reading your web site with great interest as my father was born in Duboy, in the Pripet Marshes, in 1903 and emigrated to America in 1920. His name was Louis Winograd and he told me many stories of growing up in Duboy in those chaotic times. He described Duboy as a small village with unpaved streets either in or next to the Pripet Marshes. In fact, in times of upheaval, as in the Russian Civil War, his family hid in the marshes for days at a time.
I noticed in your web site mention of an agricultural college in Duboy attended by a relative in 1939. Is it possible that Duboy grew in size between 1920 and the late 30's? Looking at pictures of Duboy on the current Belarus web site makes me wonder if the Soviets drained a lot of the swamp. Although I know that Pinsk was the major population center of that area, I only know of family in Duboy and Stolin.
Any information you have that might shed light on Duboy would be greatly appreciated as I am writing a family memoir for my children and grandchildren. I am a retired university professor of 75 years. Your work is most impressive and I am still digesting it.
With respect,
Eugene Winograd

My Remarks :
To Readers : If you know something about village Duboy in Polesie, former Poland and now in Belarus, or knew the family of Louis Winograd in 1920s, please contact Eugene Winograd in the USA at the above email address. I have sent a reply to Eugene as follows:
Dear Eugene. First I apologize for the delay in answering your email. Recently I spent many weeks in hospitals and now I am trying to catch up with a lot of accumulated correspondence.
With regard to Duboy, I have passed through the village only once (and back) in summer of 1938, at the age of 14, while visiting my brother, a boarding student at the Agricultural College. I rode there on my bicycle on a hard footpath that runs along, close to the railway line from Luniniets via Pinsk to Brest Litovsk. The footpath was formed on actual railway embankment by cyclists and walkers as a convenient and shortest route between localities. Going eastwards from Pinsk I passed two railway stops at Molotkovichi and Ponyatichi. And soon afterwards the village Duboy was visible on the left, not far southwards from the railway. The village was on the dry and cultivated land. The marshes were a long distance away to the south. The village of Duboy, like most of other villages in the Polesie region (covered by the Pripet Marshes), had unpaved streets, but was greatly improved since Russian Civil War and WW2. In independent Poland between 1920 and 1939, great changes have been made in these parts. Duboy had clean appearance, white washed houses, window shutters painted with colour (blue, I think) , plenty of rich gardens and orchards, and flowers. Some inhabitants talked some kind of a Belarus dialect among themselves, as well as the Polish language. People were polite, greeting me in Polish (I was wearing my Gimnazjum jacket). There was a boy, sitting on a fence and playing a yo-yo ...... a sign of American influence spreading to remote parts of contemporary Poland! There was a larger building in the village which looked like a school. No doubt it was a four to six grades Primary School. Larger Primary schools were in nearby Yanow Polessky (now called Ivanovo), and Drogichin. To attend a Secondary Schools one had to go, of course, to Pinsk. While, no doubt, Duboy increased in population together with some houses between the two Wars, it did not grow much in size. The Agricultural College was outside of Duboy in some kind of a former, existing manor, or mansions of a landowner. It had a number of farm buildings, and was adopted to its new purpose. Students had their own dormitory, and they had their own farm animals, orchard, beehives, etc. It was a well known college of a good standard.

It is true that your family hid in the marshes during the historical upheavals. The people knew their neighberhood very well, with its safe and secret passages and hideouts, etc. In my times, I remember that, when the Soviets advanced to occupy Pinsk in September 1939, the sailors of the Pinsk Military Flotilla on the river Pina (contributory to Pripet), hid in the Marshes after blowing up some of their vessels. The approaching winter forced them eventually to emerge and return to their homes (many were arrested).

The Soviets have indeed drained a lot of swamp in a desire to create more land for collective farms. The result was a disaster. Instead of black soil, the sandy dunes were exposed (now blowing dust). And worst of all, they ruined all the ecology. Animals were gone, and most of the marshland birds also. It's a great pity.

I am glad you are writing your family memoirs for your descendants. They'll appreciate it some day. This is the reason I have created my web site. First, of course, at the age of 77, I had to teach myself from the "teach-yourself" books how to do it. However, it's never too late to learn something new.

I wish you success in producing your memoirs. And very best wishes of health and perseverance.
Sincerely,
Franek Rymaszewski

15 August 2008
Dzien dobry
Nie mowie po angielsku ale rozumie wiekszosc czytajac. Poszukuje dziadka Jozef Szpak syn Michala urodzony 4.02.1900.
Dzieki panskiemu portalowi znalazlam centralne archiwum wojskowe, czekam wiec na ich odpowiedz.
A moze pan zna inne instytucje ktore mialyby jakies informacje.Dziekuje z gory za udzielenie wiadomosci.
Moj mail
anne.roeting@gmail.com

My Remarks :
In the above email in Polish, Anne Roeting says that she is searching for her grandfather Jozef Szpak, the son of Michal, born on 4 February 1900. She wants to know if there are any institutions which would have information about her grandfather.

21 May 2008
Hi,
I was very interested to find a reference to the Cavendish Dwellings in London in your section of the site dedicated to Edward RYMASZEWSKI - my great-grandfather Henry Newman and his wife Nellie lived in the Cavendish Dwellings after the First World War - do you have any pictures of the building?
Many thanks,
Mark Newman

My Reply :
16 August 2008
Dear Mark,
I apologise for such a long delay in answering your email, but I was quite ill recently and spent many weeks in hospital, during which time I accumulated a lot of of emails to which I am gradually replying.

Unfortunately, Mark, I don't have any pictures of the building but I remember it well in spite of my age of 85. I lived there for a couple of years as a very young man soon after the World War Two, together with my brother Edward, his wife and our mother brought from the Refugees Camp in occupied Germany. We were quite poor, working for minimum wages (so we didn't have any cameras to take pictures - very few people did). Edward and myself (and his wife) were just demobilised from the Polish Armed Forces in Britain. After many years of various war experiences, Cavendish Dwellings was at last our first "home" to settle and live and work in peace, therefore it will always stay in my mind. There was accommodation shortage in wartime bombed London. To get a flat in Cavendish Dwellings to rent we had to pay the Real Estate agent 50 pounds "key money". Fortunately the rent was low - 8 shillings a week (controlled by law, I assume). Minimum wage was 5 pounds p.w. We lived in the flat no. 66, on the top, sixth floor. There was no lift. The access to all flats was by only one, external iron staircase joining the narrow walkways on each floor. It was open, and looked like a fire escape, which it was. The flat had no bathroom, just WC, gas cooker and a shallow, flat sink for washing dishes and yourself. However, there were public baths in the neighberhood. There was no electricity. Lighting was by gas lights!

Cavendish Dwellings were located at the end of short Dallington St., off Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, City (E.C.1). The rectangular building was sited with its narrow end at right angles to Dallington street. And the entry was through the archway in the wall. You enter a large rectangular yard. The building was on the left of the yard. The walkways and the attached metal staircase were facing the yard. The yard was surrounded by a tall brick wall, same height as the building, and all bricks were glazed and white like in a bathroom. I wondered what was the purpose of it. Probably to give more light and avoid the feeling of enclosure, as the only "view" was the sky above the yard.

Each flat consisted of 3 rooms. Layout of adjoining flats were mirrored. The first room, adjoining the walkway, had an external entry door on the left, and a window facing the walkway and the yard. The room had a "modern" gas cooker with oven (in 1947) so it served as a kitchen and dining room. The internal door, on the left side again, lead to the second room. It served as a kind of a bedroom and sitting room. Here my memory fails me - I am not sure what was on the right wall, was it a small fireplace, or a gas heater like in many London houses, or nothing at all. Probably a small fireplace. On the following wall, this room had an opening on the left instead of a door, and a window on the right hand side. The window was overlooking a brewery at the back of Cavendish Dwellings. The opening on the left, opened on a short passage that led to the door to the third room, a small bedroom. There were 3 alcoves or nooks on the right of this short passage. First one contained a flat, shallow, rectangular sink with running water. The second one was a toilet, and the third one contained some old, not used any more vessel. I think its purpose was for boiling your clothes, some kind of a laundry. By the way, in 1947, public laundromats were already available. The small bedroom at the back, contained a single bed and a little space on the left side of the bed, and at its foot. That's where I lived. There was a window opposite, overlooking the brewery too, which was steaming beer smelling vapour.

On each floor of the building, at one end of each walkway, there was an opening with a chute for rubbish. The residents just threw all their rubbish down the chute, which landed in a room on the ground floor and was periodically cleared by the Council.

I wonder if we lived in the same flat as Henry and Nellie did?
My very best wishes to all Newmans.
Franek Rymaszewski

17 August 2008
Dear Frank,
Thank you so much for your beautiful email. You have summoned up the sights, smells and sounds of Cavendish Dwellings for me amazingly. It is always so good when someone can breath life into family history, and you have certainly done that for me.

I am most grateful,
Mark

12 June 2008
Dear Franek,
I'm also one of the Rymaszewski's family members.
I found out that you have made a giant information data-base website about our Surname and Roots.
I've found really interesting information about our family. And there were many things which I didn't know.
I would like really to thank you for this website, I really appreciate that.

With kind regards,
Adam Rymaszewski

25 August 2008
My Remarks :
Amazing exchange of information thanks to the Internet!
On my website I published a document sent to me in Russian by Sergey Rimashevski from Ukraine, whose family comes from the original homeland of Rymaszewski ancestors near Sluck, but who was born in Soviet exile near town Perm in the Ural mountains. (Town Perm was called Molotov during Stalin's era). Few years ago Sergey was searching for records of his family in exile and received from the archives of KGB (NKVD) in Perm details of deported convicts who had been punished again while working in exile in the Urals. Among them was the family of Waclaw Rymaszewski, his wife Maria and four children. Waclaw, while slaving in the Urals, exchanged letters with his brother Josef in the USA, so he was accused by the Soviet KGB of "espionage". For this "crime" Waclaw was sentenced to death and was executed by firing in 1938. Sergey sent the copy of this document to me in Australia, which I translated into English and published on my site.

Now I get an email in Polish from Legnica in Poland, from Leszek Rymaszewski, the son of Edward, who writes to me that he is the descendant of Waclaw, his grandfather, who disappeared without a trace after his arrest by the KGB. Only two of Waclaw's four children survived: daughter Wanda, then aged 7, and son Edward, then aged 2. After Stalin's death, Edward, now aged 23, returned to Poland with his mother in 1958. He is the father of Leszek Rymaszewski. Unfortunately Edward died last year without knowing what happened to his own father Waclaw.

See Leszek's Email in Polish , and Leszek's family details in :
• Chapter 12 (2): Ancestors - The Records
• Chapter 14 (1): Rymaszewskis World-wide

27 August 2008
My Remarks :
This is another example of family connections discovered through my website. Magda Klim, living in Warsaw, came across Email No. 049 on my site from Wlodzimierz Czausow to Barbara Rymaszewska - Nowosielska. She found past family connections and wrote to him an email in Polish. At the same time Magda sent me a copy of that email, translating the contents into English in her accompanying letter to me below.
================================================================
Dear Mr Rymaszewski,
I would like to introduce myself. My name is Magda Klim. My mother Lidia Klim, family name Jagielska is a granddaughter of Karol Borysowicz, about whom Mr Czausow is writing in his e-mail (No. 049) dated on the 31st of January 2008.

I am really impressed by your web site, how much work and time you put in and especially your heart and emotions. A lot of information about my family live on in stories and diary written by my grand grandfather Karol Borysowicz. Because some facts are connected with your family, it is pleasure for me to write about them.

Kazimierz Rymaszewski, the son of Urban was married to Helena Borysowicz. Helena Borysowicz was the sister of my grand grandfather.

Their son Olgierd as a little boy was plying with Zdzislaw, son of Karol Borysowicz. They were shooting with the slingshots. Zdzislaw was late with the shot and Olgierd turned round to ask what is going on when the shot hit his eye. The eye was totally destroyed. Later it became a problem for him to study medicine and my grand grandfather suggested to him to study veterinary medicine as a subject less responsible. He studied veterinary medicine in Poland before the war, and after the war he finished his desired proper medicine in England. Olgierd Rymaszewski died few months ago. His family (wife Aleksandra and three of their children, because Ewa died) are still living in England.

Marek i Joasia Kosinski are living in Switzerland where they moved with their parents (Elvira Rymaszewska and Wojtek Kosinski). My mother and grandmother are in contact with them.

The grave of Jadwiga Rymaszewska is in Warsaw on the old part of Powazki Cemetery. In the same place are graves of Elvira Rymaszewska and her husband Wojciech, Janina Rymaszewska and her daughter Elzbieta.

As I write to Wlodzimierz I will try to find in my grandmother's house some photos of Jadwiga Rymaszewska, Olgierd Rymaszewski, Janina and Elwira.

I would like to thank for such a wonderful trip to the past. I am really build up that you care so much about history and tradition. If you will have any requires please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards
Magda

Magda Klim
Ul. Rekodzielnicza 15
00-267 Warsaw
Tel. +48-22-846-55-15
Mobile +48-602-467-674