Emigration

Emigration and Genealogy

Bielaski Family - Lincoln, Baseball & FBI

Written by Martin S. Nowak Tuesday, 21 August 2012 09:47

Born in Minsk, Lithuanian Poland in 1811, Aleksander Bielaski was trained to be a topographical engineer. When the uprising of 1831 against the Russians began, young Bielaski took part with the Polish forces in the defense of Warsaw. After the rebellion, he was exiled to France. From there, he made his way to the U.S. with thousands of other dispossessed Poles.
Once here, Bielaski was employed by railroads as a civil engineer and surveyor. He opened a land office in Springfield, Illinois in 1837 and became a friend of young Abraham Lincoln. He married, spent some time working in Mexico, got a job with the U.S. General Land Office and eventually moved to Washington, D.C. where he was employed as a draftsman.
When the Civil War broke out, Bielaski's old friend and now President Abe Lincoln personally recruited him at his home to accept an officer's commission as aide-de-camp to General John McClernand. Tragically, Captain Bielaski died in the Battle of Belmont, Mo. on November 7, 1861. He left behind his wife and seven children. One of them, Oscar Bielaski, had managed to join the Union army as a drummer boy where he supposedly learned to play the game of base ball from other soldiers.

A Sto Lat Reality for Walter Zachariasiewicz

Written by Richard Poremski Thursday, 16 February 2012 15:24

WASHINGTON, D.C. // It's a very old Polish tradition to sing "Sto Lat" - ‘May You Live 100 Years' to someone at birthday parties, on name days, and at other special occasions. But due to the short life spans in the old days almost no one ever achieved the unattainable century mark. Even today with all the vast modern medical and scientific improvements it's still something of a rarity for a person to achieve centenarian status by living 36,500 days. But the ever remarkable Walter Zachariasiewicz did just that recently on November 7, 2011.

100th Birthday Party Held at Polish Embassy. Walter Zachariasiewicz is shown above addressing his well-wishers after extinguishing the numerals 1-0-0 on his birthday cake, and being serenaded with a robust singing of Sto Lat. At center is Ambassador Robert Kupiecki, his wife Malgorzata and daughter Magdalena.

What does your Polish last name mean?

Written by Robert Strybel Wednesday, 25 May 2011 22:52

Have you ever wondered what your Polish last name means? Many started out as nicknames to indicate who one's father was. Andrzejczak, Tomczyk and Janowicz are the Polish equivalents of Anderson, Thomson and Johnson. Other surnames described the inhabitant of a native village: Wiśniewski came from Wiśniew (Cherrywood) and Wróblewski hailed from Wróblewo (Sparrowville).

Our People and Their Lives – The Talko Sisters

Written by Geraldine Kelley Friday, 20 May 2011 23:16

The story of the Talko family is like that of many others. The family was bound together by traditions, upbringing, and the faith. Their hands were for work, their hearts for God. Felix Pavlovich Talko, the father of the family, came from the petty bourgeois of the small village of Chudrov, Volynia province, and served his military service in Vladivostok on the steamship Rurik. The mother, Malgashata Seminskaia, came to Vladivostok from Lublin with the family of a railroad engineer for whom she worked as a maid. Felix and Malgashata met at Polish House on Aluetskaia Street, where there were often festive gatherings, concerts and magnificent holiday celebrations. Modest, hard-working and deeply devout, they caught each other's fancy and in the early summer of 1905 they were married at the Catholic church. The young couple settled in a room on Pushkin Street and a year later moved to the Zharikovskii Ravine district.

Olumpia and Kacimira Taiko

Eugene (Gene) Krupa - the Greatest Drummer of All Time

Written by Martin S. Nowak Saturday, 19 March 2011 13:57

Drummers had always been considered an integral part of a band, but merely time-keepers, hardly musicians, and certainly not featured performers. Then someone came along to change that. His name has become synonymous with the drums.

Eugene Bertram (Gene) Krupa was born in 1909 and raised in a working class Polish American community on Chicago's south side. The eleventh of twelve children, his grandparents were Polish immigrants. His father Bartley was a Chicago city alderman for a time and died when Gene was a young boy. His mother Anna and the children then had to take various jobs to support the family.

At age 10, Gene took a job doing chores at a music store. He took an interest in the music and spent a lot of time there listening to records. He had studied saxophone from age 6, but switched to drums. His brother bought him a drum kit at age 11. Working as a soda jerk at Wisconsin Beach, he played sax in the junior band and substituted for the drummer in the house band one day when he was only 13. In high school, he sought out the company of other young musicians and was able to play with them at dances and socials.

Emigration and Genealogy

Bielaski Family - Lincoln, Baseball & FBI

A Sto Lat Reality for Walter Zachariasiewicz

What does your Polish last name mean?

Our People and Their Lives – The Talko Sisters

Eugene (Gene) Krupa - the Greatest Drummer of All Time

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