52 Ancestors: Week 12, Membership

The prompt for Week 12 of Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" is Membership. Since I should have written this during Women's History Month in March, let me mention three maternal ancestors and the organizations to which they belonged.

My maternal grandmother, Eugenia Marolewski, was a member of Mothers of World War II, Unit 125 from Immaculate Conception Church in South Chicago. For a few years she served as president of the group, as well as financial secretary of District 1. From newspaper items, it appesrs that this group was dedicated to supporting veterans. They visited local VA hospitals and provided cookies and gifts at Christmastime. The group welcomed mothers of those who served in World War II or Korea, as well as those who currently had children in the armed services. 

Grandma's sister-in-law, my grandpa Steve's sister Constance Norwich, once served as president of the American Legion Auxiliary South Chicago Unit 493. She was at one time national president of the Polish Legion of American Veterans, Ladies Auxiliary.

Grandpa and Grandma's daughter Henrietta (my aunt Hank) was a member of the Cadet Nurse Corps. A student at the Jackson Park Hospital School of Nursing, she joined the Corps in October 1944, and her service ended when she graduated in October 1947.

52 Ancestors, Week 11: Lucky

 I'm playing catch-up on "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks," the project of a year's worth of writing prompts by Amy Johnson Crow. While everyone else will be on Week 16, I'm finally getting around to Week 11.

Week 11's theme is "Lucky." I don't especially recall any lucky talismans in my family. If my ancestors had any, I never knew about them. If they ever had any especially fortuitous luck, I never knew about that, either. 

The only luck I can think of is how lucky I am to know the stories I do know; to have found the records and mentions that I have found; and for the chance to tell their stories in my poor way.

While not precisely a lucky piece, there is something that I've kept on my refrigerator, as my dad did before me: these Round Tuits. I inherited a tendency to procrastinate. Procrastinators always put things off until such time as they can get around to it. I even acknowedged that trait by naming my blog Round Tuit Genealogy because I blogged so seldom. Sometimes it's been years between blog posts. 

So go ahead. You can keep your lucky penny, your rabbit's foot, your horseshoe. I'm actually blogging again. I've got a Round Tuit.

 

52 Ancestors, Week 10: Translation

I'm several weeks late in keeping up with Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge. While the project is entering Week 16, I'm catching up on Week 10: Translation.

Or, more accurately, "Lost in Translation."

Fifty percent of me is Polish. And I don't speak or understand a word of it. 

Thankfully, my second cousin does. Jay Orbik is a genealogist who's done all the work on our Orbik and Pyterek lines, and has taken the Orbik line into the 1600s. He's fairly fluent, and travels to Poland a couple times a year where he works with a group of genealogists there, Jamiński Zespół Indeksacyjny (JZI), on indexing and publishing projects. It was through this group that he's published two family histories so far: The Orbik Families from Tajno, and One Hundred Percent Polish: A South Chicago Family History.

So thanks, Jay, for all the work you've done! 

The Pytereks were from Gulcz, in west central Poland. Several members of the family came to Chicago shortly after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. They lived in what was called the "Polish Downtown" anchored by St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, which was founded in 1867 by Rev. Vincent Barzynski. He performed the marriage of my great-great grandparents, Alexander Pyterek and Helena Murkowska, in that church in 1876. 

Chicago claims the largest population of Poles outside Poland itself. So the Polish neighborhoods of Chicago would have been fairly self-sustaining, with Polish-speaking residents patronizing Polish-owned stores and shops, attending one of a number of Polish churches, and whose children perhaps attended Polish parochial schools. They read Polish newspapers published in Chicago. In this setting, the Pytereks learned a new language. 

By 1900, Alexander, Helena, and their family relocated to South Chicago; the frame house they owned in the 8600 block of South Baltimore Avenue still stands. Alexander could read and write, and could speak English, according to the 1900 census. His brother Valentine (Walenty) appears on the voter rolls in Chicago in 1890, and is listed as having naturalized in 1878, so presumably he also could speak English. 

An upcoming exhibit at the Chicago History Museum, "Back Home: Polish Chicago" will open May 20. I hope to check it out and discover more about the Poles of Chicago, and my ancestors' contributions to it.