Travel-story
May 2003
Via a mailing list
I got to know Lily. She makes inquiries in the same area as I do. In the
meantime she became a dear friend. We decided to travel to Poland together this
year. Since we don't live in the same town, we decided to meet in the Federal
Archives in Bromberg. I went there a couple of days earlier.
On Saturday, May 26,
I started early in the morning from Munich in the direction of Poland. I had
decided to choose the route via Regensburg since this freeway isn’t so
congested. I was lucky again and came through without traffic-jams. Only at the
border-crossing at Frankfurt/Oder I had to accept a wait of 1 hour. But it went
on fluent after this. I arrived in Zempelburg at 8 p.m. I stayed there in the
only hotel. It was closed and I was out of luck as there was a wedding-party
celebrated there and nobody was available. But I was to much tired to look for
another hotel also because there aren't many hotels in that area. The next
morning I travelled well rested and full of energy in the direction of PR
Stargard. Yes, I already had some experience and had already found out at home
where and what I wanted to investigate. First of all I drove to Konitz. There I
wanted to look in the church-registers for the death of one of my
great-grandparents whose last known place of residence was Steinberg in the
district of Konitz. I arrived there towards noon and had to be patient since a
mass was just celebrated. I was quite astonished that services are well visited
in Poland. The church was extremely overcrowded and the people even stood in
the street to take part in it. I spent the time, however, by looking at the
town center and I was very impressed by this beautiful and neat town. Of course
I also took some pictures. Finally the mass was coming to an end. I had to
hurry now and to find the parish priest before he disappeared. Konitz has 2
churches, standing directly beside and behind each other. If one of them is a
Protestant church I do not know. Anyhow the Mass was celebrated in the large
church which is almost a cathedral and has several clergymen. The church has
wonderful acoustics and you could hear the singing even on the street. In the
meantime, the small church also had filled for the next service.
The first
clergyman whom I met took me into the sacristy where I was asked to write down
the names which I was looking for, and then he was gone. I did not like to give
up so easily and looked for the next clergyman. Nobody spoke German but the
parish priest asked one of the faithful, who knew a little German, for the
translation. We agreed that I should come back in 2 hours and could search for
my ancestors. I used the time in between to eat something. A woman who spoke a
little German, showed me the way and accompanied me to a restaurant. Finally it
was time to go back to the parish priest. The search wasn't so simple but I had
luck and could continue my journey after an hour. I was going on to PR Stargard
now. After some searching I found Konradstein. First of all I took some pictures
and looked if there was anything left from the past. Konradstein has it’s own
cemetery. Once again I found kind and helpful people. Now I still had to find
the Catholic church and then I intended to go to Bromberg. You cannot believe
what I experienced in the church! Yes, another Mass! And this one at 6 o'clock
pm. I had to wait till the Mass was completely celebrated. There was also
nobody speaking German, but they looked for an older man who mastered our
language very well. The parish priest filled out a document as
death-certificate for me and gave me a book about the history of the church as
a present. It wasn't so easy to say goodbye in a hurry because they all wanted to talk with me but I didn't have much
time for it at all. In the meantime it already was 7 p.m., and I still had to
go to Bromberg. Fortunately I already knew the hotel and knew that it was open
during the night. This was a successful and eventful day.
The next 3
days I spent in the State Institute. This time there was another manager on
duty and he was very much compliant. Last year there were only 10 files in the
morning and 10 files in the afternoon, although they had not the same size.
This year I could see as many files as I wanted. But there also was a big disappointment:
the price per copy has jumped to 16 Zloty (this is € 4!!!).
I confined
myself to copies of my direct ancestors and I wrote down all other ones. This
year I proceeded systematically. I looked every year for births, weddings and
deceased in the individual registry offices. This method brought me much success.
I finally also found the wedding of my great-grandparents Manowski. They got
married somewhere else. Because I already had collected all Manowski before, I
also could finally make the connection to 2 other generations.
In the
meantime Lily had arrived. She had not much to search for and so she helped me
because, on Wednesdays, the institute closes already at 3 pm. As we had
mastered the exhausting part of the journey , we could relax now and follow the
traces of our ancestors.
First of all
we set out for Zempelburg where we wanted to visit the parish priest. He spoke
German very well, was kind and helpful. We again stayed in the local hotel, but
now we had a room with our own shower and toilet. The hotel is although very
simple, but for us it was the most central starting point since we wanted to
have a look at some villages of our ancestors in the neighbourhood and pay a
visit to a local parish priest.
Besides, we
had an invitation of a nearby Polish family. The landlady of the hotel speaks
German very well and we had some nice conversations with her. I told her about
my ancestors or the names for which I was searching. I learned that a certain
Mrs. Kriese lived quite nearby, and she arranged a meeting with her.
Now only the
places of residence of our ancestors were missing. Lily has a good eye for
interesting motives and the beauty of the landscape. She took all the
photographs. Many places were very beautiful and we felt ourselves replaced
into the past, when in the evening young couples went for a stroll along dreamy
lakes or when the children played there during the day.
As a
conclusion I can say the journey was very beautiful, full of events and also
very successful. I now can complete some data and I have found about 100 new
ancestors. It was wonderful to get acquainted with and to experience Polish
people and to see that they are kind, helpful and very hospitable.
At the end of
the journey we decided to go back soon! First of all it makes much more fun to
experience things together.