Wednesday 22 October 2014

The land of our ancestors

Genealogists have traced the roots of our Maczkowiack and Herrman families to the German-Lutheran emigrations from former Prussia during the 1840’s. Therefore, when we realised that our Great Trip would take us through these areas, we were keen to take a look.

We had prepared for this experience prior to our own embarkation in March, calling in to have a chat with a Mr Howard Thiele (Adelaide), principal author of a book tracing the history of the Maczkowiacks in Australia. Howard supplied us with lots of information, and more importantly, with contact details of key people in the town of Nekla. The key person is a Mr Jerzy Osypiuk (whose first name translates to Yurek or George), a keen, expert, and published historian, and his son Lukasz. George had provided Howard with the detailed information used in the ‘Maczkowiack’ book (and the family tree books of many other emigrant families of the period). Howard also contacted George on our behalf, asking him to be of assistance to us if possible. We were in touch with George and Lukasz in the weeks leading up to our arrival, and they were keen to make our visit meaningful and wonderful.

George Osypiuk with a teacher at the school we visited



Lucasz Osypiuk

So it was that on Thursday afternoon, 2nd October, we arrived at Nekla, checked into the local hotel for a few nights, and later met Lukasz, George and his wife Christina. Together they described the itinerary they had prepared for us – visits to several cemeteries, churches and villages, as well as other places of general tourism interest. They also invited us to spend the Saturday night with them as guests in their house. Thus George and Lukasz became our personal expert tour guides and hosts for the next two days. We were very grateful to them for bringing the whole of the emigration tale to us with energy, warmth and expert knowledge. Without their input we could have driven around seeking in vain a cemetery here, a church there, ignorant of their significance in the lives of the ancestors.

The Osypiuk family were fully conversant with our genealogy – and in particular, of one Anton Maczkowiack, Bob’s great-grandfather. George and Lukasz escorted us to a series of relevant historic sites – the church where Anton had been baptised, the location of the farming area where he was brought up, his wife’s family homestead (still standing).
 
The church where Anton was baptised.  Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk


Bob and Anne inside the church where Anton Maczkowiack (1817 - 1899) was baptised. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

It is understood that Anton was raised on a farm at or near  this location


Exterior of church near the location of the farm. This is no longer used for worship but is now owned privately and been restored for public events.  Without such restoration old churches fall into ruin. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk



Interior of the church building. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

At the family home of Bob's great-grandmother. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk



The Neckla region contains various cemeteries where the Old Lutherans were laid to rest. Some headstones still had legible inscriptions. All the cemeteries had been neglected until the past ten to twenty years, when George initiated community interest in their restoration. The local council now maintains most of these cemeteries, and has erected explanatory plaques.
 


Well-maintained cemetery plots

\
 
 
 

Happy descendants and Lucasz Osypiuk at an Old Lutheran cemetery. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk


Remnant of a memorial cross at a cemetery. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk


Cemeteries being overtaken by forest. These were cleared some years ago but without regular upkeep the forest soon takes over.   Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk



A well-maintained cemetery plot and interpretive plaque. Local guide material lists visits to the cemeteries as one of the attractions of the area.



Commemorative plaque at the Herbig family cemetery.  South Australian readers may recognise the "Herbig Tree". Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk


Nekla landscape. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk
 


George also arranged for us to speak to group of fifty school children about our family history, our lives in Australia, and our trip. The children’s school is adjacent to one of the historic cemeteries, and there is some interest in making the cemetery's upkeep a school project, thus honouring our forebears.
Speaking to students through the interpretation of their English teacher. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk 
 
 
Student of the school. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk


 
 
 
 
 












During our conversations, we were surprised many times to discover connections and coincidences – e.g. that our niece Debra White had also visited the Osypiuks (2011); discovering that from all of Anton’s numerous descendants, I was actually raised on Anton’s original farm at Birdwood, and that my brother now owns the same farm. Furthermore, that my brother had married a descendant of the Herbig forebears (with whose ancestory George is also familiar).
George was also familiar with Anne’s ’Herrman’ genealogy, and possesses a copy of the Herrman family history book (complete with an early photo of Anne).and her great grandfather's birth certificate.

Thanks to George and Lukasz, our passing interest in events of 175 years ago grew into a fascination with the general history of Poland, ethnic German migrations into and out of the Nekla region, and in particular, enthusiasm regarding our family roots. If you wish to explore more of your own family’s German-Polish-Lutheran roots, we would strongly advise you to contact Lukasz and his father via their web-site http://www.beactivetour.com/oferta.html  Also, be sure to contact us for several other key web-sites or just for a chat.

If you consider a trip to this area of Poland, we would really recommend staying a night or two at a BNB house we visited, a restored, 18th / 19th century German house http://blog.chata-olenderska.pl/p/kontakt.html   , or at a real, swanky Manor house http://www.podstolice.pl/ , both in the Nekla region.



Photo of the BNB house before restoration. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

The house twenty years later. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

 
 
The interior of the restored house
 
Inspecting an inscription on a roof beam long hidden under paint. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

Builder's date 1798. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

Modern kitchen. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

Spacious warmth of the accommodation in the BNB. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

Poring over the photographic record of restoration. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk
 
 
 
 
And  now  for  some  family photos! 

 
Lukasz and Bob's niece (2011). Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk
 
 
 

Bob and Anton. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk


Bob with his great-grandparents. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

 
The four of us. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk



 Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

 
 
In the busy schedule planned for us around Nekla, we also visited the historic town of  Gniezno, an important site in Poland's early history.



At Gniezno cathedral. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk




Relaxing after a coffee. Photo by Jerzy Osypiuk

















 
 

 
 
 


 

 

 

 

 

 

Poland

 
Each new country we enter brings its own excitement, and we had the same feelings of anticipation as we entered Poland from Germany.  We spent the first night just over the border from ‘Frankfurt an der Oder’, where we stayed in a small guest house, dined sumptuously and slept. Next day, we drove 170 km east in the province of Poznan (we knew it as Posen) from where our ancestors made the decision to flee impositions on their religious practices, and seek freedom in South Australia. I was astonished to discover that Posen is not just farming land inhabited by a remnant of German peasants, but is a large, historic, industrial city of half a million people.
As is common practice with us, we spent the last hour of our drive in the city in fairly dodgy streets, looking for the apartment we’d booked.
It turned out we were staying behind this door! It was much better inside that outside.
 
We then proceeded to enjoy the city which we found to be very attractive – a famous town square, surrounded by numerous well-kept merchants’ houses (all rebuilt to original specifications after 1945, as the city had been destroyed by bombing).
  




 
 

Anne at a monument in Poznan
 

Next day, we headed a further fifty km east to Nekla, a small country town of several thousand people, famous in my eyes as the place where my great grandparents grew up, and in turn left from for Australia in 1847. Our experiences there appear under their own posting. Nekla is about one third of the way due east across Poland from Germany (towards Warsaw).

 
To the north of Poland and Autumn at its best

From Nekla, we drove 300 km north-east to a city called Olsztyn.

Bagel day at a small town we passed through on our way north. Although we bought some they were quite tasteless and we suspect they were more for decoration.
 We were staying at a small village, twenty km from Olsztyn, where we were warmly welcomed by our hosts Yvonne and her husband Jacek (in Polish it's Iwona and ‘Yartsek’). They have a secluded farmhouse in which we immediately felt warm and at home. We made it our base for the next few days.  On one eight degree morning, with layers of thick jackets and gloves, we walked several km to a neighbour’s house to pick up the milk supply (goats’ milk of course!). 
 
Iwona and Jacek's house
 

Jacek emerging from his wine cellar


Iwona, Jacek and family

 
 
This is the road we walked one cold  morning, with layers of thick jackets and gloves, to pick up the milk supply
Roadside trees and the surrounding forest were awash with splashes of yellow, amber and brown autumn leaves conjured up by the chilly days. We walked for several hours, along miles of narrow, sometimes cobbled country roads, trying not to fill up our SD cards with photos of abundant autumn colours. 








One of many adorned Christian shrines in northern Poland

 
 

 


 
What happened to the gnome?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Venturing further afield  we drove another 100 km north-east, close to the Russian and Lithuanian borders. There we inspected one of Hitler’s command bunkers (Wolf’s Lair), now a significant tourist destination, and returned via minor country roads.
 
Collapsed bunkers, destroyed by the Germans before the end of the war in order to hide accumulated information.
 
 




A major cathedral in a small town

The Baltic Sea beckoned us, so we continued from Yvonne and Jacek’s home to Gdansk. En-route we spent a couple of hours on a castle tour at Malbork. Malbork is famous as the base from which, around the fifteenth century, thugs (alias monks known as the Teutonic Knights), periodically sallied forth to kill off any heathens they could find between Spain and Jerusalem. Charming. (They did some good things as well!) Over the centuries, many other military, civic and religious leaders have also called the extensive castle complex home.
Malbork castle
 
 
 


 
Gdansk exceeded all expectations. Especially after a twenty minute lesson that taught us that the way into the B&B car park is actually NOT by the ‘Exit’ boom gate. Exit gates just WILL NOT accept the card no matter how many ways you try to insert or swipe it. On the other hand, it operates immediately at the gate around the corner marked ‘Entry’! Oops.  
 
The rogue Exit gate

Although a port city, with stevedoring, shipbuilding and other industrial activities, Gdansk is also wonderfully attractive. Here too, numerous merchants’ houses were rebuilt after WW2, resulting in a tourist’s delight.
 
Pics from 1945
 
 
 
View through the main gate
 
 

Main square


Organ grinder in the main square

 
 

The lower line of this solemn Latin inscription could be read as 'Rum is the foundation of everything'

 

A reverent devotee in St Catherine's cathedral
 
Someone begging
 
 
The fresh food people

 
Beauty in the city


 




Pirate Pete's ship
 
While in Gdansk, the weather was unexpectedly warm and sunny (20 degrees), and we had a wonderful time roaming the streets and experiencing the city. Bob was so delighted that he bought a hat! Anne bought a ring!
 
 

 
 
 
And then to the south

Our next journey involved driving through Poland from top to bottom – Gdansk to Cracow, a distance of some 600 km. We wisely did the trip over two days, again staying one night en-route in a small village hotel. Fortunately Anne’s Polish language and many gestures proved good enough to ensure the receptionist she was not wanting to stay in the same room as another couple booking in at the same time, and had her own husband in the car. Their body language clearly showed they certainly did not want us sleeping with them…..and vice versa! Later, we walked into the village centre and ordered good local fare from a small café – without a word of a common language. We are honing our cross-cultural skills with each new adventure.

The next day brought us to our accommodation in Cracow without arrival incident. At Cracow, we spent our first full day on two exhausting guided walking tours – a tour of the Old Town, and a tour of the old Jewish Ghetto. Both were fascinating.
 
Memorial to Crakow Jews killed during WW2. Each chair represents 1,0000 people and there are 65 chairs.
A street in the Jewish section of Cracow where scenes from "Schindler's list " was filmed.

Between tours, we lunched at an authentic Polish café – Bob ordered salad and received a quiche – Anne ordered soup and enjoyed it.

Our second full day at Cracow was spent at a deep underground salt mine. We started the day by walking for twenty minutes to the ‘bus station’. We found the interchange centre easily, but for the next half hour we were lost in a multi-level maze of tram and train platforms - but no platform for buses! At length, we managed to escape to the street from where our bus would leave. An hour after that, and we were successfully at the head of the mine shaft.

The tour took three hours: initially down four hundred steps to Level One, where rock salt had been mined for six hundred years, making Cracow famous and wealthy. Further tunnels took us to subterranean caverns and cathedrals carved from solid rocksalt. Many statues have also been carved from the rock salt as display pieces. 
 
 
Salt sculptings

 
 
Chandelier made of salt crystals
 
 

Our return trip to the Cracow CBD was notable in that our bus, already full when we boarded, somehow managed to also fit in a full class of school students plus further passengers at all subsequent stops. No-one seemed fazed, and we just had to get used to being pressed snugly against our fellow-sardines. We returned, and still had time to buy a chess set and souvenir artefacts.

On the day we left Poland, we stopped for a few hours to visit Auschwitz. An expert guide showed us all we wanted to know and much that we’d rather not know about the place. Having been to Dachau concentration camp three years ago we were somewhat prepared for what we would see but it was still a sobering visit. 
 
The infamous inscription at the entry gate 'Work makes you free'



Inside Birkenau. A scene you may recall from movies

Passenger carriage used to transport people to the camps.
 

 
 
We continued on into the Czech Republic, with several have ‘interesting’ travel adventures - this time with the GPS lady (the numerous road-works detours totally confused her), plus driving in the rain, and seeking an obscure hotel after dark where no English is spoken, etc etc, thus completing 11,000 km of driving.  Our intention is to now spend a week at Prague where we arrived early in the afternoon, relieved that there were no dramas finding the place. Just sometimes, it’s nice and easy, especially when the street bears our family name (even if slightly miss-spelled)