Upstairs on May Street

John sent a note about the Christening photos in the first couple of posts: " I believe the Christening photos were done upstairs (where Ludwig and Victoria resided) on 175 May St. in front of the twin windows in the living room."

Here's that upstairs living room, in a photo taken, most likely, by John P. Zdrojewski, and sent to me recently by Paul Zadner.  So JPZ photographs his mother Victoria.  Seventy years later, his nephew PZ sends the image to his granddaughter JZ.  Got that?  You can click on the link up top to view and correct a page I've started dedicated to the sorting out of who's who.

For Eugene, Casey, and John F., this was "Grandpa Ludwig." 

For the children of those three, this is Great-Grandfather Ludwig Zdrojewski.

For you fourth-generation whippersnappers, this is your great-great-Grandfather.

Whippersnapper Tye wrote recently to ask about the meaning of our family name.  His great-Uncle John Francis (Got that?  See my page!) replied as follows (I quote with permission: )

           "In Polish, zdroj means spring or brook. If you travel in areas of southern Poland you will see road signs saying "Zdroj this" or "Zdroj that" as in "Saratoga Springs" or Palm Springs". When they started using surnames the guy who lived near the brook may have taken on the name Zdrojewski. And the -ski was the masculine suffix; his wife and daughters were properly surnamed Zdrojewska, applying the feminine suffix.

For the record, your paternal great, great grandparents (Ludwig and Victoria) came to the US from a town near Poznan named Ling in 1903. They had $ 30 with them, a significant amount. This had been enabled by the fact that Ludwig's Uncle Stanley, who had come here in 1893, had paid for their passage. It is not clear to me whether their town was in German Poland or Austrian Poland (remember the partitions?) but apparently Ludwig had at one time been in the Austrian military. Their departure port from Europe was Hamburg however, clearly in Germany proper.

When we were in Poland some years ago, a guide surnamed Nowak indicated that she envied our name, rather aristocratic, hers being somewhat the equivalent of Jones."

Thank you, John.  And Tye, thanks for asking.  I remember my Dad sitting at the dinner table explaining how our name meant "from the place of the Spring."

Does anyone have information or a photo of Stanley?  

I'd like to frame his picture and light a candle in front of it.  Considering the history of twentieth-century Poland, this Stanley Zdrojewski is a hero of mine.

JZ