The Movie Projector

The loft workrooms here at the Coot Hill Preservation Society HQ devote space to this loaded table with mystery objects stashed beneath it.

Recently, the Curators delivered a brown case from the tangle.

The light in the exam room allows us to note that the top goes up and the front  swings down.

When everybody's glass was refreshed, and all the elders were in comfortable seats, the machine was plugged in and the setup band, so to speak, set up the silver screen.  The screen always fought back, to the amusement of the audience.

Kids always love this gadget.  They can see for themselves how it works, and they can work it.  You put on the takeup reel, put on the projection reel at the top, thread the film, swing the lens back in place, turn on the lamp, adjust the angle of the beam, and raid the bookshelves for fat volumes on which to set the projector on the dining-room table, so that the image is thrown neatly upon the silver screen.  Then you run the film and inhale the ambrosial fragrance of celluloid, fine motor oil, and hot dust.  It's wonderful.

A kid can also thrill to the power of making relatives run fast backwards, on-screen just as in real life.

The lovely clickety-clacking of the machine provides continuo to the other musical elements in the room during a showing of home movies with this projector:  laughter; shouts of insult and outrage; inquiries as to who, what, when, and where; the clink of ice on glass; and the occasional sigh of nostalgia.

John Peter Zdrojewski

John Peter Zdrojewski, eldest son of Ludwig and Victoria.  He was a small boy when the three of them crossed the Atlantic in steerage.  He sold insurance for the Prudential Insurance Company.  He also was a self-employed wedding photographer.  His son, Eugene, often went on jobs with him, to line up the wedding partiers for their group shots, therby acquiring for himself a lifelong habit of lining up people for photographs. JPZ always had the latest equipment, a great deal of which is in Argyle right now, and I'll show ya'.

The story is that he thought he would become a priest.  He walked up to the rectory to make his intention known to his own parish priest.  At the rectory gate, he paused, considered, and took a walk around the block to think it over some more.  He went up to the gate a second time.  He walked around the block again.  He stood looking at the rectory door.  Then he went home.

Who's that on the balcony?  And is that May Street?  I don't remember a balcony on May Street.

And some people thought that John Peter Zdrojewski was somberly and narrowly focused on religiosity.  Ha! Ha!

European "Official Papers"

Here's one side of a legal-sized document that has been in the family for over a hundred years.  Paul Zadner just sent me a photocopy of it.  It's in German because this was the third Partition; Poland had been wiped off the map.

It appears to be a listing of members of a household.  Ludwig and Victoria are there.  So are "Jochan" and "Francisek."  So is a fifth person, born in ?1889?.  A big black line is drawn through that person's listing, and a note with the word "Buffallo" in it is appended.


Any German language scholars out there who want to try a bit of translating?  I can send by email good scans of these docs, so someone could read them in Preview, complete with zooming-in.

Thanks again to Paul Zadner for the copies.

EDIT 03/01/2019: A Follow-on post is here.

"Eugeniusz," 1917, Somewhere

"Who, in 1917?"

Paul Zadner (PAZ) sent this photo and supplied the caption.  Paul, how did you get the "1917"?  And do you have any other information about this?

Europe or America?  We have a brick house, a new lawn or something in the back, which might indicate that the house has just been built.  Or, it's a 500-year-old potato field!  We have a lilac bush;  or maybe it's a European chestnut tree with the flower heads waving in the breeze there.

We have "Eugeniusz."

Could the gentleman be Uncle Stanley the Elder, he who came to America in 1893?  If he came over at age 26 in 1893, he would be 50 years old in 1917.  That looks right.  If so, "Eugeniusz" was first cousin to Ludwig, and we have collateral descendants of this couple who are our relatives, elsewhere in the US. (That is, if the boy lived. If he died, no one would have talked about him and we would never know.  Right?)   And Ludwig and Victoria's grandson was given the same name.

Alternatively, could this family be relatives left behind in Poland?  Did they survive?

JZ

Wedding Photo on the Wall

JFZ writes:  "Look at the wedding photo on the wall. Ludwig and Victoria? I doubt their circumstances in a partitioned Poland would have allowed such an apparent extravagance. On the other hand, perhaps this was at a time when marriage was much more honored. Any thoughts?"

That's the best I can do here on the zooming-in.

I could imagine Ludwig and Victoria having wedding clothes like that even under Partition.  It could have been an old gown, remade.  Since they were cabinetmakers, they were handy folks.  Anyone have any family lore to pass on in relation to this?

If a photo like the one on the wall up there turns up in a box in anybody's house, I hope the finder scans it and sends it on to Gene & Clara's.

Also, in order to date this 1940s party photo, it would help to know what month and year Casimir John, he of the potted plant, came home from Japan at the end of the Second World War.  Could someone provide that information, please?

(Casimir John's homecoming, at the train station in Buffalo, was filmed by his brother Eugene John, and is in Zdro Films I.)

You know what else springs to mind here?  Uncle Stanley (directly under the wedding photo) got his nephew Eugene a job at the Buffalo steel works after the war.  Eugene had been pressing pants at a dry cleaner's.  He went to Canisius somewhere in there also.  Can you imagine paratrooping down to fight the Japanese, then coming home to press trousers and sit in classrooms?

JZ

What a Group!

Zdrojewski family in the late 1940s

Paul Zadner sent me this terrific photo.  That's Paul on the left in the front row.  Center front is his sister, Celine Zdrojewska.
Who is the little girl on the right?
John (JFZ) wrote me thus:
". . .other girl:  unknown but probably Uncle Tony's and Aunt Anna's youngest daughter Angeline ('Lulu'). . ."

Seated are, first Cecelia Zdrojewska, the mother of Paul and Celine, and also of Michael, who is not in this photo.
Check out Aunt Cecelia's shoes!
Paul Zadner wrote me thus:
"My mother was the lady with the shoes . . . When she was pregnant with my younger brother she thought she was having stomach problems and did not realize that she was pregnant.  Having a child at age 35 was a disgrace and frowned upon,  like you should have had enough smarts not to get pregnant at such an old age.  Older women would give her dirty looks."

Well, Auntie Cecelia darling, you just give them what for!  You certainly seem like the sort who could and would give them what for.
Next we have Grandma Victoria and Grandpa Ludwig.
Na zdrowie!

Next we have Aunt Helen, taking a sip, while behind her, her husband Uncle Tony indicates his dentition.

The rearguard starts off with my Mom Clara Zdrojewska, unless she was still Clara Matynka at that time;  my Dad, Eugene Zdrojewski;  Uncle Stanley; Uncle Casey - what a cutup!;  Uncle Tony; Eleanor Zdrojewska; and John Peter Zdrojewski looking adorable under his dinner napkin.

Johnny (JFZ) is not with us yet, at least on his own.  So the picture was taken perhaps by the elder Casimir (father of Paul and Celine, and husband of Cecelia of the sexy shoes) or perhaps with a timer, which is no doubt right here in my living room in a box.  Keep visiting this blog and posting comments, and who knows?  I might show you all a picture of JPZ's timer and lightmeter.

JZ

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

Edward Stroinski, an Early Painting

On entering the Lower North Gallery
of the Coot Hill Preservation Society Headquarters,
the visitor is immediately caught by the charm of this painting.

Why, it's landscape, 27" x 22', in oil.
How restful and peaceful is the scene.
It almost looks as though the house and garage at Poplar Avenue
 had been transported to the country.
Who is the figure?

Ah, who indeed?

Would Uncle Eddie please tell us about this painting?
When did he paint it?  What interested him most about the project?

The Steger Trunk

A visitor here at the Coot Hill Preservation Society Headquarters will, on entering the Lower East Gallery,
take delighted note of this old trunk.  He will also notice that the Curators have not properly replaced the missing leather handle on this side, or indeed on the other, except with. . . oh, Lord. . .bale twine!

On recovery from this shock, the visitor relents on noting that the  tin  trunk is cleaned off,
and the wooden bands, that act like buffers or fenders, have even been polished with lemon oil.

The latch does not stay closed.  There is no key.  Does some family member somewhere
have a key that might belong to this trunk?  If so, can we deal?

I love the "alligator-hide" tinwork.  I went to the trouble of forcing Marty to heave this thing down
from the Marilla attic, so I get to invent the term "alligator-hide tinwork."  

One of the two latches shows the impressive detail of the work.  This is of German  manufacture.
It belonged to the Steger family, a prominent family of German immigrants to Buffalo in the late
nineteenth century.  Adam and Clara Matynka bought the house at 554 Walden Avenue from the Steger family, who had operated a tailor shop in the front rooms.  Eugene Zdrojewski established his optometry offices in those front rooms soon after. And for all those years - like about 100 - this trunk was in the attic, the grey gritty shadowy attic, at 554 Walden Avenue.

Somebody in the Steger family had this trunk, possibly on a trip west over the Atlantic.
See the hatch on the left?  It contained a Bible and a couple of photographs.  I'll show them in a future post,
especially if people visit this blog and post comments and tell stories and historical tidbits.

The brown cloth is fragile at the place where the hatch hinges forward.  So is the paper picture of the  lassie
madchen rowing her rowboat in the picture.

This picture, adorning the curvy part, is in better shape.  We keep our winter things in this trunk, keeping soft stuff on top so as not to damage the pictures.

I would so love to be clued in as to any details anyone might have about this trunk.



Julie 

New page: Call for Editorial Help

I just set up a new, standalone page to this blog.  To see it, please click on the link

Familiae personae Zdrojewski

up top, under the banner.  This is the beginning of a list of Zdrojewski family members, with some indication of their mutual relationships and years of birth.

Please contact me with additions and corrections.  I'm missing some middle names, some maiden names, and who knows what else, besides having another entire generation yet to add.

My plan is for another, similar page for the Matynka side of the family.

Zdrojewski Christening and Some Backstory

Here's one that includes the ladies.  Grandpa Ludwig, Grandma Victoria, Marty (MPZ) in Christening gown, Eleanor Zdrojewski, John Zdrojewski (JPZ), Clara Adamina Matynka Zdrojewski (CAMZ), and Eugene Zdrojewski (EJZ.)   May or June, 1952.

Who knows anything about the Christening gown?  Was it used by multiple babies in the family?  Johnny, for example, whose gown is shown off in Zdro Films II, soon to be featured?

Does anybody have any ties from that era?  If I threw a party, would you wear them?

Is the photo below set in the living room of the house on May Street?  That was 175 May Street, Buffalo, wasn't it?

Eugene and Clara, June 12th, 1948.  

Clara made her gown, veil, and gloves - but that's another story.  For now I will just point out that from this day, it would be two years before they could live in the same city;  two and a half years before they could have a place of their own;  three years before they could rent an actual house; five years to the birth of their firstborn;  nine years until they could build the Marilla house.

I would love to hear stories of the wedding, or the christening, or the house on May Street.

Thanks to Paul Zadner and JFZ for sending photos to me.

Sorry for the random nature of this blog;  but it's going to be that way as I amble around opening computer files and cardboard boxes.  Please send photos or stories to add to the mix.    Julie