Paul Zadner spoke recently with Joey, son of Joseph Zdrojewski, one of the six sons of Ludwig and Victoria:
"So I told Joey that you had been bugging me all day about people in this photo. Now Joey is the same age as John so What he told me must have been told him by his parents. I cannot believe that my parents did not tell me this but maybe it was of no interest to me as a child so I dropped it from my memory bank.
That is Frank's wife and that is Uncle Frank's son. I never knew that Frank had a son. Uncle Frank was probably divorced before I was ever born. Joey's Mother, Julia, was friendly with Uncle Frank's wife but after the divorce, Uncle Frank frowned on this friendship so it ended and they lost contact ."
John, aka Johnny, aka JFZ, has also weighed in with a dissenting opinion:
"This is a mystery but not without speculation. The man next to Ludwig is my Uncle Frank, the second oldest son. Now Frank was married for a short time. Logically, but not necessarily, the woman may be his wife. If so, wouldn't the boy be their offspring? Yet, I never heard they had had children. But, my father was never very open about this matter probably because of the shame of divorce,much stronger in those times. In recent years I have had other thoughts about Frank that I shared with your father and our brother Casey, as well as with Paul, but there was no consensus. Although Stanley was the youngest son, it is very unlikely that the boy is he. The person seems too young in comparison to the others for that to be true."
So, not my Daddy but my great-Uncle Frank's son?! If that is true, then where is he? Didn't he see his father after the divorce? Does he have descendants? Where are they?
If this is true, then people devoted a great deal of energy into the conversion of data into secrets.
This investigation has revealed some confusion about the birth order of the Ludwig and Victoria offspring. Here's the birth order; thanks John.
John Peter
Frank
Anthony
Casimir Joseph
Joseph
Stanley
John Peter
Frank
Anthony
Casimir Joseph
Joseph
Stanley
2 comments:
John wrote me thus:
"OK, you sleuths,
Some not so random thoughts about Uncle Frank, a man who was always kind to me.
Frank used to go to New York City for about a week many summers. My father told me that because of his interest in photography he liked to browse the extraordinary camera stores the city had to offer. Sometimes, he'd come back with a new attachment, once with a new camera. Yet oddly, he almost never went anywhere to take pictures. He seemed to live a hermit life. You'd think he'd get on the bus and take pictures of Delaware Park Lake, for example. If something like that happened I never saw the proof in black and white.
Is it possible that it was a ruse? Could the ex-wife and child live somewhere distant from Buffalo, even in the NYC area, and he went to at least visit the child? But my father couldn't have told me that he was visiting the ex-wife, a not credible purpose. But the child, unmentionable, could have been the reason.
Regarding the child, people that we all knew must have known about it. Yet, only Joey knew about it in these recent years because of his mother's friendship with the unnamed woman! Julie, in the 80's or 90's, in a post- prandial dinner table conversation at your Marilla dinner table I asked both your father and Casey if they thought Uncle Frank may have been gay. That would have been a perfect time for either of them to tell me that Frank had had a child. After all , to some extent, they were age mates with the child and must have met him at least once, and, if so, at least at the time of the photograph, evidently taken upstairs on May Street. And they didn't tell me. What a stonewall! Now I'm really annoyed! By the way, to the question each answered: "I don't know." "
Hey they wouldn't stonewall you, you're a man! (I'm harsh, here; yeah. But I'll get over it.) Seriously, I think that your brothers, sitting at that table, would not hide anything from you. Deliberately, anyway.
So, where's Joey? Does he have email? Can somebody put him onto this blog?
Julie
January 29, 2012 11:16 AM
John wrote me thus also:
"Julie,
Wow! Why didn't my father tell me this? According to my memory he told me the marriage was very short; I have a recollection of "about a year and a half". Obviously, if it had been so, the marriage was long enough to have a son but too short to create the circumstances of this picture. Now I'm a bit annoyed. Frank always seemed sad and depressed to me. Perhaps this explains it, having been isolated from his child. Does Joey have any idea of the child's given name, whether he kept the Zdrojewski surname, or whether it reverted to the mother's maiden name? If so, the person may be findable.
The birth order,with one element of doubt, is John, Frank, Anthony, Casimir or Joseph (likely in this order since Joseph served in WWII, Casimer probably having been deemed too old), and Stanley.
Now, we've got to find the kid! Can you imagine what he thinks he knows and has to say, true or false, about the family?"
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