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| JFZ, John Francis Zdrojewski, receives his diploma. Is this Niagara U? What is the year? What was your cume? |
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| Who knows? This could have been an earlier graduation. Let's say it was and put this Total Cuteness up here. Please post comments, folks, with details of these matters. The younger generations thirst for knowledge out here. Also, we can keep this graduation theme going; just email me photos and data about family members graduating and I will put them up. |
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| Casimir Zdrojewski processes at his graduation ceremony. Which graduation is this? What is the year? What does D. O. M. stand for? Would those who know please post a comment and clue us in? |
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| Congratulations, Cazu. |
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| Paul Zadner sent me these photos - thank you, Paul. This one he labeled "Grandmother Z. at Casey's graduation." Who is the gent with the fabulous necktie? Who is the lady with the hat? The third lady, in the dark dress with white polka dots, must be Grandmother Victoria. The fourth lady, sporting shades, is Eleanor, proud Mama of Casey the Graduate. What year is this? |
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| Standing: Casimir (handsome lad!), his father John. Seated: Eleanor, Grandma Victoria, Who, please?, and Who, Please? |
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| EJZ as a serious senior. I have some of his term papers upstairs. |
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| There he is again, on the bottom right: Class President. If you click on this, it should open up in Preview or some equivalent. Then you can zoom in and read the names. Anybody know about any of these other people? |
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| Some of us have fond memories of this item of furniture. |
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| Glorioski! It's Gene & Clara's bar cabinet! Let's look inside. |
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| We want that grey metal case. |
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| This is JPZ's film case. |
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| The leftmost film, in the brown can, is of Orchard Lake in 1941. We want the second one. |
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| It's a commercially-produced film for home projection. Specifically, it is a Castle Films newsreel. |
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| JPZ typed labels and affixed them to the inside of the film can top. |
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| Eugene Zdrojewski's high-school athletics patch. 13.5mm by barely 1mm. Red felt cutout applied to buff felt. |
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| Click on the image to enlarge it. |
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| Strzelno village square, from its Wikipedia article |
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| The Polish Wikipedia article on Chrosno has this terrific photo of a nineteenth-century windmill. Google Images has more. |
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| This photo was in a box upstairs. What a cozy-looking house; I can almost smell the gingerbread. Let's zoom in on the people. |
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Eleanor is second from the right. Who are the other people? Whose house is it? |
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| The loft workrooms here at the Coot Hill Preservation Society HQ devote space to this loaded table with mystery objects stashed beneath it. |
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| Recently, the Curators delivered a brown case from the tangle. |
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| The light in the exam room allows us to note that the top goes up and the front swings down. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| Who's that on the balcony? And is that May Street? I don't remember a balcony on May Street. |
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| And some people thought that John Peter Zdrojewski was somberly and narrowly focused on religiosity. Ha! Ha! |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| "Who, in 1917?" |
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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| On entering the Lower North Gallery of the Coot Hill Preservation Society Headquarters, the visitor is immediately caught by the charm of this painting. |
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| 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? |
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| Would Uncle Eddie please tell us about this painting? When did he paint it? What interested him most about the project? |
