Matynka Ancestors and Relatives: Suddenly the Family is Bigger

My maternal grandfather, Adam Matynka, was one of 8 children, and I never knew it.

Undoubtedly, my parents took me with them to weddings and funerals where these great-aunts and great-uncles would have been met.  But I was to small to remember more than impressions, while the particulars were never written down.

But now we have particulars in abundance, thanks to long-lost - indeed, never-known - cousin, Timothy Warchocki.  His pages at MyHeritage.com make clear the various branches of the family lineage, indicate dates, and are illustrated with photos, including some old ones from this blog.

I am grateful to Tim for making it possible for me to update part of the Matynka family page here.

"Auntie Stella," "Auntie Veronica," and "Uncle Tony" were for me names heard in childhood.  Now they are persons with places on the family tree.  Thank you, Tim.

Dziadzi Matynka had 7 brothers and sisters.

Clara and Adam Matynka,
at 554 Walden Avenue, Buffalo.
It looks like the 1950s.

Adam Matynka in his uniform
of municipal bus driver
in Buffalo.

Who Is This Beautiful Girl, This Veritable Queen?

The heavy cardboard frame with folding cover is in mint condition.  The frame is glued down solidly over the photographic print;  we cannot take a squint at the back.  There are no labels.

Indications that she is a First Holy Communicant include the white gown, hose, and shoes; white veil; Missal and Rosary.  Absence of a candle, such as we have seen in FHC portraits of EJZ and JFZ and MPZ, is not a contraindication in my mind, as candle and veil are an unwise combination, so it is best to let the boys tote those big candles.

Suggestions that this might instead be a Confirmation portrait include her mature appearance:  typical age at FHC is 8 years, while typical age at Confirmation is 13 to 14 years.  Additionally, her shoes have enough of a heel for a teenager, too much for an 8-year-old.  And look at that gold wristwatch over her elbow-length gloves!  Again, it seems unlikely for an 8-year-old.

I've never heard of veils for Confirmation.  Has anyone else?

Is she my Matynka grandmother, Clara Haremska?  Our CHM was born in 1903 or 1909, depending on to which document we give our trust.  Eight years of age would then be 1911 or 1917.  Fourteen years of age would then be 1917 or 1923.  Those all seem plausible to me from the look of the portrait details.  Also, CHM and all the Haremska women have high brows like this mystery girl.

Clara Haremska married Adam Matynka in 1925.  My Mom, our CAMZ, labeled the back of this 16" by 20" photographic print with the names and the date.  Thanks, Mom!

The print is curled and tattered with age, but remains impressive.

Adam Matynka and Clara Haremska Matynka, 1925

So, again, the woman above and below is CHM, my Grandma Matynka.  Is she our Mystery Queen Girl?  What do you think?

Clara Haremska Matynka, 1925

Now let us consider the Mostkowska -Zdrojewska options.  Here is the wedding photo of our JPZ and Julia Mostkowska.  The date approximately 1920; Dad, our EJZ, was born in 1923.

John Peter Zdrojewski and Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska, circa 1920

Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska, circa 1920

Mayhap Mystery Queen Girl is my paternal grandmother, Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska.  What do you think? Her face seems more square, though.  And here, alas, we have another covered forehead.

Julia Mostkowska Zdrojewska

Is Mystery Queen Girl my paternal aunt Melania Zdrojewska?  Melania was born in 1933 and died about 8 years later according to the story from Dad/EJZ.  I suppose the portrait could be from 1941, but it seems less likely.  If Melania actually lived to age 13 and this was her Confirmation photo, then the year would be 1946.  Again, just from the look of things 1946 seems too recent a date for the photo portrait.  Finally, we know that Melania died in the 1930s while Dad/EJZ was a high school student at Orchard Lake.  So, scratch the Melania/Confirmation possibility with confidence.  Melania/FHC remains a possibility, if we allow Dad/EJZ to have misremembered, and that Melania died in 1941 when he was a college student at Orchard Lake, not a high-school student.

I hope somebody actually recognizes this photo.  If so, please let me know!  If not, then I invite the spirits of my ancestors to visit me and set me straight on this.  Let's talk, OK?

Postwar Buffalo

For a couple of years after their June 1948 wedding, Gene and Clara toughed it out, with Gene staying in a cheap dorm (they had those then) in NYC, and Clara living at home with her parents, sister, and Tom. She worked the books at a nearby hardware store.

This looks like coming home from church some morning.  Who is stumping up the driveway behind her?

Why, it's Tom in short pants.  Love it.  Who is the older boy coming along next?

Apparently this was a favorite family picnic spot.  What is Adam Matynka holding in his hand?

A camera body?

Clara as Sylvan Nymph, complete with Sylvan Nymph tablecloth.

That's quite the rootin' tooter on Tom's shirt.

Is this Genevieve?

Is this Genevieve and is she holding a movie camera?

Clara Matynka, CHM, as Goddess on a Stump.  Note the goddess's chariot yon in the dappled glade.  What manner of chariot is that?

Julie

Adam and Clara and Gertrude and Clara

Here are Adam and Clara at a park somewhere.

Their daughter Gertrude was born in the early 1920s.  Clara Adamina was born November 1929.  Here is the earliest photo of her so far found; the year is 1937. Nine-year-old Clara Adamina is in the second row, far right.

Notice that it says "1936-37" and "Lower Grades South Wales School."  South Wales is in southern Erie County.  In my own high school, there were kids from the elementary schools of Elma, Marilla, and Wales.

This next one must be two or three years later, around 1940, perhaps.  Gertrude, unknown baby, and Clara.

It's kind of a sparse collection of baby pics!  Once CAMZ hit high school, she discovered the camera and made up for lost time.  Stay tuned.

Julie

Haremski: TNG

We began the Matynka-Haremski side of the family with an impressive couple three generations back (up?)  from me:  here and then here.

On the page Familiae Personae Matynka they are listed in the second little bunch, along with their two daughters, Pearl Haremska and Clara Haremska.

I wish I knew their birth years, and I have yet to find any photos or memorabilia of them as children or young women.  If anyone has any information, it would be terrific if someone would let me in on it.

Here's how I remember them:  as my Busi Matynka and Aunt Pearl, in this case at my high-school graduation in 1971 -

More gems from that party are forthcoming.  But right now, here is the earliest snapshot of Clara Haremska Matynka (let's designate her CHM for this blog) that has turned up so far.

What house is this?  Gittere Street?  Nice dress.  Look how it drapes.  And speaking of drapes, Clara started her own small business, doing custom curtains, draperies, and slipcovers, employing serveral people and serving many customers out of her own business premises over the course of decades.

I remember going to the wholesale textile warehouse with her once.  It was a giant warehouse close to Lake Erie, I guess.  That's as close to the Port of Buffalo as I ever got.  ("Thanks," Urban Renewal.)

Clara married Adam Matynka, producing the Matynka branch, of Walden Avenue.

Pearl married Edward Stawicki, producing "The Poplar Street Gang."  Here are Aunt Pearl and Uncle Edward in the backyard at Gene and Clara's, July 1971.  We shall do Poplar Street more, as well.

Smacznego!

Julia

Matynka - Haremski Mystery Photo, or "Excuses, Excuses"

Here at the Coot Hill Preservation Society HQ, work slows on occasion, such as those occasions when the Directress tends to indoor plants, following the example of her paternal grandfather, John Peter Zdrojewski.  JPZ customarily started tomato plants in cut-down milk cartons set on the windowsills at 175 May Street, Buffalo, New York.

Here we've got some cauliflower, hot peppers, seedless watermelon, and Digitalis.

There are other jobs, as well.

Nevertheless, when the Haremski Iconograph was discovered the other day (see the post itself) CHPSHQ felt that the time had come to bring to light the Haremski-Matynka trove. Here it is, exploded all over the worktable.

This stack is of things from the high-school career of Mom, Clara Adamina Matynka Zdrojewska, CAMZ.  She was a fine-arts major in high school.  See the folio?

History, literature, and religion:

One large print was tucked in with a collection of snapshots Mom (CAMZ) took at summer camp whilst a teenager.  I brought it down.

Two facts help us here:  Clara was born in 1929.  There was color film from the 1930s, yes indeed.

Verso, we see a plain but stout cardboard backing.  Not professionally done, but carefully and deliberately done.

The buildings in the background of the new find resemble the buildings in the background of the Haremski Iconograph.  Don't they?

Looks like the photographer was of shorter stature than her subject.  Did the teenage Clara snap this photo?  Did she have it developed at her school?  I feel certain she did the backing - she kept on doing that all her life, up to and including with photos of her grandchildren.

Who is this man?

Was he the hired man at the Haremski farm?

Was he a neighbor of the Haremski family, or a family friend?

Was he Clara's father's father, Adam Matynka's father, visiting his in-laws at a family party in the country?  If so, this is the only photo we have of that man, whose name we do not know.

Was he a relative of the Zientarska?  He does look like her.

Watch any Polish historical dramas lately?  That face is in there among the Polish fighters resisting the Tatars or the Teutonic Knights, in a Wajda film.

And of course the mustache is pure Pilsudski.  Wow, look at his face, also!

Suppose Clara, Mom, CAMZ, did take the Haremski Mystery Photo.  If so, then she probably took the Haremski Iconograph as well, and thus that is her shadow on the grass behind the Zientarska.

Furthermore, say she was 15 years old at the time.  

1929 + 15 = 1944.  

Clara grows up during 1939-1945, saving tin and aluminum and listening to the radio news - including news about distant cousins on the other side of an ocean.

Matynka - Haremski

Please see the page Familiae Personae Matynka for a listing of the family relationships on the Matynka side. Looking at the family tree from my own point of view, this includes my and Marty's mother, Clara Adamina Matynka Zdrojewska, and her siblings, parents, and grandparents.

Of her maternal grandparents, the parents of Clara's mother Clara, we know that they were born in Poland.  We know that his name was Haremski and hers Zientarska.

We have been told that the Zientarska was . . . a forceful personality.

And we have one photo.

Great pose, hey?  No pitchfork necessary.

Don't ask me where this was taken.  Mom and her family lived in a little town in southern Erie County at one point.  Perhaps her maternal grandparents did also.  I've no idea; it just looks like an old farm. Looks like the 1930s, doesn't it?

I like the cigar, the suspenders, her hand on his shoulder. I like her split-front dress and her brooch and her cotton stockings with open-toed pumps.  I like the shadows on the lawn, of her elbow and the photographer.

But it freaks me out to look at their hands.  Both of them have broad hands with short, stout fingers.  I have hands like that.  Human hand phenotype is highly heritable; the long tapering fingers of European aristocrats having long been remarked upon.  Well, I'm an American, so I care not a whit whether my hands are aristocratic or peasant-like.  Ha ha ha.

I "enhanced" Busi Zientarska Haremska's face in IPhoto.  It made her look so much scarier that I almost fell out of my chair.

A cameo.  If anyone finds this cameo or this pendant in a drawer somewhere, please photograph it and send the file up.  All right?

I wonder how old they are in this picture.  They look vital and healthy no matter what their age.  That bodes well for their descendants.  Check out your hands to see if you've got the mojo.

Julie