Uncle Stanley, his parents, and his nephew Eugene

Ludwig and Victoria Zdrojewski had six sons; the youngest was Stanley.

Notice the double shadow behind Ludwig, cast by the hefty array of floodlights, set up no doubt by JPZ for this formal family Christmas portrait.

If we zoom in to the mirror on the wall behind them, we see a partial reflected image of the Christmas tree across the room.  Below the mirror, on the mantel, we see one of those little green toy Christmas trees, the bristly kind, with white paint splashed upon it, for snow.  They usually had a little red wooden pot, or disc, as a base.  In front of the tiny tree is one of the Magi, in that reverent pose as he approaches the Infant in the Manger.  So there is a Nativity scene set up on the mantel.

But it isn't always snowing in Buffalo!  Here in the back yard on May Street, important matters are receiving proper attention.  What's Gene using to trim Stanley's hair?  Grass trimmers?  Sheep shears?

Interesting shape of bottle: short and fat, maybe 16 ounces.  Can't read the label.  I'll have to fire up PhotoShop in my spare time.

Na zdrowie!
Julie

Mystery Zdrophotos Contest

Great glory and honor to the one who identifies correctly the five gentlemen pictured below, whom I call for the time being Mr. A, B, C, D, and E.

Mr. A

Studious fellow.  See how his book is propped on a board across the wide arms of his chair?  His bookcase and desk are massive also.  Note the gooseneck lamp and the mid-C20 botanical design of the blotter or whatever it is on the desk.  For the benefit of green youth among the readership, we can mention that the papers in that messy stack include "typescript;" you can see it better upside down.  What is that little merry-go-round gadget sticking up from the desktop? Why have men stopped wearing French cuffs and cufflinks?  Don't they realize how terribly attractive is the style?  Whose office is this and where is it?

Mr. B
Also at work.  Also with strange stuff on his desk.

Mr. C

Mr. D

This man is a lot happier; he's done with work.  Is that beer with the three rings on the label Pabst Blue Ribbon?        
Update:  No - it is Ballantine beer.

Mr. E

Best way to log your entry to this contest is to Comment on the post at the website, which is here; click this!

I'm headed out to the garage to hunt up a prize.

Julie

Genevieve Stroinski

     Our family has lost Genevieve Stroinski, (09/10/21 - 02/25/12.)  To Sharon, she was "Mom,"  to her nieces and nephews, "Aunt Genie" - although usually it was "Uncle Eddie and Aunt Genie."  That's because they never seemed very far apart, either in location or in spirit.  Our hearts go out to Uncle Eddie, and Sharon, and all Genie's family.

What was the year?

What flair!  What style!  Of course.

Genevieve Stroinski was of the last generation to use hatpins.  Well, you never know:  they might come back.

When Ed Stroinski needs to paint a lady, he knows whom she should look like.  Naturally.

To see photos of the whole painting, go to Edward Stroinski, an Early Painting.

1979

I'm going to start baking Russian Tea Cakes regularly, in her honor.

Miłość dla wszystkich - Julie

The Polish Woolly Rhino

     Paul Johnson's 2003 Art: A New History starts off with a chapter on cave paintings.  While describing how high up off the cave floor many of the big paintings were done, he says this:

    "The famous painting of a woolly rhinoceros at Font-de-Gaume, whose accuracy was first disputed but then confirmed when a well-preserved example of this supposedly mythic creature was unearthed in 1907 in a bitumen deposit in Poland, is found high up on a huge cave wall."

     Well! I could not let that rest.  Here are some photos from a 2004 writeup from Kraków entitled Wykopaliska w Staruni  ("Excavations in Starunia.")  (Starunia was a Polish village in 1907; now it is part of Ukraine.)

The proud professors at the coal mine.  Check these guys out!  Imagine their celebrations at the end of the excavatory workday.  Na zdrowie!

                                           

Coleodonta antiquitatus

                                  

Reconstruction done at that time.

                                           

     At the top left of the web article page is a little button for the home page: Zwoje, "The Scrolls, an Internet Cultural Periodical."

     From there I clicked on "The Vanishing Kraków," just for kicks.  And here is an image from that photoessay:

     So - now when we go to Kraków and walk around Grodzka Street and see this, we will understand what we are seeing:  architectural adornment that celebrates an important paleontologic find in Poland in 1907.

     Miłość dla wszystkich - Julie

Kaminski

Earlier this month, in Zdrojewski Identification Contest, I put up this photo of a Kaminski gathering:

Cecelia Kaminski married Casimir Joseph Zdrojewski; you can check out the relationships at the page Familiae Personae Zdrojewski.

Two of their three children are in this photo: Celine between her Mama and her Grandmama, and Paul seated in front giving the photographer a great baleful look.  Notice the young man behind Cecelia.

Here is that young man again in the photo below, which was stuck in a book in the Upstairs Research Loft of the Coot Hill Family Historical Preservation Society.

Who is he?  Who are they all?  They look like a group of siblings and cousins.  In fact, I wonder if those are Celine and Paul Zadner perched on top of the piano.  Anyone have a clue to the identity of the others or location of the house?

Update 02/27/12:  Paul Zadner helps us out here:  "I am on the top of the piano but my sister is the little girl standing at the opposite end. The girl on top of the piano is already dead. I have the religious picture that sits over the piano and it is not in the best condition. This photo was at my cousin's house who is playing the piano."

Poznan Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 9, Conclusion

The last photos to flutter down from the manila envelope illustrate two Intencja - intentions made at two different churches for the spiritual benefit of family.

The first is at a basilica in Poznan'.  Possibly this photo is of the interior of that basilica.  It is not labeled, just put in the envelope with the rest.  However, it is 4 x 6 inches and printed on heavy photo stock such as JPZ typically used.  For all I know this could be the interior of St. Luke's in Buffalo!  Comments?

(Note: John, JFZ, says yep, that's the pulpit at St. Luke's.  There you go.)

Literally:

Mass (of) Holy Thanksgiving Petition.

For the health of (your) son Gene, wife and children.

Success in practice in (the) new town.

The intention (of the) parents,

Jan and Alina Zdrojewski

Date of the Holy Mass 14th March

at the Corpus Christi Basilica. In Posnan' Poland.

(Basilica of lit. God, (His) body - We say "Corpus Christi.") 

So - it seems this was to congratulate Gene and Clara on the occasion of the move of Gene's optometry practice from Buffalo to Alden.  That was in the early-mid 1970s.

Who are Jan and Alina?  Are they related to the "Alinka" featured in Poznan Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 3  ?

Our final exhibit in this series has to do with Jasna Góra Monastery, a very important place in Polish memory and a topic for another day.

                            

Someone sent a postcard picture of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa.

It is unsigned, undated, and for the most part illegible by me.  I can see that it outlines a couple of fairly detailed intentions that were made there - by someone.  Click to enlarge!

Here is a little bookmark, sized just right to fit in a Missal.

Dla Janka Zdrojewskiego
For John Zdrojewski

Thank you for looking through these photos with me.  As to be expected, investigations raise more questions than they answer, and this is no exception.  I look forward to any further memories, anecdotes, historical hints, historical references, translations, and hypotheses that anyone can come up with.  And naturally, as I keep on rummaging through the boxes upstairs, I will keep in mind the mysteries raised by the artifacts brought to life thus far.

Julie

Poznan Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 8

This is the last photo I have of Pani Zdrojewska of Poznan'.  In this one, she is alone.  We have figured out that her late husband was Pan Franciszek Zdrojewski, her son was Edmund, her daughter was Sabina.  But we still do not know her name.

The cut glass objects must be beautiful to see.  It is a high art form.  The red color comes from minute amounts of gold added to the molten glass.  I wonder how old these  are, and where they came from.

Balboa Park in San Diego has several cultural museums - little jewels -  run by different ethnic groups in the city. The Polish one has several lovely red cut-glass objects you can see.

Poznan Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 7

We last saw the parents relaxing in the summer countryside by the forest, in 1973, in Poznan Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 6.  In the fall of that year the father died.

"Mammusia jedsie w samochdnie."
"Mama goes to the car."

Looks like Edmund with Mama.

Dissident movements were building in the 1970s.  How many of these people eventually became active?  That little girl is in her forties now in 2012; what could she tell us?  How could we find her?

We see another glimpse of the vast plain of north central Poland; the priests' robes flutter in the wind.

". . . mego ojca Franciszka Zdrojewskiego"
". . . my father Francis Zdrojewski"

Is he the Franciszek from the household identity paper from the early twentieth century?  Is he the Franciszek born in Chrosno in 1900?  

Is he brother to Ludwig?  That would make his daughter Sabina and JPZ first cousins, whereas Sabina addressed him as "Uncle."

Is he nephew to Ludwig?  That would make Ludwig his uncle, and his daughter Sabina and JPZ would be second cousins once removed.  She could address him as "Uncle."

That would make the three sons of JPZ second cousins to Sabina and Edmund.

That would make the children of the three sons - my generation -  third cousins to any children of Sabina and Edmund.

Julie

Poznan Zdrojewskis: From the Old Country, Part 6

Here is our couple in 1973.  What is that place name?  Sieraliov?  Sievaliov?  

These three photos of this wooden church are not labeled, but the prints are  the same size and style as the photos of the couple.  That makes me wonder if this church is also in or near "Sieralov."

A Wikipedia search for wooden churches yields Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland.  There you see a style quite different, with watchtowers often on the front of the building, and the construction typically with horizontal timbers and with shingles.  This one is very simple board-and-batten, with just one little onion-dome on the belfry roof.  It looks new.

Anyone have any idea where this is?  I studied Google Images of wooden churches of Poland until my eyes crossed, but found nothing exactly like it.

The Slav is at home in the forest!

The Slav is at home in the forest!  In Krakow, the statue of Mickiewicz has at the base four additional figures, representing four elements of the basis of Polish culture. There is the farmer, in his field teaching his son; there is the Jewish mother teaching her child the Psalms of David; there are the Romans with their law; and there is the ancient Slav.

With just his furs, his sandals, sword, shield, and winged helmet, he rules the forest.

  In good times.