Prelude - Visiting Rzeszow - Father's Birthplace

Before beginning my 16 day StayPoland tour, I wanted to visit the birthplace of my father; the small village of Swilcza located in the southeastern corner of Poland, a suburb of the Rzeszow. My father, Thomas J Worosz Sr. departed Poland at the age of 3 years/6 months in the Spring of 1914 and arrived at New York’s Ellis Island on July 3; two months before the outbreak of World War I. My father loved America; he remembered the wonderful party that they threw for him on July 4 while he was in residence at Ellis Island!

My father left us his Catholic baptismal certificate which was written in Polish. As I planned for my trip to Rzeszow/Swilcza, I contacted the hotel that I had selected for my stay and asked if someone there might act as my guide; a young man named Grzegorz Ciebiera answered my query. Gregory is a second year aerospace engineering student at University of Information Technology and also worked as a bell hop at the hotel. Taking a copy of my Dad’s baptismal certificate, Gregory visited the church listed on the certificate and arranged a visit with the parish priest so that I might gather information on my Dad’s family.

I arrived in Rzeszow on September 2 and visited the village of Swilcza the next day. Swicza is so small that it has no street names; only house numbers. As I traveled with Gregory towards Swilcza, I visualized meeting the priest, gaining insight on my ancestors, and visiting the parish cemetery to locate grave markers before heading home. I figured that I would spend the afternoon exploring Rzeszow which is the provincial capital of one of Poland’s sixteen provinces and home to a number of universities specializing in aerospace. Oh I was so wrong!!!

Dad’s Family Background in Poland

My Dad was one of ten children born to Jan Worosz and Jadwiga Lech on November 8, 1910. Dad had four brothers and five sisters who all predeceased him before his birth. Jan was a miner/tunneler who first traveled to Niagara Falls, New York in 1903 to help build the Adam Hydroelectric plant; one of the first to use alternating current which allowed electricity to be transported over long distances. After two transatlantic trips to the Falls, my grandfather, his wife and my Dad immigrated to the USA. 

The Priest

With this information, I met with the parish priest, Father Antoni Czerak, who selected two parish hand written record books that contained the religious information on Swicza’s Catholic parishioners; birth/communion/confirmation/marriage/children /death; it was all there written in beautiful cursive penmanship. Below are pictures of Father pouring over the book and the results that he found.

Rather than searching for birth records, Father examined the book that recorded an individual’s death; parents, address, age, cause of death, date of death. Since Worosz was a “common name”, Father used parent’s name and address to identify who we thought were my Dad’s siblings. The following is the information that we could positively identify; the remaining two siblings are unknown.

Katrina	9 years	April 2, 1895
Maria	2 ½ years	April 6, 1895
Ludwiga Czyz (lived in house)	4 ¼ years	April 9, 1895
Joseph	1 year	January 8, 1898
Ludwika	2 ½ years	April 20, 1901
Joseph	At birth	May 26, 1905
Aniela	16	May 10, 1907
Francis	8	July 14, 1909

After about an hour, Father had to attend to parish business and had to terminate our meeting. I thanked him for the generosity of his time and said my goodbye.

The cemetery

The parish cemetery is located adjacent to the Church and is quite large and well maintained. Gregory and I explored every nook and cranny and were unable to find any grave marker of the Worosz family related to my Dad’s side of the family.. Grave markers located in the century old portion of the cemetery were weathered to the point that the writings were unreadable.

 As we walked through the cemetery, Gregory noticed a woman who was freshening flowers placed on various graves, saying prayers at selected grave sites and maintaining the cleanliness of this sacred haven. On a whim, Gregory approached her and inquired if she could provide us with information that might aid us in locating Worosz grave markers. A whim, a chance inquiry, an introduction and thus my day was changed from a simple visit to Dad’s childhood Catholic parish to a marvelous encounter with two very special people!

The woman’s name is Janina Gryrmik and she visited the cemetery to pray for some of her deceased friends and maintain the cemetery’s appearance. After a futile search, she was no more successful than we were in locating a related Worosz. However, she did know a 94 year old woman who might have information. Unfortunately, this woman could not remember much of her past but she knew a man who did genealogy of Rzeszow and the surrounding areas. By chance, Janina knew this man, contacted him by phone and asked him if he might be of assistance to my inquiries. Of course he would help! He would meet us at Janina’s home and bring books that detailed information that he had collected over the years.

We arrive at Janina’s home and meet her husband and son. As we are waiting for the arrival of the genealogist, Janina enters the family room carrying two large plates of pierogi smothered in butter for my guide and myself.....delicious Polish home cooking. As we finished eating our delicious “pierogi” surprise, Tadeusz Rzucidto, the genealogist arrives. He spends time outlining the history of the Rzeszow region, tells us about his family, what he knows of the Worosz family, events of World War II and Communist rule and finally Poland today. First hand information related by a person who lived through some very difficult times.

  

Documents related to the Worosz family

As we were concluding the meeting, Janina enters the room with bottle of wine. We toast each other on our new found friendship. Next Janina enters the room with coffee/cake to top off the afternoon.

I arrived back at my hotel at 5 Pm; emotionally exhausted from the day’s activities. To have met such wonderful people, who extended themselves to befriend me and Gregory was an experience that I will always remember.

Rzeszow the City

Rzeszow is the provincial capital and the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is home to Poland’s burgeoning aerospace industry with numerous universities and manufacturing facilities. Pratt – Whitney has a large engine manufacturing facility that makes jet engines for Airbus commercial aircraft and NATO military aircraft. As with most European cities, it has a centrum town square, numerous parks and historic buildings. Below are pictures that I took during my brief visit.

 

Observation - One interesting event occurred during my visit. The city has a large monument dedicated to the proletariat working class that was erected in the 1970s by the Russian Communist occupiers. After Russian troops departed Poland, a vote was taken to determine if this huge Communist edifice would be removed. The local Polish population voted to keep it as a reminder that it represented their history which helped make them a stronger people. An interesting contrast to what we are experiencing in the USA with the effort to remove vestiges of Confederate statutes/street names/paintings.

 












Below are two pictures. The first is a picture of my Father, Thomas John Worosz Sr. and my Mother, Josephine Mroczek on  their wedding day, June 25, 1938. The second is one of my sister Harriette dressed for my first communion.