Stop This Train

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On a plane somewhere between Munich, Germany & London, England:  I missed a day of blogging-- in typical me fashion, I had great intentions of being perfect, but fell short.  The good news is:

1)  I'm only "failing" to my own rules
2)  There's always the next day to blog
3)  I've been too busy enjoying Poland to blog!

The main objective to my trip to Poland was to see the places where my ancestors came from.  Thanks to my Aunt Sandie for her detective work on ancestry.com and a sweet genealogist whom I met last year on a show the boss did (where she did the exact same thing as me... except with a camera crew and tons of people interested in where she came from), I was able to get some basic information about the history of the Snell side.

Grandma (Loretta) Snell was born in Nebraska, as were her parents, John & Mary Ziemba.  It's their parents that came from Poland.  I always assumed they had come from Kraków, Poland, since they had lived in Krakow, Nebraska.  Turns out, they were all from nearby villages, which (luckily for me), was a semi-quick drive by tour guide, Jakub.

My Great Grandmother, Mary (Swantek) Ziemba, was born to Joseph Swantek (Swiatek) and Katherine Zions (Zajac).  We discovered that Joseph was born in Dulczowka, Galicia, Austria Poland and christened at the Parish of Pilzno in 1861.  We arrived at the church in the late morning and soaked in the history.

The Parish of Pilzno - outside

The Parish of Pilzno - inside

C+C in the graveyard outside of The Parish of Pilzno.
It's possible that some of my family could be buried here.

After meeting with the PR director in Pilzno (I even got a free mug out of the deal!), we headed down the road to visit another part of my history.  My Great Grandfather, John Ziemba, was born to Jacob Ziemba and Katherine Sempek.  (I love that Catherine came with me, considering she is the namesake of both of my 2x Great Grandmothers!)  We discovered that Jacob was baptized in the parish church of Zawada, which is located in the larger province of Rzeszów.


The parish church of Zawada - outside
The parish church of Zawada - inside.This could have possibly been the same baptismal fountain on which my 2x Great Grandfather was christened.
On our drive back to Kraków, I took a good notice of the landscape.  If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed we were in Krakow, Nebraska.  No wonder the family chose to settle in a place that made them feel like they were at home.

Jakub let us play some of our music through his speakers and I chose a former boss' song that I thought would offer a bit of mellow mood music. Little did I know the lyrics would actually provide the soundtrack to my day's discoveries.


Back where I come from.

listen here:
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