własność Rodryga hrabiego Dunina. - Majętność ta, dawniejsza siedziba Nieżychowskich, od roku 1898 znajduje się w rękach obecnego właściciela. - D..wygodny i przestworny, zbudowany został w pierwszej połowie zeszłego wieku przez .esnego właściciela Nepomucena Nieżychowskiego.

One of the things that I find frustrating about researching my heritage, is all the different ways that names can be spelled. For example, I've done many searches on my great-grandfather's name "Rodryg Dunin", but it was only today that someone (from Poland) showed me this site, with an actual picture of his home. The name is listed as "Rodryga hrabiego Dunina", which (I think) is the possessive form, so a rough translation would be "belonging to Count Rodryg Dunin".

In any case, I'm delighted to see this image. It was one of those "OMG" moments for me.

More Google searches to do now....

Elonka :)

(in Polish) Information about Rodryg Dunin's Granowko estate

It seemed that the new cipher was a strong cryptography and cannot be cracked in an easy way. Therefore, the Ciphers Office of the Polish Army's General Staff decided to ask mathematicians for help. In January 1929, the Dean of the Department of Mathematics, Professor Zdzislaw Krygowski from the University of Poznan, made a list of his best graduating students who could have started working at the Ciphers Office.

While doing genealogy research on my own relatives in Poznan, I ran across this page. It talks about the Polish mathematicians who found the initial crack for the Enigma Cipher, and then they shared information with the French, and the British, which resulted in the forming of the Bletchley Park project.

The Enigma Code - The Polish Connection

The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading American, British, and Canadian forces. Sixty years later, the Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, remains the largest sea borne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France.
  . . .
The bulk of German resistance in the region was finally eliminated on August 21, with the successful closure of the Falaise Gap by Canadian and Polish troops. The liberation of Paris by the French 2nd Armoured Division commenced a few days later.

In French, that battle is referred to as "La Poche de Falaise". I just recently learned that one of my great-uncles, Karol Werner, a Polish officer, was wounded in that battle. My uncle died in the 1970s, but I recently tracked down his widow, who is still living in France, and has been delighted to share information about his life. She knows a fair bit of English, I know a fair bit of French, and so we write to each other in our respective native languages, and between that, and Google Language Tools, we've been doing okay!

Battle of Normandy -- The Falaise Gap

You can search for New York passenger arrivals here from 1892-1924. There are approximately 22 million total records. Keep trying or try later if you get an error message -- this site gets heavy traffic. The site was opened on 17 April 2001.

While here in New York this morning, I'm going to head over to Ellis Island to do some more genealogy research. I just learned at my family reunion last week that some of my own ancestors (a set of great-grandparents and their children) did indeed come to the U.S. through Ellis Island. I have no idea if I'll find anything on them or not, but I figure it's worth a try....

Ellis Island Online Database 1892-1924 | Information & Research Tips

] Baranowska Agnieszka
] (1819 - 1890), autorka dramatyczna, poetka

I *really* wish I could find a good Polish/English online translator. This page seems to have a biography (written in 1998) of my great-great-great-grandmother, who appears to have been a relatively famous Polish poet and playwright of her time.

Agnieszka Lipska Baranowska, Author (1819-1890)

Alas, this site is all in Polish, but it definitely seems to be about my family.

The top painting on this page is Maksymilian Taczanowski, my great-great-great-grandfather, who died in 1852.

The second painting is Alfons Taczanowski (1815-1867), Maksymilian's son. Alfons received an additional title of Count from another country, and thereby became a member of the Prussian House of Lords.

The third painting is Antoni Taczanowski (1849-1917), Maksymilian's grandson, nephew of Alfons, and brother of my great-grandmother Lucia Taczanowska.

The fourth painting is of a man, Jan Taczanowski, who I don't recognize, but I think it's a safe bet that we're related!

Elonka :)

(Polish) Palace in Taczanow

] The Poles withstood almost six years of German occupation
] during which time they were continuously subjected to
] arrest, torture, imprisonment or execution. Many were
] sent to concentration camps where they died a slow death.
] Hundreds of thousands were rounded up and deported to
] Germany for use as slave labour

This page has documentation of specific murders and abuses by the Germans during WWII. It includes details of the deaths of some members of my own blood family, the Taczanowski's (my father's cousins, via his paternal grandmother).

] PART ONE: Persecutions, Murders, Expulsions
]
] Chapter One: The Deliberate Murder of the Civil
] Population During the Military Operations

I am not meme-ing the exact references, because the descriptions are extremely graphic.

This link is not for the squeamish. :/

Documentation of German Atrocities in Poland During WWII

] On July 4, 1958, [Karol Wojtyla] was appointed auxiliary bishop of
] Krakow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958,
] in Wawel Cathedral, Krakow, by Archbishop Baziak.

I learned recently that a Papal Chamberlain during the time of Pope Pius XII was another of my great-uncles, a Polish nobleman by the name of Jan Czarnowski.

Pope John Paul II and Pope Pius XII and Poland

] President George W. Bush congratulates ninth graders from
] Hawken School of Geauga County, Ohio, on receiving the
] President's Environmental Youth Award in the East
] Room of the White House April 21, 2005. Members include,
] from left to right, Karoline Evin McMullen, 14, Angela
] Primbas, 14, and Amanda Weatherhead, 15.

The one on the left, in the green sweater, is one of my cousins (my father's sister's daughter's daughter, for anyone interested). She's been recognized as a child prodigy, winning all kinds of awards and getting written up in local press since her age was in single digits -- and yes I'm proud of her. :)

Elonka

whitehouse.gov - President Honors Environmental Youth Award Recipients

] The President of the United States of America, Elihu
] Root, Secretary of State of the United States; and
]
] His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia,
] etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary, Baron Ladislaus
] Hengelmuller de Hengervar, Grand Cross of the Orders of
] Leopold and Francis Joseph, 3rd Class Knight of the Order
] of the Iron Crown, His Majesty's Privy Counselor and
] Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the
] United States of America;
]
] Who, after communicating to each other their respective
] full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon
] the following Articles ...

I just learned that Baron Hengelmuller is another of the uncles (by marriage) in my family tree...

1909 Arbitration Convention Between the United States and Austria-Hungary