12.02.07
Posted in Daily Journal, Advent Calendar at 1:01 am by Administrator
Despite the fact that my maternal grandmother and her ancestors lived in Lithuania, my ancestry is 100% Polish. Even so, my family celebrated very few Polish traditions at Christmas.
Nonetheless, during the Christmas holidays we visited traditionally visited several relatives and shared holiday meals with them, the most memorable of which were the meals at my Grandmother Danko’s home.
Grandmother Danko did very little cooking herself, but my Aunt Helen would prepare the holiday meal at Grandmother’s house. Aunt Helen spent days cooking, preparing pierogi (dumplings) and gołąbki (stuffed cabbage, literally “little pigeons”) from scratch, and making sure there was enough szynka (ham), kiełbasa (sausage), kapusta (cabbage), ziemniaki (potatoes), buraki (beets) bułki (rolls), chłeb (bread), and masło (butter) to go around.
For my sisters and me, the best part of the holiday meal were the pierogi. Oh, how we loved pierogi! We could have eaten pierogi with every meal. We still could.
Aunt Helen made three kinds of pierogi: potato and cheese, sauerkraut, and cheese, but I only remember her making the cheese pierogi once. A few years ago, I asked her for the recipe. Like my mother’s recipes, Aunt Helen’s recipes resided only in her head. Nothing was written down. In fact, nothing really had precisely measured ingredients. Aunt Helen’s recipe for pierogi dough was something like, “add water to the dough until the consistency is right”.
Even then, I’m not sure Aunt Helen gave me all her secrets for making pierogi. I’ve made pierogi several times, but they don’t taste quite the same. I don’t make pierogi very often because their preparation is very time and labor intensive. But, maybe this Christmas…
Written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Day 3.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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Posted in Daily Journal, Directories, Niedzialkowski, Occupations at 12:01 am by Administrator
By examining the city directories, I’ve been able to find the various occupations in which my grandfather, Kostanty Niedzialkowski, was engaged. The directories list not only the occupation, but provide the time period and place of his employment. Sometimes, the exact name and address of the employer are provided. Sometimes, as is the case with the 1930 Worcester Directory, only the occupation is listed.
My grandparents, Kostanty and Helen Niedzialkowski, are listed in the 1936 Worcester Directory published by Sampson & Murdock Co.
Worcester Directory 1936 Entry for Kostanty and Helen Niedzialkowski
SOURCE: Massachusetts City Directories, Worcester 1936, page 739, Kostanty Niedzialkoski; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 01 December 2007); citing The Worcester directory Massachusetts for the year ending February, 1937. 1936. Worcester, MA: Sampson & Murdock Co.
Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Worcester Directory 1936 Entry for Kostanty and Helen Niedzialkowski. The brief record states the following:
- Kostanty Niedzialkowski was a press operator who resided at 44 Bryson, and
- his wife’s name was Helen.
My grandfather was a press operator, but his place of employment was not stated. He may have been working for Worcester Pressed Steel, a company for which I know he worked for a number of years.
I believe the name of the street listed in the directory is misspelled. As far as I can tell, the correct address should be 44 Byron Street, an address not far from the corner of North and Prescott where they lived in 1935.
Also of interest in this record is the name of Dominic Niedzialkowski. I don’t know who this is, but his immigration passenger manifest shows that he had a brother named Steve in Worcester and he was from Pomaski, the same village from which my grandfather hailed. Further, his address in 1936 was 72 Perry Ave, close to the 42 Perry Ave address at which my grandparents resided in 1920. There is a chance Dominic may be related to my family, but I have not yet discovered any connection other than the surname, the place of settlement in the United States, and the place of origin.
Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko
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