![\"Franciszek](\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/Katarzyna-and-Franciszek-Tropilo.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFranciszek Tropi\u0142o and Katarzyna Da\u0144ko Tropi\u0142o<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n SOURCE: Franciszek Tropi\u0142o and Katarzyna Danko Tropilo (Galicia – Austria Poland). Photographed by\u00c2\u00a0unknown photographer in about 1915.<\/p>\n On 09 Feb 1898, shortly before her 19th birthday,\u00a0Katarzyna\u00c2\u00a0married\u00c2\u00a0Jan Tropi\u0142o. While most\u00c2\u00a0couples\u00c2\u00a0living in\u00c2\u00a0that time and place had large families, Katarzyna and\u00c2\u00a0Jan had only one child of their own, a son named Franciszek, born on 21 Aug 1904 in Nienadowa. Still, circumstances and fate provided Katarzyna and her husband with a second child, a baby girl left abandoned in front of their house. Katarzyna and Jan named the child Marysia and raised her as their own.<\/p>\n The\u00c2\u00a0family moved to a farm in Packowice, Galicia (now located in Ukraine) where they raised cows, horses, pigs, chickens, geese, rye, wheat, beans, oats, corn, barley, potatoes, and beets on 13 m\u00f3rgs of land (about 14.5 acres).<\/p>\n With a large number of animals on the farm, Katarzyna earned a reputation as a veterinarian, although a literal translation from the Polish is closer to “quack veterinarian”. She was thought to have supernatural powers and some considered her a witch. When passing her house with their carts, the local villagers would quicken their steps “just in case”. One story relates an incident when Katarzyna and her son Franciszek were on their way to mass at the local church. As they approached the church, they noticed a large group of people standing with their backs to them. Katarzyna whispered to her son, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Watch. They will all turn around and look at us now\u201d .\u00a0At that very\u00c2\u00a0moment, everyone turned around to look at the pair.<\/p>\n Katarzyna’s husband Jan died in Feb 1930 and Katarzyna continued to run the farm on her own.<\/p>\n On 17 Sep 1939, at the start of World War II, the Red Army\u00c2\u00a0entered Packowice and, in 1940,\u00a0Soviet Soldiers entered Katarzyna’s home to arrest Katarzyna and Marysia for “exile in administrative mode”. No reason was given for their arrest, but the family believes they were exiled because they owned a large farm. The two were sent to\u00c2\u00a0Omsk Oblast in southwestern Siberia where they were left to fend for themselves.<\/p>\n Katarzyna, suffering both in mind and body, died in Siberia in 1941. She was buried on the steppes in a casket purchased with her daughter’s most important possession – an eiderdown quilt.<\/p>\n Written for the 51st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2008 by Stephen J. Danko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Research indicates that Katarzyna Da\u0144ko is probably my 2nd cousin, twice removed. She was born 10 Mar 1879 in Nienadowa, Galicia (Austria Poland), one of 14 children of J\u00f3zef Da\u0144ko and Marianna Chru\u015bcicka. Continue reading