Poland Trip - Part 1 - Bydgoszcz

 

Poland Trip – Part 1 – Bydgoszcz

WOW!  What an amazing three days we had at the end of our Viking river cruise in Germany and Poland, when we visited the ancestral towns of my great+ grandparents!  I had hired a Polish genealogist that came highly recommended, and he did not disappoint.  Daniel Bućko was our guide, translator, photographer, archivist, driver, COVID-test scheduler, and all-around extraordinary host.  We did so much in the three days, that I’m breaking this up into two posts – this week I’ll highlight the city of Bydgoszcz and the first Sunday in February will highlight the small towns of Pobłocie and Wolinia.

Bydgoszcz, Poland was formerly known as Bromberg, Prussia, when my great-grandmother Elizabeth Spielmann and her family lived there (they immigrated to the U.S. in 1893).  Elizabeth and her three sisters were all born in Bromberg, and her parents Constantinus Leo Spielmann and Anna Luise Seeling were born in neighboring areas.  Today, Bydgoszcz has a population of about 345,000, is the 8th largest city in Poland, and is located in the north-central part of Poland.  In the 1800s, when my ancestors were living in Bromberg, it was part of Prussia and then the German Empire.

Our first stop after our drive from Warsaw (about 4 hours) was at the State Archives in Bydgoszcz. 

Daniel had called ahead and provided the surnames of all my ancestors from this area, so that all the records available with those names were ready and waiting for us to review.  There were quite a number, so I mainly took photos that I will need to do further research on to see if any of them are related.  Unfortunately, the records available don’t go much further back than 1900, so I’m not holding out too much hope – but you never know what you’ll find!

After a few hours at the archives, we did some sight-seeing in the Old Town area, visiting the main square and the St. Martin & St. Nicholas Cathedral, the original Catholic church in Bydgoszcz, which dates from the mid-15th century.  As my ancestors were Catholic, this is the church that they most likely attended.  The baptismal font was made in 1611, the main altar in 1666 (with renovations in the early 1900s), and the pulpit in the 18th century. 

Finally, we spent the next day walking around the neighborhood that my ancestors lived in.  There are no buildings left from the time they were there, but we knew the street name and Daniel found an old map that helped us figure out the general location of that old street (which is no longer there).  It appeared to us that it was where the TV station is currently located – so of course we walked up the station’s driveway and took a photo where we thought the street was!  And of course, the TV station’s security guard approached us and asked what we were doing on their property!!!