Poland Trip - Part 2 - Pobłocie and Wolinia

Here’s Part 2 of our genealogy excursion in Poland!  After checking out the Baltic Sea beach, and spending the night in Słupsk, Poland, we drove to Główczyce where we met with Paweł Żmuda, the director of the cultural center and the only town official who spoke English.  Paweł was an amazing historian and advocate for the area, and gave us an education on both Pobłocie and Wolinia, where my great-great grandparents Albert Budnick and Florentina Freitag lived prior to their immigration to the U.S. in 1863 and 1865 respectively.

We learned that Albert Budnick, who was from Pobłocie, was most likely of Slavic descent (not German as I thought), as this town was populated by Slavic people who spoke the Kashubian language.  Kashubian is its own language, but is similar to Polish.  Florentina Freitag, who was from Wolinia, was most likely German based on her surname.

When my ancestors lived here in the late 1800s, both Pobłocie and Wolinia were serfdoms, where there was a lord that lived in the manor house, and numerous farmers who lived and worked on the land.  We started the day in Wolinia, which was formerly known as Wollin – visiting the manor house and the local cemetery.  The manor house is privately-owned, but is for sale for just $500,000 if anyone is interested!  Paweł had to take us to the cemetery because it was totally hidden down a dirt road, under the brush – we never would have found it on our own.  During our walk up the long trail, we saw a lot of holes that Paweł told us were from wild hogs – you better believe I kept an eye out for those!  We didn’t find any headstones with family names, but it was unlikely that we would – most of the graves were long since covered up.  Also, in the older days there were only wooden crosses to mark the graves, which would have disintegrated over time.

Wollin Manor House

We next went to the Pobłocie, formerly known as Poblotz, where we visited the manor house, currently an elementary school.  It had a dark period in history when it was a school for Hitler youth in the late 1930s.  All of the iron crosses that were originally in the old Pobłocie cemetery had been stolen at some point during WWII.  Only eight crosses had been recovered and put back into the cemetery randomly…so the graves are not marked in any way.

Poblotz Manor House

The last two places we went were the churches.  First, we went to the church in Cecenowo, which is the parish for Pobłocie.  The original Lutheran church that stood on this site was taken down and replaced with this Catholic church about seven years after my ancestors immigrated. 

Cecenowo Church

In the 1800s, Wollin was in the parish of Stojentin, and Florentina Freitag was baptized here.  We were walking around the church when we were approached by a short, older man.  Daniel told him who we were, and why we were there – and this man produced the keys to the church!  We found out that he is the sexton, and saw us from his house down the street.  He took us inside and gave us the history of the building, and learned that he was of Kashubian descent.

Stojentin Church

We had a wonderful time exploring the ancestral towns of my great+ grandparents, and learned so much about the area.  It was definitely not an experience that I will ever forget.