Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2025 8:43 pm
Post subject: Village in Suwałki region, Russian Poland
I have recently discovered passenger manifests for a couple of my great-grandparents, but the one for my great-grandfather is particularly interesting because it reveals the village and region of origin, in addition to the surname of a maternal relative (Jan Las-i-ski?). But the name of the place is rather beyond me at the moment. I read it as "Presdrisko" or "Prudrisko". Thirty years later, on my g-grandfather's draft card, it is transcribed as "Proceniski". The region, Suwałki, is indeed what my grandmother remembered and is legible enough on the document. Nonetheless, Suwałki was not merely a county at the time of emigration (1912) but an entire province of Congress Poland. But it is probable that they really did come from the immediate area of Suwałki itself. Suwałki (as a city) also appears on the lines below my ancestors', albeit as "Luwalki" in all cases.
On the manifest page my 2nd great-grandmother Marianna Galazewska and her son Felix are on lines No. 27 and 28.
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looking for cluesPO Top Contributor
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 1:00 am
Post subject:
Hi Sam,
Don't know if you noticed this, but on the second page of the manifest https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JJTM-S66?lang=en it shows that Marianna is going to her husband Piotr Galazewski. The passenger on the next line, Josef Dombrowski is also going to Piotr Galazewski. He calls Piotr his BIL (brother-in-law).
Diane
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BarbOsloPO Top Contributor
Joined: 19 Nov 2022
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 5:04 am
Post subject:
Hi,
I think it is Prudziszki.
Prudziszki s a village in the administrative district of Gmina Jeleniewo, within Suwałki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. 10 km (6 mi) north of Suwałki.
Regards,
-Barb
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SophiaPO Top Contributor
Joined: 05 Oct 2014
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 5:43 am
Post subject:
Hi Sam, Diane and Barb,
Well, I see the link to the second page of the manifest has been added and the mystery of the name of the village has already been solved before my first cup of coffee. Nicely done!
At least I can add links to two old photos of Prudziszki:
https://fotopolska.eu/1400091,prudziszki,zdjecie.html
https://fotopolska.eu/1476059,prudziszki,zdjecie.html
Barb and Diane, how are you reading the name of Marianna's brother Jan? Jasinski? Jarzynski? Jaczynski?
Best regards,
Sophia
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BarbOsloPO Top Contributor
Joined: 19 Nov 2022
Replies: 1615
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 6:25 am
Post subject:
Hi Sophia,
I love your old photos and maps. Shocked at how the place looked in 1890. Maybe the photo was taken earlier?
First name is Jan. Last name Jaczinski (Jaczynski), I think. Not Jasinski. It looks like there is a letter between the c and the i?
-Barb
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SophiaPO Top Contributor
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 7:38 am
Post subject:
| BarbOslo wrote: | Hi Sophia,
I love your old photos and maps. Shocked at how the place looked in 1890. Maybe the photo was taken earlier?
First name is Jan. Last name Jaczinski (Jaczynski), I think. Not Jasinski. It looks like there is a letter between the c and the i?
-Barb |
Hi Barb,
Yes, I agree, and I think I like the spelling Jaczinski best for Jan's surname.
I know what you mean about the photos. They are labelled as 1980 but certainly they look like they were taken earlier. Those old thatch roofs were very effective - - today we'd call them eco-friendly.
Sophia
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Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 7:56 am
Post subject:
Thank you all so much! Especially for pointing out the Dombrowski connection.
I will admit, Prudziszki did catch my eye while looking over settlement names in Suwałki. So it seems I am not quite so helpless as I think I am. Nonetheless, nothing is more re-assuring than expert consensus from you wonderful folks.
The photos you provided are indeed illuminating, Sophia. I especially like the one featuring the column of 'freezing' German troops. Isn't Suwałki known as Poland's "pole of cold"? Indeed, while on the topic of German soldiers, my great-grandfather's wife, Mary, was born in the U.S. in 1906 but her family returned to Poland (they might also have hailed from Suwałki -- maiden name was Walenda) shortly thereafter. Her elder sister left Europe in June 1914, but my dad's 'babcia' was not quite as fortunate. She was not able to rejoin her sibling in America until 1928. I recall one tale relating to her family's hatred of Russia and how they were weren't exactly opposed to quartering their German 'liberators' during the First World War.
I think it is also worth mentioning that my dad thinks the standardized Polish he hears on TV nowadays sounds nothing like his grandparents' Polish in terms of enunciation. Probably it was a dialect!
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2025 6:31 am
Post subject:
Just remembered something I read in a newspaper thank-you notice: J. Dombrowski attended and recited the rosary at my g-grandfather's funeral. So there is that.
I also saw that a fellow PolishOrigins member, @glasmann, has ancestors from Prudziszki.
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2025 7:33 am
Post subject:
Hi Sam,
I just did a quick research and found birth certificate of Felisk in Suwałki Parish. On the manifest Felix is 11 years old and I found an act from 1901 so it’s seems to fit.
Feliks was born 30.12.1901 in Prudziszki.
Father: Piotr Gałażewski, farmer? (земледилец?) living in Prudziszki, thirty years old.
Mother: Marianna z Sowulów (Sowul), thirty-five years old.
witnesses: Feliks Kumera, Franc Moszkowski
god-parents: Feliks Kumera and Józefata Galińska(?)
greetings
Anna
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SophiaPO Top Contributor
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 6:01 pm
Post subject:
| anna_p wrote: | Hi Sam,
I just did a quick research and found birth certificate of Felisk in Suwałki Parish. On the manifest Felix is 11 years old and I found an act from 1901 so it’s seems to fit.
Feliks was born 30.12.1901 in Prudziszki.
Father: Piotr Gałażewski, farmer? (земледилец?) living in Prudziszki, thirty years old.
Mother: Marianna z Sowulów (Sowul), thirty-five years old.
witnesses: Feliks Kumera, Franc Moszkowski
god-parents: Feliks Kumera and Józefata Galińska(?)
greetings
Anna |
Hi Anna,
It's wonderful to see you joining in the forum and offering help like this!
I think the document which you found is very interesting and important. I am not sure if Sam is simply busy (it is that time of year, right?) however there are sometimes problems with the email notification system here on the forum, so maybe Sam does not realize that you posted a reply to him. You might try sending him a private message to ask him if he saw your post. Just go to the last post Sam made, and at the bottom in red there is an icon for "profile" and an icon for "pm." The "pm" allows you to send a private message.
Best regards,
Sophia
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Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2025 5:04 pm
Post subject:
Hi Sophia,
I assumed he doesn't have time but maybe you're right - I'll write a private message just to make sure he's aware of the document.
Thanks for the advice 
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2026 1:59 pm
Post subject:
Dear Anna and Sophia,
I am deeply sorry for my absence and I cannot believe such a document appeared just one hour following my last post. The birthdate is indeed approximate (30 December 1901). It seems to confirm that Marianna was older than her husband, which are the facts displayed on the family's gravestone in New Jersey. And now Sowul can be considered her maiden name?
I have just started digging into the family of Felix's nephew in Pennsylvania. Felix appears to have had a sister named Pearl, who married a man surnamed Nadolny.
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TrishPO Top Contributor
Joined: 23 Sep 2020
Replies: 546
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2026 4:47 pm
Post subject:
| Sam wrote: | Dear Anna and Sophia,
I am deeply sorry for my absence and I cannot believe such a document appeared just one hour following my last post. The birthdate is indeed approximate (30 December 1901). It seems to confirm that Marianna was older than her husband, which are the facts displayed on the family's gravestone in New Jersey. And now Sowul can be considered her maiden name?
I have just started digging into the family of Felix's nephew in Pennsylvania. Felix appears to have had a sister named Pearl, who married a man surnamed Nadolny. |
Hi Sam,
Was Pearl living in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania? I found a Pearl with her husband, Frank living in Dickson City, Pennsylvania. Is this the sister of Felix?
Regards,
Trish
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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2026 9:26 am
Post subject:
| Trish wrote: | | Sam wrote: | Dear Anna and Sophia,
I am deeply sorry for my absence and I cannot believe such a document appeared just one hour following my last post. The birthdate is indeed approximate (30 December 1901). It seems to confirm that Marianna was older than her husband, which are the facts displayed on the family's gravestone in New Jersey. And now Sowul can be considered her maiden name?
I have just started digging into the family of Felix's nephew in Pennsylvania. Felix appears to have had a sister named Pearl, who married a man surnamed Nadolny. |
Hi Sam,
Was Pearl living in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania? I found a Pearl with her husband, Frank living in Dickson City, Pennsylvania. Is this the sister of Felix?
Regards,
Trish |
That should be them.
From what I've been able to gather, Pearl succumbed to cervical cancer in 1939 and Frank died three months later. They had four children: Joseph (b. 1924), who eventually went to live with his 'uncle' Felix in New Jersey; Adam (b. 1928), who joined the Air Force; Diana (b. 1930), who was taken in by a man named Frank Urban and married a Chmielewski; and Felix John (b. 1934), who also joined the Air Force. They were all minors when their parents died.
But Pearl is without a doubt a woman named Apolonia Bronikowska, daughter of Kazimierz, according to her death certificate and 1923 passenger manifest (which is in type). Nonetheless, she is still documented to have been from the Suwałki area (born in "Leszowo," family in residence at "Rogatka Kalw"). The fact that one of her sons was named Felix is also intriguing, unless such a name was common in Suwałki at the time, as it seems it was.
Perhaps my dad was right when he said his "Uncle Joe" was merely taken in by Felix and his wife and subsequently passed off as a nephew. The only instance I've found online of Pearl's maiden name being the same as Felix's is via Joseph's Social Security information.
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TrishPO Top Contributor
Joined: 23 Sep 2020
Replies: 546
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Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2026 12:08 pm
Post subject:
| Sam wrote: | That should be them.
From what I've been able to gather, Pearl succumbed to cervical cancer in 1939 and Frank died three months later. They had four children: Joseph (b. 1924), who eventually went to live with his 'uncle' Felix in New Jersey; Adam (b. 1928), who joined the Air Force; Diana (b. 1930), who was taken in by a man named Frank Urban and married a Chmielewski; and Felix John (b. 1934), who also joined the Air Force. They were all minors when their parents died.
But Pearl is without a doubt a woman named Apolonia Bronikowska, daughter of Kazimierz, according to her death certificate and 1923 passenger manifest (which is in type). Nonetheless, she is still documented to have been from the Suwałki area (born in "Leszowo," family in residence at "Rogatka Kalw"). The fact that one of her sons was named Felix is also intriguing, unless such a name was common in Suwałki at the time, as it seems it was.
Perhaps my dad was right when he said his "Uncle Joe" was merely taken in by Felix and his wife and subsequently passed off as a nephew. The only instance I've found online of Pearl's maiden name being the same as Felix's is via Joseph's Social Security information. |
Hi Sam,
I searched around and basically saw the same information you did. Pearl is listed as Apolonia Bronikowska on her death reacod. Kazmiierz is listed as her father on her death record and the naturalization record.
It is confusing when you see that Pearl's son Joseph, lists his mother as Pearl Galezewska on his Social Security Application.
Adam (son of Pearl) does not list his mother's name on his Social Security Application. He only lists his siblings in his obituary.
I'm having trouble finding anything on the sister, Diane. I thought I would have been able to find some type of marriage information for her.
I did see Felix Nadolny on "Find a Grave". I did see he married Gloria Pina in 2014. I didn't find anything listing his mother's surname.
I am sorry I am not of much help. I don't know if anyone else on the forum would have any idea why Joseph Nadolny listed his mother's surname as "Galezewski".
Regards,
Trish
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