Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 10:29 am
Post subject: visit to Bednarka & Konskie
We plan to try to visit what we believe to be the hometowns of our grandparents and are trying to figure out how much time we should allocate to the towns. We are confident that our grandfather was born in Bednarka, Galicia, Poland but are less sure of where our grandmother was born. Her Declaration of Intent lists Konski, Austria. We believe this is the Konskie in relatively close proximity to Bednarka as family lore says they were from neighboring towns but never met while living in Austria-Hungary, the political division at the time of their emigration. It is not near enough to be considered neighboring but it is much closer than the more known Konskie outside of Warsaw. Additionally, her brother lists his place of birth as Woliec, Galicia, Austria, a place that does not seem to exist. We are looking for someone who knows the area and can give us some general information about these towns - are they small villages with not much for infrastructure and not something to devote a day for, or is there a lot going on that would make it wise to allocate more time to the visit? We would be traveling from our hotel in Cracow where we are staying as part of a tour package. We would hire a car with an English speaking driver to take us there. One recommended by the hotel. Are there other services one could recommend? Also are the churches in the area open for a visit or do they require appointments. We are not looking to do research as we do not speak or read Polish. We would just want to "feel" our grandparents experience and say a short prayer.
Thank you for any help you can give us.
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| copy of lines from Declaration of Intent, Grandmother, and WW I draft registration Uncle |
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aleksanderzPolishOrigins Team
Joined: 21 Jul 2017
Replies: 56
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Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2024 10:30 am
Post subject:
There is only one place in former Galicia that has "Konski" in its name and that is Końskie in Dydnia township (gmina), the one you identified. Greek Catholics attended the church in the village, and Roman Catholics the one in Dydnia (the current church was built in 1882).
Bednarka was almost exclusively a Ruthenian/Lemko village, therefore inhabited by Greek Catholics, who attended the church in the village, the current one was built in 1900.
"Woliec" is most likely Wolica but there are 16 places of this name in former Galicia. The name comes from the word "wola" which then meant "freedom" and it described a village in which new settlers were exempted from taxes. The closest one to Końskie is the one in Bukowsko township - https://maps.app.goo.gl/6ybqMhvKpLA5eKYX9
We at PolishOrigins have been organizing such Genealogy Tours since 2004 and would be able to assist you with this but the minimum required length is 3 days. Your ancestral places are small villages but other places nearby are worth visiting. For example, the open-air museum of folk architecture in Sanok, where original rural architecture from the area from the 1700s/1800s is presented. It allows one to get immersed in the life of their ancestors and see what it looked like. Also, there are many old wooden churches (Greek and Roman Catholic ones) in the region that were put on the UNESCO World Heritage list and are worth visiting.
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1053/
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1424/
Our guides are also experienced genealogists, so if only you would like to, some research could be conducted during the tour but it might require visiting archives that are an hour or two away from your places. It all depends on what have you managed to gather so far, the years of interest, and how many records have survived.
You can read more about our Genealogy Tours here: https://polishorigins.com/genealogy-tours/, and here are testimonials of our guests we traveled with: https://polishorigins.com/testimonials/
If you would like to receive a proposal offer for the tour with a detailed itinerary and the costs specified, you can fill out our tour request form here: https://polishorigins.com/tour-request/
Kind regards,
Aleksander Zawilski
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