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When I was a kid my Dad told me stories about uncle Mietek – brother of his mom (and my grandmom). Not that he remembered him – uncle Mietek joined Polish Army somewhere in nineteen thirties, went to Military Academy, and was killed in early September, just a few days after the WWII started. Dad was abut three at the time Uncle died, so most of these stories he must have repeated after what he was told by the elders later. Still, uncle Mietek was an iconic part of his childhood and in a way became an iconic part of my childhood too.
I believe I was told family wasn't aware of where Uncle died, nor where his grave was. They just put a small, symbolic sign mentioning Uncle on the grave of his father. I think I have seen this sign somewhere in seventies or eighties.
Last year I have spent hundreds of hours browsing archives in a search of my ancestors – suprisingly many documents were scanned and can be seen on the internet. In some cases I traced the lines back to 17th century. However, I wasn't able to find anything on the uncle Mietek – his birth certficate is not yet 100 years old, so it is not public yet, and I couldn't request the certificate through official channels, as technically I am not his descendant. Besides, birth office (or whatever it is called) is swamped with requests and they don't have time to locate people not knowing at least approximate date of birth.
Then I thought about Red Cross. For sure my grandgrandma was looking for her son, and for sure he was in their records as a sought after. So I wrote a letter to Polish Red Cross, giving them all the data I had. And to be honest, I forgot about it.
I got a surprising answer on Monday. Not only there are records about the place and date of the uncle death, there is also his grave, an hour and a half drive from Warsaw.
There are many questions here, and not only I don't know answers, I am the latest living person others will ask looking for answers. I actually already interviewed myself - but nope, sorry, can't help you further. Still, a huge find.
Thirties, but precise date unknown. Uncle (in an officer cadet uniform), my grandmom, my granddad.
Military section of a cemetery in Wola Cyrusowa.
Wujek Mietek grave. This is on the opposite side of the alley than the graves on the other picture. Dates given DDMMYYYY style. 36PP - 36th Infantry Regiment, 26 DP - 28th Infantry Division.
Edit: ppor means podporucznik, the lowest officer rank in the Polish army. According to wikipedia it is more or less equivalent to the Second Lieutenant.
I believe I was told family wasn't aware of where Uncle died, nor where his grave was. They just put a small, symbolic sign mentioning Uncle on the grave of his father. I think I have seen this sign somewhere in seventies or eighties.
Last year I have spent hundreds of hours browsing archives in a search of my ancestors – suprisingly many documents were scanned and can be seen on the internet. In some cases I traced the lines back to 17th century. However, I wasn't able to find anything on the uncle Mietek – his birth certficate is not yet 100 years old, so it is not public yet, and I couldn't request the certificate through official channels, as technically I am not his descendant. Besides, birth office (or whatever it is called) is swamped with requests and they don't have time to locate people not knowing at least approximate date of birth.
Then I thought about Red Cross. For sure my grandgrandma was looking for her son, and for sure he was in their records as a sought after. So I wrote a letter to Polish Red Cross, giving them all the data I had. And to be honest, I forgot about it.
I got a surprising answer on Monday. Not only there are records about the place and date of the uncle death, there is also his grave, an hour and a half drive from Warsaw.
There are many questions here, and not only I don't know answers, I am the latest living person others will ask looking for answers. I actually already interviewed myself - but nope, sorry, can't help you further. Still, a huge find.
Thirties, but precise date unknown. Uncle (in an officer cadet uniform), my grandmom, my granddad.
Military section of a cemetery in Wola Cyrusowa.
Wujek Mietek grave. This is on the opposite side of the alley than the graves on the other picture. Dates given DDMMYYYY style. 36PP - 36th Infantry Regiment, 26 DP - 28th Infantry Division.
Edit: ppor means podporucznik, the lowest officer rank in the Polish army. According to wikipedia it is more or less equivalent to the Second Lieutenant.
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