The content of this page was sourced from the October 1st edition of the Cape Breton Post, and was written by Hughena Matheson. You can find more from the Post here.
Celebrating our Polish Heritage in Cape Breton
“Families are like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.” This quote is spot on as my relatives discovered at our Polish family reunion in August.
Our roots go back to Pawel and Josephine Peinsznski, who immigrated to Canada in the early 20th century. They had a farm in Dutch Brook where they raised 10 children. Our family is rich with cousins: 28 first cousins, with 10 living in Cape Breton, some of them in Dutch Brook.
My Sister, Caroline, came up with the idea of connecting with our Polish roots by having a reunion. She then roped in several cousins and of course, me to help. At least a year before the reunion, we began planning. What a hard-working team – Polish children learn at an early age that hard work is part of their DNA.
Part of the work was our Facebook page. Jonas Matheson, a great great-grandson, organized this. On the page, we included the history of our grandparents. Along with our second cousins, the Starzomskis of Whitney Pier, we pieced together some of their story.
FROM POLAND TO CANADA
Our grandfather came from Opatow, Poland, near Cracow. At the age of 27, he made the 837 kilometer trip to Hamburg, Germany, where he boarded the Kaiserin Augusta Victoria on its way to North America, 3,543 nautical miles away. He knew we would never go back to Poland and to his family. What courage that took!
On the voyage, he was travelling with Piotr Starzomzki, his brother-in-law. We know from official documents that on Sept. 26, 1910, they landed on Ellis island in the harbour of New York City. After going through customs, they both headed to Pittsburgh to get work. The story goes that the steel plant there was on strike so they headed to the steel plant in Sydney. Border crossing must have been easy back then!
Details about our grandmother’s past are vague. We know little about her voyage. But in America, she ate bananas for the first time. She had to be taught how to peel one. She didn’t like the taste and threw it away. Apparently, she was supposed to marry another man who appeared drunk when meeting her. She ditched him. How she met our grandfather, we do not know. But, as the story goes, six months after they met, they were married; that was on Aug. 6th, 1912, in Holy Redeemer Church in Sydney. Church records show this.
They lived in Whitney Pier until the summer of 1923. My mother was five years old when the family moved from the Pier to Dutch Brook. According to my mother, her parents sold the Whitney Pier house for money and a Model T car.
Even though they moved to Dutch Brook, our grandfather still worked at the steel plant – both day and night shift. He got there, 15 kilometres away, by horse and wagon or sleigh in the winter. He would leave his horse at his sister Katarzyna Starzomski’s place (Katarzyna was married to Piotr Starzomski) while he worked the shift.
FAMILY ARCHIVES
Along with stories, our Facebook page became a rich archive of family photos that cousins found in old albums left by their parents. Hard copies of these were also on display at the reunion. One photo was of a Starzomski wedding at St. Mary’s Church. We all had fun identifying the children, i.e. our parents, in the photo. Often identification was was easy, for we were standing next to a carbon copy of the child in the photo.
The highlight of the reunion was dinner at the Polish Village Hall. This was a typical family reunion with lots of laughter and lots of food! Some people were reconnecting after years, if not decades. The Pogoria Polish Folk Ensemble added a wonderful atmosphere with traditional Polish songs and dances. We met a choir member Antonina Ryba whose grandmother used to read for our grandmother the letters she received from Poland (our grandmoter didn’t read cursive writing. In fact the words in her prayer book were in printed form).
Cousin Margaret Fennell made a fitting centrepiece for each table, a Mason jar decorated with a photo of our grandparents and a Polish flag. People were invited to jot down their memories and drop them in the memory jar.
MEMORIES OF ‘BOP’
Many memories dealt with the meals made by our Babcia (We called her “Bop”). Cousin Margaret wrote: “I remember when ‘Bop’ wanted to have chicken for supper and I went with her. She grabbed a chicken and cut it’s head off. The chicken ran around headless for about a minute. Then, I had to pluck it.” Maybe this fresh ingredient explains why our Babcia’s chicken soup was the best! Cousin Rosalie remembered her great butter, bread and buttermilk.
We all remember her cabbage rolls, cabbage soup, and pierogi (made with homemade cheese). Like all Polish grandmothers, she was happiest when we were all eating! All her grandkids know at least one Polish word – Zjedz – the Polish command to eat.
Some remembered how our grandmother and aunts would prepare packages of goods including used clothers to mail to the family in Poland.
As everyone left the reunion and went off in different directions, you could hear, “We must do this again.” In a few years, we hops to connect to our roots again. Now publicly, the Piensznski cousins are nominating the Starzomski cousins to organize our next reunion! At the door of the Polish Hall, we expect to be greeted by cousin Frank Starzomski wearing his eye catching vest made of the official Cape Breton polish tartan.
Hughena Matheson is a former Cape Bretoner now living in Burlington, Ont.