Photo Story: My Grandfather's Parents


(Original Images and Text, Copyright (c) 2011 Cynthia Shenette) Here are photos of my grandfather's parents, Jozefa (Bielska) Szerejko (1867-1920) and Leonard Edward Szerejko (1856-Aft. 1930). At least I believe they are photos of my grandfather's parents. Unfortunately there isn't any writing on the back of the photos.


The photos are a matching set and were taken by the same photographer in Warsaw, Poland.  They are small, 2 3/4" x 4 1/4," just large enough to carry in a coat pocket.  My guess is my grandfather brought them to America for him to remember his parents by.  Another clue as to the photos being Jozefa and Leonard is that the photo of Jozefa resembles the photos I have of her sisters Jadwiga and Julia.  I scanned and sent these photos to my cousin Marek for him to send to his dad who is still living in Poland.  Marek's dad's family lost many family photos during World War II, and his dad was happy to see photos of his grandparents again.

I learned Jozefa is buried in Zerzen Cemetery in Zerzen from Marek.  For the longest time Marek and I thought that Leonard died before Jozefa,  but I recently discovered a listing in a Warsaw directory that indicates he may have been living with my grandfather's brother Feliks as late as 1930.  Yet another lead to follow and another mystery to solve...


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