After Second World War, the expelled Polish "repatriates" from "Kresy" (former Eastern Borderlands), a territory of Poland beyond river Bug, occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939, as well as some deportees from Siberia and Kazakhstan including few prisoners released from gulags, were transported and dispersed in the West of Poland mainly in the so called "Regained Territories".

Among them, according to population census of 2002, there were 654 people in the whole of Poland with a surname Rymaszewski (306 males and 348 females), who were displaced from their native land in the east, now in Belarus. The total population of present day Poland is 39 million.

Year 2002
Rymaszewski families now live in Poland in 80 different districts and towns. Most Rymaszewskis are found in :

• WARSAW (WARSZAWA)  - 46 (16 males, 30 females)
• WROCLAW                      - 45 (22 males, 23 females)
• BIALYSTOK                     - 42 (16 males, 26 females)
• BYDGOSZCZ                    - 37 (15 males, 22 females)
• KOLOBRZEG                   - 29 (14 males, 15 females)
• KROSNO ODRZANSKIE   - 29 (17 males, 12 females)
• ZIELONA GÓRA               - 24 ( 8 males, 16 females)
• LUBAN                            - 20 (10 males, 10 females)
• SZCZECIN                       - 19 (  8 males, 11 females)
• KOLO                             -   9 (  9 males   0 females)
• Other districts                 354 (171 males, 183 females)
                         TOTAL      654 (306 males, 348 females)

 

Grzegorz Jan Rymaszewski - GR.1322.2231.111 lives in Bialystok, Poland. He is the 12th generation descendant of Gregory (Grzegorz) the first Rymaszewski who lived in Ryma, Eastern Borderlands of Poland in the year 1600.

ON THE RIGHT:
• Grzegorz Jan Rymaszewski - GR.1322.2231.111 and his son
• Michal Rymaszewski - GR.1322.2231.1111.

Email address:   rymki3@wp.pl

ON THE LEFT:
his parents :
• Jan Krzysztof Rymaszewski - GR.1322.2231.11, the son of Stanislaw - GR.1322.2231.1 and
• his wife Renata - GR.1322.2231.11w

Photo on Christmas Eve (Wigilia) 2004

Grzegorz Jan Rymaszewski in Bialystok, year 2007.

Ewa Rymaszewska, Grzegorz's wife and their son Michal
21 June 2005

Grzegorz Rymaszewski with his wife Ewa and son Michal in 2006

Grzegorz Rymaszewski with his son Michal in 2006

Michal Rymaszewski - GR.1322.2231.1111 - year 2006. He is the 13th generation descendant of Gregory (Grzegorz), the first Rymaszewski who lived in Ryma in the year 1600.

Young Grzegorz Jan Rymaszewski - GR.1322.2231.111
early 1970's

Young Grzegorz Rymaszewski with his father Jan Krzysztof Rymaszewski - GR.1322.2231.11, early 1970's

• Slawomir Rymaszewski, the son of Stanislaw, born 1965, mgr. (university degree), chairman (prezes) of "Equicolor" company in Bydgoszcz (photo of Slawomir >)
  Email: Slawomir.Rymaszewski@equicolor.pl
  
• Slawomir's ancestors, like all Rymaszewski families, lived in Eastern Poland (Kresy), which for some period of history were under Tsarist Russian domination. His great-grandfather was named Piotr Rymaszewski, his grandfather Jan Rymaszewski and his father Stanislaw.
  
• Stanislaw Rymaszewski, Slawomir's father, was born before the Second World War in sovereign Poland in Starzynka in 1935 in Wilno province, which is now in Lithuania. After the war, young Stanislaw moved with his parents to north-west Poland during the repatriation of Poles from eastern provinces which were annexed by the Soviet Union. The family settled in town Bydgoszcz. Stanislaw got married and had two sons:
• Jaroslaw, born in 1964, and
• Slawomir, born in 1965 (see above).

Emails in Polish:

14 lutego 2008

Nazywam sie Marta Rymaszewska, mój tata to Stanislaw Rymaszewski syn Józefa (1.01.1916 – 17.12.1998). Pamietam, ze dziadek urodzil sie kolo Baranowicz.

Dziadek mial braci : Dominik (ur.1904), Zygmunt, Czeslaw (ur.1918), Stanislaw, Wincenty i chyba byla jeszcze siostra. Dziadek po wojnie zamieszkal w Bydgoszczy i jego dzieci i wnuki tez mieszkaja teraz w Bydgoszczy.

Dziadka brat Dominik mieszkal w Nowej Wsi Zlotoryjskiej, a potem przeniósl sie do Bydgoszczy, bo tu wracaly jego dzieci po wojnie. Dziadek Józek byl w czasie wojny ulanem w 16 albo 19 Dywizji Ulanów.

Ja poszukuje korzeni (mojej) rodziny Rymaszewskich.

Pozdrawiam serdecznie.

Marta Rymaszewska
E-mail: malatusia1@wp.pl

======================

8 lipca 2008

Udalo mi sie ustalic, ze ojcem mojego dziadka Józefa Rymaszewskiego byl Dominik Rymaszewski. Dziadek urodzil sie na Zablociu kolo Baranowicz, ostatnie jego miejsce zamieszkania przed ewakuacja do Polski to Kowale gm. Lachowicze. Dziadek Józef Rymaszewski s. Dominika przybyl do Polski na poczatku lipca 1946 roku po sluzbie w 11 Dywizji Artylerii Konnej. Swój szlak bojowy zakonczyl dziadek 18 wrzesnia 1939r nad Bzura, gdzie dostal sie do niewoli niemieckiej i przez Sochaczew, Zyrardów, Skierniewice, Kalisz, Pleszew, Jarocin przepedzony zostal na terytorium Rzeszy. Zostal osadzony w Stalagu III-B. W sierpniu 1940r zostal przewieziony do pracy na gospodarstwie do wsi Frauerdorf, gdzie po roku ciezkiej pracy ulegl wypadkowi - przejechal go wóz, który uszkodzil mu kregoslup. Po wyjsciu ze szpitala pracowal jednak dalej, az do oswobodzenia przez wojska radzieckie.
Marta Rymaszewska

In Bydgoszcz also live Marta's uncle and aunt :
• Ryszard Rymaszewski, the son of Józef
• Wanda Grabkowska née Rymaszewska, the daughter of Józef

Their ancestors were:
• Józef Rymaszewski, Marta's grandfather. He was born on 1 January 1916 in Polish pre-war Kresy, near Baranowicze.

Józef had the following brothers (and probably one sister) :
• Dominik, born in 1904, who lived in Nowa Wies Zlotoryjska, later moved   to Bydgoszcz.
• Zygmunt
• Czeslaw, born in 1918
• Stanislaw
• Wincenty

At the outbreak of 1939 war, Józef Rymaszewski served in the Polish Army as a cavalryman in the 16 or 19 Ulans Regiment.
After the war he took up residence in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Józef died on 17 December 1998 in Bydgoszcz.

======================

8 July 2008

I managed to establish that the father of my grandfather Józef Rymaszewski was Dominik Rymaszewski. My grandfather was born in Zablocie near Baranowicze, his last place of domicile before moving to Poland, was Kowale, Lachowicze district.

Grandfather Józef Rymaszewski, the son of Dominik, returned to Poland at the beginning of July 1946, after Polish Army service in the 11th Horse Artillery Division. His war combat route ended on 18 September 1939 by the river Bzura, where he was taken prisoner by the Germans.

Then he was driven off, through Sochaczew, Zyrardów, Skierniewice, Kalisz, Pleszew, Jarocin, on to the German Reich territory. He was placed in Stalag III-B.  In August 1940 he was moved to work on a farm in a village Frauerdorf, where after one year of hard labour he had an accident - he was run over by a wagon, which damaged his spine. However, after leaving hospital, he continued to work, until the area was occupied by the Soviet troops.

Text in Polish:
10 wrzesnia 2007
Krzysztof Rymaszewski
E-mail: krzysztof.rl@neostrada.pl


Witam wszystkie osoby pochodzace z Kresów. Poszukuje krewnych, którzy wywodza sie od mojego prapradziadka Pawla Rymaszewskiego jego syna Józefa i wnuka Jana, który byl moim dziadkiem. Mieszkali w rejonie Molodeczna. Dziadek Jan mieszkal we wsi Starzynki do 1946r. Po repatriacji mieszkal w Kosowie kolo Mroczy w Polsce. Jego pierwsza zona Maria z domu. Zolnierkiewicz. Oboje juz nie zyja.

 My translation:
10 September 2007
Krzysztof Rymaszewski
E-mail: krzysztof.rl@neostrada.pl

Greetings to all people originating from Kresy (the Polish "Borderlands" occupied by the USSR in 1939). I am searching for relatives who trace back their origin from my great great grandfather Pawel Rymaszewski, his son Józef and grandson Jan who was my grandfather. They lived in the area of Molodeczno. Granddad Jan lived in a village Starzynki until 1946. After the so called "repatriation" he lived in Kosowo near Mrocza in Poland. His first wife was Maria née Zolnierkiewicz. Both are now deceased.

• Kajetan Rymaszewski, lived at the turn of 19 century in Kleck area in Eastern Poland under Tsarist Russian domination. He had two sons:
• Antoni Rymaszewski, the son of Kajetan, was born on 12 February 1914 in Kuchczyce near Kleck
• Jan Rymaszewski, the second son of Kajetan, was also born in Kuchczyce
  
  After the First World War Kuchczyce (located westwards from Kleck) belonged to Independant Poland until the Second World War when the Eastern part was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union. So the brothers Antoni and Jan escaped to western part of Poland occupied by the Germans where living conditions were much easier and chances of survival much better than under Soviet occupation.
  
  Antoni settled in Grojec where he married Jadwiga Krawczykowska. They had three boys and one daughter:
  
• Andrzej Rymaszewski, still lives in Grojec
• Bogdan Rymaszewski
• Wlodzimierz Rymaszewski now lives in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki near Warsaw.
  He married Grazyna Wrzesien in 1970. They have two daughters:
  • Ewa Rymaszewska, and
  • Renata Rymaszewska. Renata married Wojciech Górecki and they live in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki
    Contact email: robert.w.gorecki@gmail.com
• Anna Rymaszewska, still lives in Grojec

• Leszek Rymaszewski, the son of Edward, born in 1966, lives in Legnica, Poland. His email is : edyrym@wp.pl
Leszek's wife is: • Edyta ................ ,
Their children: son and daughter:
• Kamil Rymaszewski, and
• Katarzyna (Kasia) Rymaszewska

Leszek's father:
• Edward Rymaszewski, the son of Waclaw,
Edward's wife: • Lucja Szadkowska,
Their children: son and daughter:
• Leszek Rymaszewski (above)
• Ewa Rymaszewska (Leszek's sister)

• Ewa Rymaszewska, daughter of Edward, married Daniel Stopyra, and they have a son Piotr, and a daughter Oliwia.

Leszek's grandfather:
• Waclaw Rymaszewski, the son of Franciszek, born in 1882 in Swidicze,
Waclaw's wife: • Marja , the daughter of Wincenty, born in 1895
   Daughter - Marja , born in 1915
   Son - Waclaw , born in 1928
   Daughter - Wanda, born in 1930 in Swidicze, just before family deportation to hard labour in the Urals
   Son - Edward, born in 1935, in Soviet exile, at Ust-Smolva labour-village.

• Wanda Rymaszewska, the daughter of Waclaw, sister of Edward, married Mr Wichorski, and they had two sons Dariusz and Wieslaw.        The son Wieslaw Wichorski got married, and he had a daughter Agata and a son Damian.

Leszek's great grandfather:
• Franciszek Rymaszewski, the son of Michal Rymaszewski, lived in on his own estate in eastern partition of Poland under the rule of Tsarist Russia, in Kopyl district, Minsk region.

Leszek's great-great grandfather:
• Michal Rymaszewski, lived at the turn of 18-19 century in the area of Rymaszewski families origin.

Leszek Rymaszewski from Legnica discovered the fate of his grandfather Waclaw from my website in 2008 . He wrote to me that he is the descendant of Waclaw who disappeared without a trace after his deportation to the Urals and subsequent arrest over there by the KGB (NKVD)

See story of Waclaw's fate is in chapter 12(1)

Leszek says that only two of Waclaw's four children survived: daughter Wanda, aged 7 at the time of Waclaw's execution, and son Edward, aged 2 during Waclaw's execution in 1937.

Years later, after Stalin's death, young Edward, now aged 23, returned to Poland in 1958 with his mother. In Poland Edward married Lucja Szadkowska, and with their son named Leszek and daughter Ewa they now live in Legnica.

Unfortunately, Edward died last year (2007) without knowing what happened to his father Waclaw after his arrest by the NKVD.

In December 2009 Leszek sent me an old photograph of his grandparents Waclaw and Maria, and later the photo of his grandmother Maria after her return from exile with her two surviving children: daughter Wanda and Leszek's father Edward. He also sent photos of Josef, Waclaw's brother, who emigrated to the USA.

(see photos below)

Young Edward, Leszek's father

Inscription on the back of the photo is in Russian: "For keep-sake to brother (and) sister-in-law with the children from (your) brother Rymaszewski . 5 March 1929. year "

See photo of Josef and his descendants in the USA

• Jacek Rymaszewski, the son of Zygmunt, born 14.5.1968, PhD (dr.inz), Master of Engineering (mgr inz.), specializing in automation and metrology at Materials and Electronics Department, Lódz Technical University (Politechnika Lódzka). Author of research publications. (Photo >>>)
  Phone : 631-25-34
  Email: jacekrym@matel.p.lodz.pl
  
• Pawel Rymaszewski, Jacek's grandfather, was born in 1890 in Mikance near Kowno (former Polish province called Grand Duchy of Litva - where the Rymaszewski families come from). Pawel married Aniela Rysiukiewicz and had a son Zygmunt. Pawel died in 1930, at the age of 40. Pawel also had a brother.
  
• Zygmunt Rymaszewski, Pawel's son, was born in 1925 in Mikance. During the Second World War this area was occupied by the Soviet Union. Young Zygmunt was called up to the Polish "People's" Army, formed by the Soviets mostly from the former Polish prisoners in the USSR and deportees, and sent to war front. He was badly wounded in 1945. After the war he married Leokadia Maciejka from Wilkowo n. Wisla (Wilkowo on river Vistula), and settled in Lódz. Zygmunt died in 1997.
  
• Zygmunt and Leokadia had two children: a daughter Barbara, born in 1956 and a son Jacek, born 1968 (see above).

• Maciej Michal Rymaszewski, the son of Michal, born 1 March 1973, lives in Kraków with his wife Magdalena Trzcinska and two daughters:
  
• Gabriela Rymaszewska, born 29 May 1997
• Weronika Rymaszewska, born 26 August 2001
  
  
  E-mail: maciej.rymaszewski@cdnpartner.pl
  
  
  NOTE: Inspired by my website, Maciej is now building his own family homepage (in Polish, of course). He uses the historical family motto TENDID AD ASTRA VIRIBUS (Reach up for the stars by your own effort) as its title. His website address is: http://www.rymaszewski.net
  

4 year old Weronika (Weroniczka)

• Michal Rymaszewski, Maciej's father, the son of Kazimierz, was on born 7 June 1942 in Kraków. Married to Grazyna Dombrowska. Michal emigrated to Norway in 1977, where he works as a teacher. (photo below)
  
• Kazimierz Rymaszewski, Maciej's grandfather, married to Helena Wietrzych, lived in Kaczanowice near Nieswiez in Eastern Poland before it was occupied by the Soviets in 1939. Brother of Kazimierz, Franciszek, was deported to Siberia by the Soviets. All immediate ancestors and relatives lived in localities around Nieswiez in Poland which were before in the Russian partition of Poland.
  

Text in Polish:
29 kwietnia 2007
 

Jestesmy wnuczkami zamordowanego w Katyniu Zenona Rymaszewskiego z Wilna (ur.16.07.1910), syna Jana i Zofii z Michalowskich. Mieszkamy obecnie w Olsztynie w Polsce. Nie znamy dalszej rodziny ze strony naszego Ojca, Antoniego Rymaszewskiego. Poszukujemy bliskich. Moze dzieki Wam uda nam sie kogos odnalezc. Dysponujemy kilkoma zdjeciami i pamiatkami z Katynia (Kozielska), które mozemy udostepnic.
Prosimy o pomoc, moze uda sie zlokalizowac kogos z naszych najblizszych.

Tak jak mówi nasze wspólne rodowe zawolanie i my staramy sie siegac do gwiazd wlasnymi silami. Stad nasza prosba.
Serdecznie pozdrawiamy i gratulujemy cierpliwosci w poszukiwaniach. Agnieszka i Maria Rymaszewskie, Olsztyn, Polska.

30 kwietnia 2007 - Dodatkowe informacje:

.....Nasz Tato umarl w lutym tego roku. Wczesniej odeszla Ciocia (oboje odeszli nagle). Tak to jest, ze kiedy bliscy zyja czlowiek jakos nie mysli o zapisywaniu. Slucha tez jednym uchem opowiesci rodzinnych, a potem zaluje, ze nic nie wie. W tej chwili nikt nam nie moze nic podpowiedziec w sprawie naszej rodziny. Wiemy, ze na Litwie w Wilnie mamy jakis krewnych, ale nie mamy adresu.
Nasz Dziadek Zenon Rymaszewski prowadzil przed wojna w Wilnie fabryke plyt budowlanych " Mastewal".
..... poslubil kobiete (nasza Babcie) - Wande Lisowska, która byla pielegniarka .....

29 maja 2007 - Witamy serdecznie Panie Franciszku!

Mamy nadzieje, ze zdrowie dopisuje. Na ostatnich zdjeciach z Pania Anna (z Kanady) wyglada Pan swietnie. Na nasza wiadomosc odpowiedzialy juz dwie osoby. Chcialybysmy prosic o umieszczenie jeszcze kilku szczególów dotyczacych naszego dziadka Zenona Rymaszewskiego.

Dziadek urodzil sie w Niznie - Dnieprowsku, a nie w Wilnie, gdzie on mieszkal. Z Kozielska zostal wywieziony 16.04 transportem X, lub 17.04.1940 trasportem XI. Ekshumowany z mogily bratniej prawdopodobnie 5-tej . Zidentyfikowany pod numerem 3258.
Z listów z Kozielska wnioskujemy, ze bracia (lub inni krewni ) dziadka mieli na imie Edward (Edmund?) i Witold. Z wypisu z Przegladu Historycznego wynika, ze mieszkal przy ulicy Nowogródzkiej 29 w Wilnie.
W dokumentach pozostawionych przez Tate jest stary dowód osobisty na nazwisko Romuald Rymaszewski ur. 03.11.1868 syn Stanislawa i Kamilji.

Jesli istnieje mozliwosc umieszczenia tych danych, bylo by nam bardzo milo. Zyczymy zdrowia i goraco pozdrawiamy.

Aga i Marysia Rymaszewskie

My English translation:
29 April 2007


We are the granddaughters of Zenon Rymaszewski from Wilno (Vilnius), murdered in Katyn (born on 16.7.1910), the son of Jan and Zofia Michalowska. At present we live in Olsztyn in Poland. We don't know anything about other relatives on our father's side (of Antoni Rymaszewski, the son of Zenon, and their family). We are searching for close relatives. Perhaps, thanks to your website, we will succeed to find someone. We have a few photographs and souvenirs from Katyn (Kozielsk), which we can make available.

We are looking for help, maybe we'll be lucky to locate someone from our immediate family.
As our common ancestral family cry says, we, too, are trying to "reach up for the stars by our own effort". Hence our request. Kind regards and congratulations on patient research. Agnieszka and Maria Rymaszewskas, Olsztyn, Poland

30 April 2007 - Additional information :

..... Our Daddy died in February this year (2007). Before that, our Auntie has passed away (both died suddenly). It is so, that when your loved ones still live, one doesn't think about making notes. Also, listens with half an ear to the family stories, and later regrets that one knows nothing (about the family past). At present, nobody can tell us anything about our family. We (only) know that we have some relatives in Vilnius, Lithuania, but we don't have their address.
Our grandfather Zenon Rymaszewski, before the war run a factory in Vilnius (Wilno) producing (concrete) building slabs "Mastawal" ...... he married Wanda Lisowska (our grandmother), who was a nurse .....

29 May 2007 - Warm greetings, Mr Franek !

We hope that you are in good health. You look well on recent photos with Anna (from Canada). We already had two replies to our email notice. We would like to insert some more details regarding our grandfather Zenon Rymaszewski.

Grandfather was born in Nizny - Dnieprowsk (Nizhniy Dneprovsk), and not in Wilno (Vilnius) where he lived. He was taken away from Kozielsk (to his execution) on 16th of April 1940 by the 10th transport, or on the 17th of April by the 11th transport. His body was exhumed from the common grave, probably No.5. He was given identification No. 3258. From his letters from Kozielsk, we conclude that grandfather's brothers (or other relatives) had names Edward (Edmund?) and Witold. In an extract from the Historical Review, it is stated that Zenon Rymaszewski lived in Wilno, at Nowogródzka street, No. 29. Among the documents left by our Dad (Antoni), there is an old identity document in the name of Romuald Rymaszewski, the son of Stanislaw and Kamilja, born on 3 November 1868.

We would be very happy if it was possible to include these particulars. We wish you health. With warm regards,
Agnes and Mary Rymaszewskas

KRZYSZTOF Rymaszewski in Terespol, year 2000.
Email: Krzy_Rym@poczta.onet.pl

Krzysztof (Chris) Rymaszewski, son of Józef, is an egineer. He is the manager of a Fuel Base in Malaszewicze, Terespol. Chris sent me genealogical information about his family and the photographs. He also sent a newspaper cutting about the first gathering in Kolobrzeg, Poland in 1998 of dispersed Rymaszewski families - the survivors of the Communist holocaust (see below).

In Terespol live:

• Józef Rymaszewski, born in 1935 - 37? near Nieswiez.
• Slawomira Rymaszewska, his wife, born in Terespol, and their 3 children:
  
• Adam Rymaszewski, their first son.
• Krzysztof Rymaszewski, second son, 30 years old (December 2000), an engineer.
• Joanna Rymaszewska, daughter, 17 years old (in December 2000), a student.
  

JÓZEF Rymaszewski, Krzysztof's and Joanna's father, was born somewhere between 1935 and 1937 on his parents estate in Poland, about 7km from Nieswiez (now Nesvizh in Belarus). Few years later, when the Soviets invaded eastern Poland in September 1939, the whole family was deported on the 10 February 1940. Józef was only a very small child, not more than 5 years old, when he was deported together with his even younger two sisters, to a slave camp near the Arctic Circle in the northern Arkhangelsk

Józef's parents, Waclaw and Janina, both died young at the age of 33 and 30, from exhaustion and starvation in the slave camp, trying to keep their three infant children alive. Little Józef and his two little sisters survived, first by the care of another Polish family in the gulag, and later thanks to family friend and Józef's godfather, also an exile in USSR, who discovered their whereabouts. The children were repatriated to Poland after the war in 1946, unable to speak Polish.

Just like with all the other Rymaszewski families, the survivors of the Communist atrocities, it took many years after the war to trace his remaining family relatives in Poland and re-build his identity.

Józef has written short memoirs which were published by the Association of Siberian Deportees in a book "From Siberia to Podlasie". My English translation is below.

MEMOIRS of JÓZEF RYMASZEWSKI, Krzysztof's father
Translated by Franek RYMASZEWSKI (Australia 2004). For Polish text see link to Genealogy below.

The memory of home is as distant to me as a long past dream. I have left the Nieswiez native land as a small child. The loss of both parents in Arkhangelsk snowbound gulag had destroyed any possibility even of a substitute of family happiness. My identity, my memories of dearest homeland of my ancestors, I am rebuilding throughout all my life.

About my immediate family I have only that information which I obtained thanks to people I met who knew my parents, former neighbours, cousins, and some documents. Because of this, such information is not always complete.

Their earliest reminiscence concerns my grandfather.  Wincenty Rymaszewski, born in 1868, was a patriot and a man who dreamt about independent Poland (Polish lands were then occupied by foreign powers, namely Russia, Prussia and Austria - F.R.). He was a leaseholder (administrator) of "Grzybowszczyzna" estate in Nieswiez district which he managed on behalf of a proprietress who was undergoing treatment in the Warsaw Christ-Child hospital at Oczki street. He volunteered for the Polish-Bolshevik war in 1919-1920 and presented himself together with his two sons : Franciszek and Jan. He left the youngest son, nine year old Waclaw, at home.

The "legionnaires" (members of Marshal Pilsudski's Polish Legions - F.R.) returned safely home in full force from the victorious war and grandfather was decorated with the Cross of Valour for bravery. He was also rewarded with 13 hectares of arable land "Soltanowszczyzna" from the subdivision of some Radziwills' estates, not far from his former leasehold. His sons Franciszek and Jan received after the war licences for a gun shop and supply of cheeses for the Army. Thanks to pastures purchased by grandfather at "Pierewoloka" near Baranowicze, Rymaszewskis were breeding cattle for the purpose of producing these cheeses.

On his own land, Soltanowczyzna, grandfather built a new wooden house and brick farm buildings covered with tiles and transferred the estate to his youngest son Waclaw - my father (born in 1910, died 1943). Dad married Janina Modzolewska (born 1912, died 1942) and together they run the inherited farm.

In the meantime, after the death of Grzybowszczyzna proprietress in 1935, her estate according to the will, became property of nuns community that run the above mentioned hospital. Grandfather moved to live with my father, where he served with experience in running an estate, and also he "disciplined the young farmer". From oral statements of people who knew my grandfather, he appears as a hard-working person, of strong character, authority and very patriotic attitude, cultivating legionary traditions. On my birth (1935-7 ?) he was supposed to comment - "I have a cadet". Before the war (Sept.1939 - F.R.) there also arrived to the world in our family my two younger sisters Tereska and Ela. Grandfather died on 10 May 1938.

The traditions of national independence, which were always the pride of Rymaszewskis, became the reason why our whole family was deported to Siberia in the first transport on 10 February 1940. (During the 21 months of Soviet occupation, before Hitler attacked Russia, there were four mass deportations. Total 1.5 millions of Poles. - F.R.)

My earliest childhood memories are associated with this particular February night.  About 2 o'clock at night the banging on the door woke up the family. Armed Red Army soldiers entered the house, others were searching the farm buildings. They kept father under guard, while mother was given time to get family ready for deportation. I remember "tapering head-gear" of the bolsheviks and the feelings of child's fear. Mummy had problems with keeping the three tiny tots calm, so preparations for deportation was out of the question ... but even in different circumstances could anybody be able to prepare oneself for what was awaiting the Siberian deportees?

Before dawn a sleigh was brought, on which packed belongings and the whole family were loaded, whereupon we were taken to a railway station at Lan, about 16 km away. At the station we joined other Polish families who similarly to us were taken from their family estates. All were crammed into cattle tracks. The whole procedure was taking place during very sharp persisting frost. The train was moved to a side-track and guarded by the soldiers of the Red Army, remained there for about 2 weeks. Because of the freeze and illnesses many people did not survive even this first stage of deportation. Very many who did, were later .... regretting it.

The stay on Lan siding we spent "buried" in household sheepskin coats which then, I believe, saved our lives. Friends, not yet affected by their family repressions, brought us some food and goose grease to treat frost-bites. A picture of the interior of this freight car with little metal stove in the middle became fixed in my child's memory.

The train started and a long life journey began, for many a last one. At short lasting stops some wood was supplied for the little stove, the frozen bodies of dead people were removed. The soldiers watched "the load", making sure that nobody alive gets out from the transport. The journey lasted many days. At the destination a sleigh was awaiting for us on which we were loaded with difficulty. In front of us there was still a 100 kilometers journey into the depths of taiga forest. At the location we found a camp with wooden barracks built from logs and moss packing. The gulag, guarded by armed Red Army soldiers, consisted of a set of barracks surrounded by barbed wire, laid out as a rectangle with a gate. This place, in Shenekurski region of the Arkhangelsk province, was called "Lesopunkt (Forest-station) Krivoye". All men were exploited to toil at the cutting of taiga. How inhuman life conditions there were, testifies the fact that in order to keep our trio of small children alive, both my parents died from exhaustion and famine — mother in 1942, and father in mishap in forest in 1943.

The faces of my parents fade away in the depths of my mind obscured by other memories. It was never possible for me to visit their graves, I wasn't even able to get official confirmation of their death. The searches I undertook after the war through the Polish Red Cross ended up with a reply from the Soviet equivalent which denied that any such gulag existed.

From the times in the camp I remember collecting (in summer) on the wet meadows the stalks of weeds (called "peeshchechki") for a soup cooked by mother, also using the horse tail hair to make traps to catch small birds which were migrating here in summer, an important part of our "diet", finally a nest with birds eggs found in a crevice — how proud I was to provide "so much" food for the family.

After the death of parents we were looked after by a family of Jazwinski in the gulag.

Starting from June 1941 (the attack by Germany on the Soviet Union) the situation of Polish deportees in the gulag was gradually improving. It's an irony of fate that the ravages of war rolling over the Soviets, meant for us a "light in the tunnel" - a chance to survive. Unfortunately, for my parents and many others, it was too late. The camps were changing their character to more open ones, the willing men could try to find one's way to Polish army being formed somewhere.

Jazwinski family left the camp for Vielsko (in the Arkhangelsk province), taking us with them, where they put me with my younger sisters into a Russian orphanage. Our stay in there created a danger of separation of siblings, because the rule was an unrestricted selection of orphans by interested Russians. With such fate had met a younger brother of my friend of those days, Janek Warzawa. I myself remember the "defence" of my younger sister Tereska from Russians who wanted to take her away.

Fortunately, Antoni Gilewski, a neighbour and friend of my parents, as well as godfather of the whole our orphaned threesome who was also deported with his whole family, after receiving information about our whereabouts and the danger of separation, went to Vielsko and took us to his place in Solvitsigotsk. Over there, although not beyond barbed wire but still in extremely hard living conditions, the Gilewskis kept us until Polish Red Cross opened a Polish Orphanage Nr.1 in Stavropol. The godfather handed the three of us over there in the hope that we will have a better chance for an earlier return to Homeland (and he was right — he himself did not get permission to return until 1956 !

In my memory this whole period was a constant hunger. Hunger, which is not only painful, but deforms the body causing rickets and changes people into lean blue ghosts. How much I was longing for that piece of allocated by weight bread, how much I was imagining that one day I'll be able to eat that bread to one's full. The greatest "rarity" (in the Polish orphanage - F.R.) was snow-white rice and powdered milk (from UNRA). As a 6-7 year old boy, the stories about fruits: apples, pears, plums ... growing on trees, tasty, eatable! — I treated as a tale about non-existent fairyland world.

The Polish Orphanage at Stavropol set out on a return journey to Poland on 21 March 1946.  I remember about 100 km ride in "Shtuder" trucks on still freezed over river Volga to Kuibyshev, wherefrom after about 2 weeks we joined a special train with Polish repatriates. After that there was still Moscow, then a stop near Smolensk (Gniozdovo) where adults were taking lumps of Katyn soil with then incomprehensible for me devotion. And at last on 14 April 1946, the present Polish border at Terespol and repatriation centre in Gostyn. From the repatriation centre with my sisters I got into an orphanage in Lucien (Gostyn district).

In Poland we were the children of the war, unable even to speak our mother tongue.
The war has taken away from us ... everything.

• Memoirs of Józef Rymaszewski in Polish
• Family Tree Diagram and Painting
• Family Tree by genetic sequence method
• Family coat of arms
• Text on family origin (rodowód) in Polish

Part map of Poland's eastern border near Terespol and Briest (former large Polish town Brzesc

David Rymaszewski from Milwaukee, USA, whose family history is featured in Chapter 14 (USA) of this website, decided to visit Poland, the country of his roots, with his wife Jody in 2005.

He took this opportunity to also visit the family of Krzysztof Rymaszewski in Terespol, not known to him before, about whom he read on my website.

David and Jody Rymaszewski at the boundary marker near Terespol, between Poland and the former Rymaszewskis' ancestral homeland "Kresy", now part of Belarus.

The initial meeting: David from Milwaukee shakes hands with Krzysztof and his sister Joanna in Terespol - 2005

David from Milwaukee meets Krzysztof's parents : Josef and Slavomira - 2005

Both families having an alfresco lunch

David and Krzysztof's brother Adam - 2005

David's wife Jody with Krzysztof and Joanna - 2005

Painting of Krzysztof's Family Tree hangs on the wall.

Z glebokim zalem informuje, ze 6 lipca 2007 w wyniku ciezkiego zawalu zmarl mój ukochany Tato, Józef Rymaszewski.

Zalaczam wykonane 7 czerwca 2007 zdjecie na którym od lewej stoja Tato, Mama Slawomira,
mój brat Adam, siostra Joasia
i ja.

Tato byl naszym niekwestio - nowanym autorytetem i wzorem.

Krzysztof Rymaszewski

• Joanna Rymaszewska lives in Terespol, but has been studying in Warsaw since 2002.

• In 2006, Joanna graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology. In the same year she also attended as an exchange student the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

• Joanna created her own webpage : http://rymaszewska.wordpress.com/

• In 2008, Joanna completed Master's Degree in Development Economics at the Warsaw University.
From September 2008, she begins to do a doctorate (PhD) in Economic Growth Centre, HSS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Joanna Rymaszewska, PhD student, Division of Economics | School of Humanities and Social Science
Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue | Singapore 639798, Tel: + 65 6790-6450 | Fax: + 65 6794-6303
Mobile: + 65 939 55 265 | Skype: jo.asi
Email: joanna_rymaszewska@tlen.pl - or Email: j.rymaszewska@gmail.com

==============================================================================

• During summer vacations in 2007 Joanna did her internship in Duluth, Minnesota, USA, a training program organized by Rotary International (see photo below).

• While in the United States, Joanna took the opportunity, after a quick tour of Chicago, to visit for a week the family of David and Jody Rymaszewski in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In 2005,  23 year old Joanna Rymaszewska published on the Web at http://rymaszewska.wordpress.com/

Hello!  I'm 23. I was born in a small town Terespol in Poland and I'm currently freshly graduated student of Warsaw University of Technology. In 2006 I was in Singapore as an exchange student at Nanyang Technological University. Enjoy my memories of this great experience at  http://rymaszewska.wordpress.com/

• Andrzej Rymaszewski, the son of Kazimierz and Irena Brauze, born in 1967
• Danuta Maria Rymaszewska, née Blaszczuk, Andrzej's wife
  
• Mirella Marta Rymaszewska, their daughter, born 1995
• Marcin Marek Rymaszewski, their son, born 1998
• Michal Mikolaj Rymaszewski, their son, born 2000
  
  ul. Ketlinga, Wroclaw, Poland
  Tel. + 0 71 373 67 17, mobile: 0 609 759 036
  
  Email: andrym1@gazeta.pl
  
        or andrym7643@sezam.pl

Year 2010
From left : Marcin, Mirella, Danuta, Michal and Andrzej Rymaszewskis

SOME  FAMILY  HISTORY AND PHOTOS

From the times of the 17th century Kingdom of Poland Andrzej Rymaszewski's ancestors lived in the Polish Eastern Borderlands (called Kresy Wschodnie), in the area of town Nieswiez (now Nesvizh in Belarus). This is the area close to Kopyl, the origin of all Rymaszewski clan, the gentry families that lived on landed estates. Their nobility documents were lost in fires during the war devastations. After the Second World War, Andrzej's surviving grandfather under the Soviet occupation of Kresy, Stanislaw Rymaszewski with his wife Jadwiga Jarmolowicz and their children, as well as his sister Anna, were all "repatriated" after Stalin's death, to Western lands of Polish People's Republic in 1956. They settled near Kamien Pomorski.

More details are in Andrzej's email in the Polish language (no. 047) or click on the Family Tree below.

Antoni Rymaszewski, the first cousin of Andrzej Rymaszewski's grandfather Stanislaw, was born in 14.03.1900 on Lipnicki estate (zascianek Lipnickie ?)
Howiezna village council, Nieswiez district.
As a 19 year old boy, he volunteered to the Polish Army under Marshal Pilsudski, to fight against the 1919 - 1920 Bolshevik invasion of newly independent Poland. He was wounded, received war decorations, and was rewarded with some arable land on the "Hresnowszczyzna" estate, near Nieswiez. He married Stanislawa Baranowska in Nieswiez in 1927.

After Soviet Russia's invasion of Eastern Poland in 1939, the Russians, on the 10 February 1940, deported Antoni, his sister Salomea, his wife and children Wanda and Regina to hard labour camp (gulag) called Sukhoye, Arkhangelsk area, near Arctic Circle.

The family survived, and two years later in 1942 escaped from the Soviet Union with the Gen. Anders Polish Army. The mother and one child, Wanda, were placed in the Polish Refugees Camp Tengeru in British East Africa. The other child Regina was unfortunately left behind in the USSR.

Henryk (6.04.1909 - 5.04.1997 in Olsztyn) married his cousin Alina (maiden name Buczek) – she was a close relative and there’s a rumour that they had a permission for marriage from the Pope himself but we have no proof for that. They had a son Zbyszek born 17.05.1942, we don’t know a date of his death but he didn’t live long. They lived in Olsztyn where Zbyszek (by the way, he’s a Miroslawa’s godfather) worked as geodesist in a provincial bureau of geodesy and agriculture.

Zygmunt (28.07.1910 - 2.01.1970 in Nowa Sól) married Czeslawa and they had two daughters: Barbara who lives in Wroclaw (she’s retired now) and Hanka who went to Greece while martial law was declared in Poland. Than she went to Canada where she lives and works now (I think she is in Chapter 14 (Canada)). Zygmunt worked in the Central Industrial Circuit before World War II and afterwards he moved to Nowa Sól and worked as an architect designer in a bureau.

We think that about Czeslaw (born 19.10.1912) we can hear more from his son Henryk. My aunt has a certified excerpt from baptism register from a church in Wilno that says that Czeslaw was baptised and his godfather was Otton Butkiewicz (that’s probably why on Your page is a mistaken information that my grandfather Stefan had a brother Otto – he hasn’t!). This Otto wasn’t also a Wiktoria’s brother because she had only sister but he could be her cousin, we suppose.

My grandfather Stefan (9.03.1918 - 26.11.2000) (Refer to Chapter 12 ) married Danuta (maiden name Kamecka) (30.03.1925 -11.09.1996). Stefan studied at the Academy of Miners in Kraków. During the World War II he was in the Polish Underground Army (AK) and he was hunted by Gestapo for teaching, so he was hiding under the name Grabowski. After the war he worked in the Institution of Metallurgy and since 1966 he was teaching in the Lower Silesian Engineering School in Zielona Góra, where he lived with his family. When he was retiring, he was a doctor (PhD) at that school. His first child, Jureczek, born 11.09.1947 and died after two days, he was buried in Kraków. Teresa, born 10.05.1949 lives with her husband Andrzej in Zielona Góra and works at the University in faculty of Art as Senior Lecturer. Before that she lived in Wroclaw and played a piano in Opera’s orchestra. Her younger brother Andrzej is a teacher of Polish and lives in Olawa. He has one daughter Anna Rymaszewska (me! ;)
Their youngest sister Miroslawa lives in a small village Swidica near Zielona Góra with her husband Janusz (he’s now in Norway, working). She works as a history teacher in high school and her children Marcin (23.07.1982) and Paulina (19.04.1986) are students.

To Kolobrzeg came Rymaszewskis in numbers. Not all who bear that surname could make the first family gathering of their kin, but fifty four persons happily greeted each other and compared genealogy of their families, making acquaintances with all the cousins and aunties.

During the three days, from 16th to 18th October 1998, Rymaszewskis were the largest family in town. At the reception table in "Centrum" hotel sat over fifty people of all ages, from the elderly to fidgeting kids.
- I am Ania.
- I am Tomek.
- We haven't met, my name is... my mother was Zosia - one could hear during the first joint meeting. Occasionally someone with a better memory reminded: - You know us, we met at the funeral eight years ago...

Apart from two families,
the family of John from Basztowa street in Kolobrzeg and John's from Budzistowo suburb, Rymaszewskis arrived from Terespol, Busk, Dzierzoniowo, Szczecin, Gdansk, Bielsk..... the places where the clan members found themselves by a strange decree of fate.

They gathered together to share their experiences of survival, and to renew the family ties, which trace their origin to the Zaglobczyks, and whose family seal with a coat of arms bore "a horseshoe with its ridge upward in a blue field, it was silver or polished iron, on its top was a cross of gold, on the helmet a half greyhound, as if leaping from the crown, facing the right, it was collared and leashed".

- In spite of our dispersion we must not loose our ties, our family unity - stresses Waclaw, one of the clan elders.

Rymaszewskis planned the family gathering for ten years. Thanks to cousin Waclaw and now deceased father of John from Budzistowo, the genealogical tree was reconstructed and many mysteries solved.

- Whenever my wife and I sat at the table and begun drawing that family tree, there was never enough paper, but ultimately we've done it - reminisces now John from Budzistowo, the main organizer of the gathering who conceived the idea.

From oral accounts
and family records handed down, it appears the name Rymaszewski originates from woodland settlement called Ryma, granted by last of the Jagiellonian kings, Zygmunt II, to the last of Zaglobczyks. The use of surname Rymaszewski was confirmed by king Zygmunt III in the year 1610.

Through the centuries Rymaszewskis lived under the motto "Tendid ad astra viribus" - "Reach for the stars by your own effort". Many family mementos and memoirs bear testimony that the ancestors lived in accordance with that maxim. Older members remind their younger successors about that duty, to preserve their dignity.

To this purpose will serve
such family reunions during which the history of many members of the clan is consolidated. In Kolobrzeg this surname had been written into the town's history. Jerzy Rymaszewski, deceased fourteen years ago, was its mayor for many years. Jan from Budzistowo was running the State Farm which prospered under his management.

After three days nobody could say that he has not met anybody, and the little "fidgets" were happy about so many new uncles and aunties. Fathers proudly talked about their successors:
- I have good children, especially my daughters in law have all the necessary qualities. My ! when there are good daughters in law, there will be good grandchildren...

EWA DUBOIS

Waclaw Rymaszewski, medical doctor from Gdynia, an "elder" at the Family gathering, reads a passage from a book by Melchior Wankowicz "Tédy i owédy" (Tendy i owendy), where the author describes the visit to Kresy (the eastern part of Poland) of Wincenty Witos', the leader of the Polish Peasant party, and his meeting with a Rymaszewski impoverished but proud noble family.

Click hereto hear it in Polish

Re: Notice about Second Gathering of Rymaszewskis

From: Aleksandra & Stanislaw Rymaszewski
To: Krzy_Rym@poczta.onet.pl
Date: 6 September 2005

Dear Christopher,

I congratulate on the idea and express my respects. The message about Rymaszewskis' reunion I have from our "leader" Franek Rymaszewski in Australia. I have not contacted you earlier about the reunion details because at that time the matters will not allow me to be in my homeland, with Rymaszewski families, on the Polish sea-coast, perhaps in my beloved Tricity - by the Baltic — for our Kresy "the land of our birth" is no longer ours.

But I am with all of you in my heart  -  proud that although we are dispersed around the world, we don't loose optimism and the sense of unity from our roots.  Credit, here, to Franek Rymaszewski from Australia.

I wish all Dear Rymaszewskis, participants in the Gathering : pleasant impressions, fine weather of the passing summer, lots of good health and luck. I give brotherly hug to those Rymaszewskis who remember, although they were left behind the border, about us, the uprooted from Kresy, that fate had scattered around the world.

Counting that there will yet be an occasion to meet - if God permits - I send kind regards.

Stanislaw Rymaszewski (Pennsylvania, USA)
rymaszew@jjmb.net

Dotyczy: Zawiadomienie o Drugim Zjezdzie Rymaszewskich

Nad: Aleksandra i Stanislaw Rymaszewski
Do: Krzy_Rym@poczta.onet.pl
Data: 6 wrzesnia 2005

Drogi Krzysztofie,

Gratuluje pomyslu, wyrazy uznania. Wiadomosc o zjezdzie Rymaszewskich mam od naszego Przywodcy Franka Rymaszewskiego, z Australii. Nie kontaktowalem sie wczesniej by dowiedziec sie szczegolow poniewaz nie ulozy mi sie by byc w tym czasie w kraju, w gronie Rymaszewskich, na Wybrzezu, byc moze w moim ukochanym Trojmiescie - nad Baltykiem — bo nasze Kresy "skad nasz Rod" nie sa juz nasze.

Ale jestem z Wami sercem - dumny, ze choc jestesmy porozrzucani po swiecie, nie tracimy pogody ducha i poczucia jednosci z naszych korzeni. Chwala, w tym miejscu, Frankowi Rymaszewskiemu z Australii.

Zycze Wszystkim Kochanym Rymaszewskim, uczestnikom Zjazdu; milych wrazen, pieknej pogody mijajacego lata, duzo zdrowia i pomyslnosci. Serdecznie sciskam Tych Rymaszewskich, ktorzy choc pozostali za kordonem, pamietaja o nas wykarczowanych z Kresow, ktorych los porozrzucal po swiecie.

Liczac na to, ze bedzie jeszcze okazja spotkac sie - jak Bog pozwoli - serdecznie pozdrawiam.

Stanislaw Rymaszewski (Pennsylvania, USA)
rymaszew@jjmb.net

The Second reunion of the Rymaszewski families took place in Krzykacz, near Koszalin from 9 to 11 September 2005. The mood, as usual, was great.  I attach the family reunion photograph. I also inform you with pleasure that the next reunion is planned for the year 2008, and it will be held in the South-West of Poland. In advance, I urge you to attend. Chris Rymaszewski, Terespol,
Krzy_Rym@poczta.onet.pl

The third reunion of the Rymaszewski families took  place at Magnat Palace (photo alongside) in GARBICZ  in the West of Poland. Photos of some participants are  available for downloading by clicking the link below.
http://picasaweb.google.pl/krzysztof.rymaszewski/IIIZjazdRoduRymaszewskich#

Trzeci zjazd rodu Rymaszewskich odbyl sie w Palacu  Magnat (zdjecie obok) w GARBICZU w zachodniej  Polsce. Zdjecia niektórych uczestników mozna pobrac  ze strony Krzysztofa Rymaszewskiego z Terespola :  http://picasaweb.google.pl/krzysztof.rymaszewski/IIIZjazdRoduRymaszewskich#

Hotel "Palac Magnat"

  <<<<
  THE ORGANISERS of the 3rd REUNION
  (ORGANIZATORZY 3-go ZJAZDU) :
  • Dorota Rymaszewska (Zielona Góra), tel. 605 998 991
  Email: D.Rymaszewska@pzuzycie.com.pl
  • Alicja Rymaszewska- Biczyk (Zary) , tel. 603 247 634,
  Email: rymka1@op.pl
  • Jacek Rymaszewski (Zielona Góra) , tel. 605 193 425,
  Email: rymaszej@wp.pl

NAME and SURNAME
IMIE i NAZWISKO

Jacek Rymaszewski
Dorota Rymaszewska
Pamela Rymaszewska
Kasia Rymaszewska

Photo: Dorota, Jacek, Pamela, Kasia

65-364 Zielona Góra
ul. Kozuchowska 46

66-400 Gorzów Wlkp. ul. 9 Maja 34
See also Chapter 15 (Email 072)

Andrzej Rymaszewski

Krzysztof (Chris) Rymaszewski, from Terespol, Poland, was the organizer of the 4th reunion. He created a website for this purpose, where he published all relevant information:

The 4th reunion took place in September 2010 to commemorate 400 years anniversary of Rymaszewski surname conferred by the Polish king Zygmunt III Waza in 1610.

The location chosen for this event was purposely on the eastern border of Poland, close to our former eastern Borderlands (the lands of our origin), at a former Polish noble's estate, called Lukowiska.

Rymaszewski families from Ukraine were the first to arrive to Lukowiska :

• Siergiej Rymaszewski (2nd from left)
from Melitopol

• Igor Rymaszewski (4th from left) (Siergiej's brother)
from Kiev

• Artiem Rymaszewski (1st from left) (Igor's son)
from Kiev

They were welcomed by Krzysztof Rymaszewski, reunion organiser, and his sister Joanna Gravier-Rymaszewska from Terespol.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more photos of participants and the events of the 4th Reunion, see Chris Rymaszewski's website :
http://sites.google.com/site/400latrodu/home which will be available till the end of year 2010.

A very interesting report from the visit to the region of Rymaszewski Family original roots now in Belarus: NESVIZH (NIESWIEZ), RYMASZE, MIR, NOWOGRODEK, written in Polish by Chris Rymaszewski from Terespol, the organiser of the Reunion, can be accessed by clicking:

https://sites.google.com/site/stronarodzinyrymaszewskich/v-zjazd-rodu/sprawozdaniezvzjazdurodurymaszewskich

(P.S. If you get a message "Nie znaleziono strony" (Page not found), click on the first line of suggested there alternative pages, i.e. "sprawozdaniezyzjazdurodurymaszewskich"