Lesniak Family History




Casmir Lesniak was the Mayor of Trzetrezwina, Poland. He also had a little store that sold tobacco. Casimir was married to Sofie Kubacki who died from complications with childbirth around 1904. Casmir and Sophie Lesniak pictured at right.

Casmir's godfather was very wealthy and died without children. He left all of his property to Casmir. This is how the family had their start. Although they were of modest means, Catherine remembered that each of the girls in the family had their own dresser with painted flowers, and their names carved on them.

One son was and engineer, and another was a chemist. They were both very highly educated men. The town of Biczyce comes into their picture somewhere.









Vincent Lesniak
Vincent Lesniak was a very well educated man who was a chemist for the local tobacco industry. During WWII, the Nazis were persecuting educated Poles, so he fled to the forest with his wife Stefcia and their two children. While in the forest, his young son Andrew developed an serious ear infection. Andrew survived, but as a result of lack of treatment, he suffered retardation. Vincent's older child, christian name unknown, a daughter became a pharmacist and when last seen from was caring for both her mother and brother.

Vincent passed from a heart attack in 1977.




Stanley Lesniak
Stanley Lesniak came to the US with money from his sister Catherine. When he first arrived in America, work was very difficult to get. He eventually found work in Texas and sent Catherine a picture of himself in a cowboy outfit. Stanley had a girlfriend there who only spoke English. By the time he returned to Chicago, he spoke English very well.

He worked hard and became very successful in his own heating and roofing business. He was also on the board of directors of a brewery and was able to provide beer for his niece Stephanie Koldras' wedding to Clarence Stezowski in 1946.

Whenever Stanley would get a new car, he would visit his sister Catherine and take her family for rides. At one point, he had a Cord that was a very amazing and beautiful car to the Koldras children. Helen Koldras Manning remembers going to visit him and being driven home in the Cord.

Stanley married a girl named Balbina and had three children, Henry, Stanley, and Alice. Stanley eventually succedded him in the business.

Catherine Lesniak
Catherine was born on April 30, 1894. Her mother Sofie, who had a lot of children, died at an early age from a miscarriage. It is said that when Sofie died, the family clock stopped and the dog howled inconsolably. Catherine was about 10 and learned to bake the bread for the whole family.

Her parents (Catherine Lesniak and Andrew Koldras) went to the same school in the country.

Why she left Poland: When she was 17, her father had arranged for her to marry a much older, but "well to do man" in the village. Hers was to be the first marriage performed in the brand new church. At confession, she told the priest she didn’t love the old rich man so the priest told her not to go through with the marriage. Father was furious and thereafter always picked on her for not marring the wealthy man. Her brother in law, Stanley Koldras was leaving to come to America- so she decided to escape as well. She basically ran away. At some time later, she wrote her father a letter of apology for running away. (I believe they found this letter in his belongings after he passed.) Did he accept her apology? Did she ever see him again?



Notes: The man cursed her. She felt that he really had, because she had a very difficult life in amereica. She missed her home terribly and often cried at night. She kept dollars in a sock, to save money to return to Poland. Family picnic's the sisters would stack the deck so that Catherine would win at Bingo, she was always delighted.

Catherine Lesniak and Andrew Koldras went to the same school in the country. Some people teased her by saying that she ran away from her village to find and marry Andrew in America.

When she first came to America, she stayed with the Hamiga family whom she had known slightly in Poland. She was reportedly very unhappy with the arrangement. Catherine was a devout Catholic, and the Hamiga family had changed to a Polish splinter church and were pressuring her to do the same. It was very upsetting for her.

During WWII, Catherine Lesniak Koldras sent packages with essentials, like coats and blankets to her relatives and those of her husband's who were suffering the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany. When she returned for a visit 30 years after the war, the families she had helped were still grateful.


When she returned to Poland to visit, she found her father’s grave in the Church cemetery. At the time, they were beginning to bury people "one on top of another".



She knew Andrew Koldras from Poland. They were neighbors and attended the same country school. Andrew was already in the U.S. Two other Koldras brothers, were in US as well. They lived with Andrew, and Stanley was Charlotte’s Godfather. Stanley and John were in US without their wives, and children. They joined Haller's Army mainly because they could get free passage to Poland. (Helen Manning quipped that that was funny because they left Poland to escape serving in the Army.) At some point, the fourth Koldras brother, Walter came to America as well. The Koldras brothers had two sisters who remained in Poland.



Sofie Lesniak
Family lore states that Catherine's sister Sofie did not attend her mother's funeral because she didn't have any shoes. As a youth, Sofie Lesniak fell love with a local boy, but his family refused the marriage because her family could not provide a dowry. The boy was so upset about the refusal that he reportedly had a "nervous breakdown" and died. The boy's family felt so bad after their son's death, that they offered another son to Sofie in marriage. She refused.

Sofie remained in the family's village. She reportedly loved to garden. Sofie grew potatos and all kinds of flowers and vegetables. She had a daughter Madjia, who was a very accomplished architech. Madjia married and has three children, Ania, Krzysztof (Chistopher), and Jasiu (John).

In 1974, Bernice and Casey Sysko went to Poland to visit. They found Zofia's address and knocked on her door. They politely asked if they could stay with her. Not knowing who they were, or anything about them, she said "no", that her house was very small.

When Bernice revealed that she was Catherine's daughter, Sofie usherd them in at once and insisted that they stay with her. Zofia was a very gracious hostess and treated them very well. Bernice remembers that in 1974, Sofie's family still used an outhouse.

Charlotte went to Poland in 1976 with mother. Went to the village where the mother’s house was, the house was no longer there. She remembers her mother asking her sister about a little winding river that she remembered as a youth. Her sister told her that it had dried up.



John Lesniak???? Is this right?
John Lesniak pictured at right.













Anna Lesniak











Could be Vince or even Casmir.

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