Wordless Wednesday: Brook’s Shop Workers

This week's family photo...

The Haunting of Dunkirk Lighthouse

The Smithsonian's souvenir postcard of the Dunkirk Lighthouse When my maternal ancestors left Poland around the turn-of-the-century, they all made their way to the Fourth Ward of Dunkirk, New York. The city has a rich history: it was home to Brooks Locomotive Works during the latter half of the nineteenth century; provided steel for John [...]

Like Something Out of a Movie

Jozef & Michilena (Kubasik) Niedbalski If you want to get technical about it, I'm not actually related to the Niedbalski family of Dunkirk, New York. Aunt Rita is my great-grandmother's sister's husband's sister (say that one five times fast!), but she's always been a part of the Kuznicki clan. And because she never had any [...]

A Father’s Day Reunion

I've never been to a family reunion, but a few weeks ago, I found a copy of a newspaper article about a Father's Day family reunion held in 1945. It's a story from the almost-but-not-quite-related side of my family tree; my great-grandmother's sister's husband's sister never had any children, but she helped to raise my [...]

City Clerk Sprains an Ankle & Other News

I have a number of ancestors who featured in their local newspaper quite a lot: there's my great-grandmother, who announced every game of pinochle she ever played in the weekly-updates column, and Amy (Merrill) Horey, who chronicled every letter and visit from her children so much that the town began to refer to her sons [...]