Two of the super-'est' sisters of all in my maternal line are my great-grandmother, Maria Fietzek and her sister Francesca Fietzek. They traveled together with Maria's husband Philipp Motzko and Philipp's and Maria's baby daughter, Catherina, from Germany to Minnesota United States in the early 1880's.Through most of my research on Maria I feared she came to a foreign land with no one other than her husband and child. What a sense of relief I felt when I discovered that Francesca had came to the United States at the same time. Maria and Francesca had each other to commiserate with while their husbands went off to work, and while the women stayed home and raised the children. The thought of Maria being on her own without another woman friend, who spoke her language, was hard for me to understand. Maria never learned to speak English (according to her grand-daughter - Dorothy Troyer Haines).
I do not have any information on Francesca - some day hopefully that will change. I'm not sure if she was married or had children at the time they all sailed to the United States. She did marry at sometime as she is listed as Francesca Fietzek Reh with the few pictures I have of her among Maria's photos.
My love goes out to these two very strong Polish women who came to the new country, fought all the trials and tribulations and did without so that their descendants could have an easier life than they did.
Mary Post Warren
© copyright 2010, all rights reserved
What a great report. I never understood either how my own gr grandmother came over here without her family. Just a husband a young daughter. Soon, after more research I found out she had two other sisters who came to the US in the 1880's as well. I never heard anyone mention them so this was a huge surprise. Loved your post.
ReplyDelete