Wordless Wednesday: Hmmmmm

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved

Super Sister Sunday - Maria and Francesca Fietzek

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





Marias Prized Possession

Maria Fietzek Motzko was 24 years old with a husband and a 6 month old baby when she and her little family immigrated to the United States from Poland.  It must have been incredibly hard for them all, especially in the 1800s, to leave everything and almost everyone she knew and loved behind for an uncertain future.  I am sure Phillipp and Maria were more than excited about what lay ahead, but unsure and scared as well.  I cannot even begin to imagine what they must have gone through emotionally as well as physically to make this transition.

Maria never learned English...my grandmother (Mary Motzko Troyer) would have to translate everything for my mother and her sister when they would visit their grandmother. My mom and her sister knew little, if any, Polish.

 One of Maria's most treasured possessions was this map of her homeland.   She would sit for hours on end just looking at it.  How she must have missed her parents, her brothers and sisters, her home.  Did she ever regret that she left there? In the 21st century it's so easy to travel from one country to another and back again - but in the 1800s it was next to impossible.

Maria was fortunate her sister Francesca Reh (in picture on left) also came to the United States. They lived in the same area in Idaho and were able to raise their children together. I don't know if they traveled to the United States at the same time and on the same ship, or how long it was before they were together...but it must have been a huge relief for Maria (and Francesca) to have each other.





 

Mary Post Warren

© copyright 2010, all rights reserved