Ancestry Chapter 31
1912-1913 - Antonia’s Return to West Prussia, Part 1
The Return to West Prussia – A Story Within a Story
The Return Part 1 - Antonia Returns to West Prussia (with her children), 1912.
On October 7, 1912, Antonia leaves the U.S. with her two children. Michael Jr. is almost 4 and Josephine is 1 ½. We know they left, we have photos.
Family legend was that Michael and Antonia Norek took a trip back to their homeland, possibly to show off their "kinder" (German for children). Leaving Cecilia, Stephen, Anton and Annie behind? And who was putting the food on the table?
The documents don't support that legend.
Perplexed, until Fran said that Dad said he and Josephine left with their Mom, and then their Dad came over to fetch them back. I did not believe her at first, but the documents support this version. Thanks Fran!
I restart the story:
On October 7, 1912, Antonia, with her two children, Michael Jr. 4 and Josephine 1 ½., left her husband, left her stepchildren/cousins and returned to her family in Dirschau. She took her children. She took the camera. We know -- we have photos.
Antonia and her little children arrived in time for her 24th birthday. The photograph was probably taken on Antonia's birthday. Unquestionably it is taken at her parent's home, in the backyard, in Dirschau. A large building can be seen in the background.
Back row standing is her younger sister Anna, and then her younger brother and girlfriend or wife. Then her mother Augusta, with an apron, who came out in the middle of cooking dinner. Next to Augusta is her husband Michael Tybus. Center is Antonia’s cousin Valerian Ponczek with a girlfriend and front-most is Michael Jr. and baby Josephine.
Who took the photo? Who is not in the photo? Antonia.
The second photograph from the 1912 trip to West Prussia. Antonia is in this one. She is holding baby Josephine and Michael Jr. is standing in front. This is a family photograph, but it is not Antonia's family. It must be the family of Michael Norek. The older woman on the right might be Michael Norek's sister-in-law, and the other children might be hers.
I presume Antonia talked for hours and hours with her sister Anna and with her parents, in German, about Chicago, about her husband, and about the family. Did she intend to return to Chicago?
Michael Jr.
remembered the stay. He remembered being there, right there by the big Vistula
River. He remembered it was in the province of Danzig. He remembered they were
staying with family. Everyone spoke German. No one spoke English.
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