Ancestry Chapter 48
1936 Engagement, The German or Polish Issue
1936.
Michael Norek Jr. 29 is engaged to Viola, 20, and the German/Polish Issue
Mike and Vi met through the tennis club at California Park.
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Vi's father contends that the Norek's are not German but Polish.
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Mike's folks insist they are German.
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Polish? Not German?
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It will be a very long engagement.
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They did marry.
I understand the “not German” issue a bit better now. The argument was not as silly as I first thought.
Helena, Antonia and Michael Norek were all born and raised in West Prussia. West Prussia was a region that historically was part of Poland, and was eventually returned to Poland. At the time of their births, West Prussia was the name of the region, and it had been part of Prussia for more than half a century.
If Jacob and Christina Tybus were ethnic Germans (and there were a lot of Catholic ethnic Germans in Dirschau) then their daughter Helena was entirely ethnic German, and their granddaughter Antonia was half ethnic German and probably half ethnic Polish (her mother's maiden name was Ponczek).
Michael Norek's mother might have been ethnic Polish. Her name in his christening record is written with a Polish-style "o" and there were few ethnic German Catholics in his birth town of Pr. Stargard -- and the Norek surname is seen in Poland and other Baltic countries.
Michael Norek's father remains unknown. If his parents' surnames were reversed written in my baby book, then his father was Franz Kochonske. I think a surname like that with an "e" ending would be ethnic German.
So lets say that Michael Norek was half ethnic German and half ethnic Polish.
In any event, all of them were born and raised as German (Prussian) citizens, as their parents before them. They spoke German (although at least Helena could also speak Polish). So they considered themselves German. (In our current U.S.-format we would call them Polish-German.)
But to someone who was a German citizen of German ancestry, born and raised in a traditional German area (such as Vi's father), people from the eastern Prussian province of West Prussia were apparently not considered real Germans. It did not matter what language they spoke, or what citizenship they held. And being part ethnic German possibly made no difference.
So the answer to the question of Polish or German all depends on how the words are defined at the moment. Are you talking about ethnic ancestry, or citizenship, or upbringing, or what? (I usually just say "Eastern European" without details.)
Left, Michael Jr. and Vi, in their tennis outfits.
Right, Vi romantically posed by a pond in a wooded area, marked Vi, 1938.
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