| Pilgrimmage to Czestochowa! Then to Poland! Yee-haw! Witamy, fellow Polocks! I have had a blast assembling the information presented here, but I have to admit that most of it was already done. The vast majority of the information that makes up "The Tree" was provided by Marilyn Kotara Voyles when the Sacred Heart Church in White Deer published a book dedicated to the lives and families of those who founded the church. John Kotara, Sr. was one of those founders. There is quite a bit of information available on John Thomas Kotara, Sr., and I have included a lot of it here. We know that his parents were Francis (Frank) Kotara and Marcella Kyrish. Francis' parents were John Kotara (John is an English derivation of the Polish Jan) and Agatha Winkler. I have hit a wall when it comes to Jan, but I was able to trace Marcella's heritage back to about 1766. All of the ancestors were from Keltch, Silesia, Prussia (now Kielcza, Opole, Poland). I found the town of Kielcza on a Polish map and have uploaded some maps for you to view. It's not far from Krakow, which is the fourth largest city in Poland and looks like an incredible place to visit. See the link below for information on Krakow. It appears that Kyrish could be the Americanization of Kierys, which leads me to believe that perhaps "Kotara" is not the original Polish name. I have not had any luck finding Kotara in the Polish surname lists available so far, but I did find out that Kotara is a city (or town) in New South Wales, Australia! [The origin of that Kotara is an aboriginal word meaning "club"....so it is highly unlikely that it has anything to do with us--ha!]. John Sr. was always saying [jokingly?] that the Kotaras changed their name when they came from the Old Country--that it was originally Kotarisky [or some such] but they decided during immigration to stop drinking so much whiskey. So they threw the whiskey off the boat and dropped the 'isky' off the name. I always thought that was a funny story, but I have not been able to find that name, either! However, it is evident that John Sr.'s father Francis was three years old when they arrived in Texas. That would put their arrival at about 1856-57. They arrived in Galveston, possibly aboard the ship "Weser". It is almost certain that the Catholic Poles who founded Panna Maria [during that same time period] came from Silesia (now the Opolskie or Opole district) which was then under German (Prussian) rule. Winkler could be a German name.....[remember, Agatha Winkler was Francis Kotara's mother]. Out of curiosity, I translated the word Kotara into Polish, and the meaning was "curtain". So unless we were curtain-makers back in the old days, I feel reasonably certain that our name was changed! I am slowly compiling photographs, and have a couple of GREAT oldies here on the page already. I will gladly post any contributions you might have or can get....please e-mail them to me! The best way I have found to view our "Tree" on this webpage is to click on the link below the Family Tree Maker Reports & Trees: "All-in-One Tree of John (Jan) Kotara (in PDF Format)". The InterneTrees are rather difficult to navigate, and you can't view very much of the tree at one time. Once you have opened the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat, make sure your cursor is on the magnifying glass and start clicking on the image. It will get larger as you click. Viewing the entire tree in its "teeny weeny" state gives you an idea of just how big this family really is! Be sure to read the "Interview with John Kotara, Sr." It is quite entertaining! I will continue to search, and welcome any information you might have or any help you might be able to lend! Until the Pilgrimmage........ Regards, Karen |
The John Kotaras of White Deer, Texas
Updated January 27, 2003 |
Karen Kotara Kwiatkowski |
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