I'll tell you what little I know about my mother and father and their heritage.

Mom was born Aniela, aka Angela, aka Nellie Swienton (Swenton) in West Warren - Fall River, Mass. on March 12, 1905.

Her mother's maiden name was Victoria Makuch, which is Slovenian.

I remember Babki (Grandma) telling me that she considered herself Polish, and only spoke the Polish language, because she was born near the Polish border, in what was considered Austria at the time.

According to her baptism certificate, she was from the town of Borki, in the parish of Szczucin in the County (Districtus or Gmina or Administration District ) of Dabrowa in Galicia.

Galicia covered southern Poland. It was an area ruled by Austria until the end of WWI.

Because Poland's borders changed so often, it is difficult to look at any one map and know who ruled what. I don't think there is a map site on the web that overlays Galicia onto the area that is Poland today. Galicia was the popular name given to the Austrian share of the partitioned Poland from 1772. Part of it was returned to the ephemeral Grand Duchy of Warsaw from 1809 to 1815 but most of it returned to Austrian rule thereafter until Polish independence in 1918. It was counted as part of the "Austrian" half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy from 1868.Poland's boundaries over time gone from an expansive kingdom to not even existing during the late 1800s. Poland was partitioned primarily between Russia, Germany and Hungary and Austria. Today, Galicia borders the southeastern edge of Poland's boarders.

My mother's father was Peter Swienton. He came over from Poland and was employed as an interpreter for Polish immigrants in court cases.

My dad Bronislaw (Bruney) Nowakowski, was born in Duryea PA in 1898 to Antoni Nowakowski and Teofila Arent. Both migrated to America from Poland.

My mom and my dad were married in Holy Rosary Church, Duryea, PA. Nov. 24, 1926, by the Rev. J. J. Podkul. They were attended by Josephine Sowa (dad's sister)and Joseph Swenton (mom's brother).

They raised five children: Anthony, Raymond (died Sept. 19, 2001), Joan(Mazaleski), Victoria(Kubick) and Bruney Jr.(died Jan. 3, 2007). Their first child Alphonse, died soon after birth.

My father worked in the coal mines most of his early life, and later in the coal breakers.

In 1933 we moved from Duryea, PA to a 100 acre farm in West Newton, (Clarks Summit, PA) where he operated a dairy and vegetable farm.

Mom was a homemaker and a farm hand until late in life.When Dad got too sick to work anymore, Mom went to work at the Keystone Shoe Co. in Tunkhannock, PA.(Endicott Johnson).

Dad later came down with antrascleriosos (black lung) from his years in the coal industry.

He died from the disease on Dec.12, 1951 at the age of 52.

Mom died Jan.29, 1994 at the age of 89.