2024 Week 20: Taking care of business #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband Martin's great grandparents, Jozef Ciupka and his wife Joanna Kozlowska lived in Gliwice, Poland for the latter part of the 19th century. We do not know whether they inherited any of their businesses, but they came to own land in Gliwice and elsewhere, a granary and mill and we have learned they also bred elite horses for the wealthy in Germany and in Russia, including the Russian Tzars.

Ciupka family circa 1904

Their wealth and influence was such that they have a street in the city named after them.

Family photograph

In the later 1890s, the family moved from Gliwice to Nieszawa, a village north of Warsaw on the River Vistula. They had land on either side of the river and a private ferry. On the eastern side of the river they had a mill. Their house on the other side of the river was three stories high and had eighteen rooms. This is where Martin's grandmother, Janina, was born.

However, within a decade or so the family moved again, while retaining all the property they had owned in Nieszawa. This may have been due to enforced 'Germanisation' of that area of Poland. They moved south to Austrian occupied Poland, which was considered more liberal. There, just outside the village of Haczow, they built a factory which produced bricks, carts and carriages and they also had a granary and a mill. This business survived WW1 after which Jozef and Joanna returned to their property in Niesawa and one or more of their children took over the running of the factory near Haczow.

The remains of the Ciupka factory in Haczow

The next generation of the Ciupkas also seem to have had many businesses, although we don't know many of the details. When WW2 broke out, Germany and the Soviet Union both invaded Poland and all the Ciupka businesses were seized. After the war, the Soviet Union under Stalin controlled Poland, nationalised all industries and thus the Ciupkas lost all of their businesses. However, many of the family managed to escape Poland around this time and they or their children continued entrepreneurial lives in France, England and the USA.

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