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2026 Week 2: A record which adds colour #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

My husband's paternal grandmother, Janina Ciupka, was born in 1902 in a small town, Nieszawa, north of Warsaw, Poland, on the banks of the River Vistula. She was the youngest of 12 children, only 8 of whom survived to adulthood. At this time Poland had been occupied by their three neighbours, Germany, Russia and Austria and Warsaw was under Russian control. 

Her family were very wealthy, owning granaries, bakeries, brick factories and carriage factories and they also bred white horses for the Russian Tzars. As with her elder siblings, Janina was taught by a private governess and the family had many servants, including cooks and cleaners. She obviously was leading a very privileged life.

There was little known about the  period of her life from about 1909-1919, The family had moved south eastwards to Haczow around 1909. The reasons for the move seems to have been a combination of business and politics, as Haczow was under Austrian rule, considered more liberal than that of the Russians. All we know of that time is that Janina stayed in Haczow until she met and married Wladyslaw Stepek in 1921. Wladyslaw had been given land by the Polish Government some 100 miles north-east of Haczow because he had fought to regain and stabilise Poland's new borders after World War 1. The young couple move there away from Haczow.

We knew what happened to them from there on in, but we were always curious as to Janina's life in those missing years before she met Wladyslaw,  However, this changed, when in 2024, Martin and two of his cousins travelled around key parts of Poland connected to Janina's family's life.

One of the places they stopped at was the home of Martin's father's last remaining cousin. Their family had dozens of photographs from the Ciupka family, most of which Martin and his cousins had never seen. Looking through them, Martin asked "Who is that?" and was surprised when several times he was told it was his grandmother, Janina. Prior to this, the family had only ever seen two photographs of her, one as a toddler and the other after she was married and a mother. Some of these new photographs were of Janina as a teenager, dressed up fashionably for the time. These photographs gave real insight into the character of Janina and her lifestyle during those previously unknown years.

Janina Ciupka, probably in her late teens

Source: family photo

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