Stephen & Cecilia Wozniak
Wedding day
February 11, 1925
Original picture thought to be owned
by L. Pick and family
Several years back as I was searching Rootsweb I input the family name of Wozniak. There were thousands of Wozniak families. I was really shocked, I knew it was a pretty common Polish name, but I never imagined that there would be so many. I am part Polish and have Wozniak, Sawicki, Ziolkowski, Wiezcorek, and Polus families in my family tree.
I started putting in first names and found a pretty good match on a tree with the name Stephen Wozniak, which was my grandfather's first name. The tree listed the same number of children that my grandparents had had. I couldn't believe my luck. The birth and death dates seemed to be correct. I was fascinated that it really seemed to be MY grandfather. He died when I was less than five years old. Plus my mother and father had divorced when I was very young so I didn't really have a lot of information on my father's family. I obviously remembered some but I had not really been in touch with any of my father's family in many years. We just simply seemed to drift apart as some families do.
But now, here was an opportunity for me to possibly reconnect. I was going to do what I could to make that happen. I emailed the owner of the published tree, told her how I thought I might be connected to Stephen, gave her some information I did know and asked her a couple of questions. I was so delighted that she responded to my email message. She was not related to me but her cousin was married to my first cousin. What a story, what a little miracle! She said she would contact her cousin and pass on my information. Several weeks later I did indeed hear from my cousins. We have stayed in touch via email to this day. I was further blessed because my father's sister and I have been in contact with each other too.
My relatives have shared family names and family pictures with me. I have begun to research my ancestors as well. I have connected some names and added more. I have visited cemeteries and requested vital records. Slowly this branch of my family tree is growing thanks to someone posting a family tree with the name Wozniak on it. I was lucky enough to have found a real connection. More importantly, I have connected to living family! What a great gift!
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