My mother’s parents were from Perham Minnesota, Joe and Victoria Palowski. They had the New Grand Hotel. My dad’s parents were from the German side of the tracks, Jacob and Mary Palubicki. They had the first general store. After WW2 my parents married (Micheal and Marjorie Paulbeck) and had 9 children after moving to Aitkin Minnesota. All of the Palubicki’s other than my uncle Bernard changed their names to avoid a form of ethnic discrimination, apparently it was a barrier to some professional careers.
Joseph Hughes I now live in International Falls Mn, I hope to make a visit to Winona when warms up a bit. Are there any events that would make it a more interesting trip. Some of my siblings are a bit more knowledgeable about our history. We were all young when our parents died, we had little time for getting first hand information. I want to thank you for putting up the stories and information, I look forward to seeing the museum in Winona.
I found it interesting that your great grandfather was born on a ship; because my great grandmother, Ann Gustke, was also born on a ship. It was docked in Brazil. The Gustke's lived there for about 9 years (1874-1883) before coming to Port Huron, Michigan. That's where Ann met and married my great grandfather Schmude, who had also come over from Pomerania. I'll have to come up from Iowa some time to see the Polish museum in Winona.
That's really fascinating! I've never heard of Kashubians who emigrated to Brazil and then to the US. Now that I live in Winona, I get to hang out at the Polish Museum all the time. I would be more than happy to give you a tour sometime!
I was born here in Canada but my moms side of the family is almost completely Ukrainian and just recently I learned from my grandmother that we also have Kashubian in our blood. One day when asking baba (grandma) about our family history, as I often did, she explained to me that her father (my great grandfather) came from northern Poland in kashubia before he eventually settled in Ukraine. Why he chose ukraine exactly I’m not sure, but knowing this helps explain why when my family speaks Ukrainian to me, they throw in the odd kashubian word, i suppose due to my baba being taught a few words in the language from her dad. Much like in your situation, i always figured it was just Polish, but it turns out its not. I also find it so interesting how the kashubian language has so much in common with Ukrainian due to it also being a Slavic language, but at the same time it is so unique from any other slavic language like Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, and even Polish. Like some words are so similar but then others are just so strange sounding 😅 Anyways, thats my story that nobody asked for lol
