My Youth
"What does not kill you makes you stronger"
We were poor and had a very large family. My parents did their best to make a great home and upbringding for us all.
Only later in life did we realize out challenging our childhood was. Our Father was the single breadwinner of our large family. He worked hard and taught us great values, but as chiildren we either went without unless we could make it ourselves. We had a large garden that we worked in and helped us get though the year with suficient food, but we had sweet corn, Cucumbers, tomoatoes and potatoes alot. All were grown in our 1+ acre garden. Most meat we had was "harvested" by us. We often had Venison, Pheasants, Rabbits, or even Squicrrels that were baked in the oven and sometimes still had the lead pellots in them.
We never had the nicest clothes or the barber haircuts. When a friend from church dropped off bags of used clothes to our house we ravenously went through them hopinjg to find something that was relatively current and fit us. Many of us had hand-me-down clothes from older siblings. In the good years, we would get one new outfit for school in the Fall.
Our Ancestors
We stood on the shoulders of giants
Our Ancestors sacrificed for us to have a better life: The earliest Romzek's came to America with little money, but with dreams of a better life and they had ambition. They came mostly from Poland or Germany in the mid 1800's. The oringinal Romzeks in America immigrated from Poland in 1866 with a last name of "Romczikowski". Later it was changed to Romzek.
On May 1, 1866 a group of courageous and ambitious Romczikowski’s (this is one common spelling of our original name from the old country) traveled to America on a sailing ship named the USS Washington. It left the port of Hamburg Germany on May 1, 1866 and arrived in Quebec Canada on June 22, 1866. It was a 7 ½ week journey by sailing ship. We believe the group then traveled by Train to Sarnia and crossed into the US to settle in Huron County Michigan (near Parisville, MI). We believe they homesteaded property in the area.
The group included 10 family members: Michael Rombrzick (age 39), his wife Anna (age 35), his children Marianna (12), Anna (7), Francisca (5), and August (1); Nicholas Rombozisk (23), Johan Rombozisk (47), Agnes (65), and Adam (19). Michael was a master shoemaker. Nicholaus and Adam were his apprentices to Michael in as Shoemakers.
The Journey to America:
On the passage to America, the Romczikowskis had cabin’s “between decks” (see the ship manifest for the Washington) and each adult was allotted 20 cubic feet of space. Each child under 10 was allotted 10 cubic feet of space during the journey. This was documented in an intriguing letter from the shipping company to Micheal Romczikowski on
A year after they arrived in America, Nicholas and Michael’s parents, Johann (age 61) and Marianna (58), traveled to
America on the steamship Teutonia which left Hamburg Germany on June 15, 1867 and arrived in New York City on July 1, 1867. Note this journey was only 2 weeks (instead of the 7 ½ week trip by Nicholas, Michael and family) because the Teutonia was a steamship (new at the time) rather than a sailing ship like the Washington.
Historical Homeland in Germany / Prussia:
The Romzek’s were know by many different similar names in their homeland. Most commonly their recorded last names in Prussia were Romczykowski, or Rompczykowski. They lived in an area near what is 20km East of Gdansk Poland in a city named Przyjaźń, Poland. At the time it was considered Prussia. Over the years this area was consider Germany, Prussia, and later Poland. It was called the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany at the time and is in modern day Poland. The immediate family was active in the Catholic church and all were baptized. Many of the historical records are from the
Catholic Church. We believe the church attended by the family was the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Zukowo Poland which has been in this area since the 1212 AD and is 6 km (3.5 miles) from Przjazn where the family live. One of the family ancestors mentioned the family connection to the Catholic church in Zukowo.
Here is a link to the location on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/6VBx5zxMgC6wjcat5
Here is a link to the church in Zukowo (translated): Google Translate
Ancestors in the Old Country:
When Michael, Nicholas and some of their family came to America on the 7 ½ week journey. Their accommodations were “between decks”.
They left behind family members in Prussia / Germany (now Poland) including their parents Johann and Marianne (ages 61 and 58), siblings: Peter Paul (age 32 at the time), Anna (36), Joseph (32), and Barbara (29). Johann and Marianne (Michael and Nicholas’ parents traveled to America a year later, presumably for a visit and returned to their family and home in Prussia.
Summary of our Observations:
Based on our research, we believe the following:
• Our ancestors were likely peasants and lliterate. We believe this from the numerous spellings of the original last name. Another clue is the fact that their journey to America was in a class of service known as “between decks”. They likely could not afford first class travel.
• Michael and Nicholas did well for themselves. Not everyone in th mid 1800’s had portraits taken. Appendix F, G, and H have photographs of Michael, Nicholas, and Michael’s family. Notice the nice clothing. We believe this is because they were skilled “craftsman” at the time as shoemakers. Michael was a master shoemaker and Nicholas was his apprentice.
• Nicholas and Michael Romzek changed their names between 1866 (when they arrived in America) and 1880 (based on the US census). Johann, their Father, had a last name of Romczykowski or Romczikowski. Michael’s visa shows his last name as Rombrzick or Rombrzikowski. The ship manifest for their initial journey to America had their name as Rombozisk.
• We believe Michael and Nicholas lived next door to each other in Minden Michigan when they arrived in the U.S. We believe they homesteaded land in the Thumb of Michigan and were granted 40 acres of land if they cleared and farmed it for “a year or two” (mentioned in the letter in Appendix E).
• Michael and Nicholas were courageous. They left their homeland and everything they knew for a country they could have known little about. They left family members behind for a better life. Michael was 39 at the time and came here with his wife, and 4 children 12 and under. The youngest, August was not even 2 years old at the time. Nicholas was 23 when he came to America. They never went back.
• We have other relatives in America that have different last names through either marriages, or name changes. Many of those with names similar to “Romzek” are descendants of the originals that came to America. The Robert Romzek family are descendants of August Romzek, who was one of Nicholas’ sons. The Kociba’s are decandants of Joseph, one of Nicholas other sons.
• Our ancestors were Catholic and “saved by an angel”. Nicholas recounted the great fire of 1881 and was saved by divine intervention. He shared that he and his family “sat by a stump when …. (he) felt a brush on his shoulder, which he always said, was a touch by the angel of the Lord, nudging him to move his family to a different spot, which he did, and later after safely escaping the fire, they saw that the stump that they were sitting by was totally burned up. They survived by taking green peas and building a protection around them“. This fascinating story was documented in the Huron Daily Tribune in 2009. The link is here:
https://www.michigansthumb.com/news/article/A-celebration-65-years-in-the-making-7299024.php
• Researching our history is very challenging because of the numerous spellings of our name. It was almost always spelled phonetically to resemble Romczykowski but there are many alternative spellings as well.
• A Family Tree on Ancestry:
The full Romzek branch of the family tree as we know it is on Ancestry.com. It includes