The Marriage of Stanislaus and Zofia

They were married 8 November 1888 in Mosina, a small town near Poznan, Poland (although it was Germany back then). The groom, a young man of 26 years, is Stanislaus Fasiecki, born 18 October 1862 in Alt Puszczykowo. He is listed on the marriage document as the son of Valentin Fasiecki and Catharina nee Nowicka, also of Alt Puszczykowo. The bride is a young woman of just 19 years, Zofia Kisicka, born 12 April 1869 in Alt Puszczykowo and listed as the daughter of Bartholomeus Kisicki and Franciszka nee Przybylska of Alt Puszczykowo. Witnesses are Oskar Koch (merchant), age 23 of Moschin, and Andreas Hetmann, brother-in-law to Stanislaus, age 28 of Alt Puszczykowo.

The ceremony is a small one...and civil.

I realize these are little more than marriage facts, no more special than those for any other marriage from that time…or any other time for that matter. I also realize the signatures of the bride and groom are but two from amongst millions that lay hidden in archives around the world.

Still, I had to share them.

These records became known to me this morning, and only because of the hard work of a researcher in Poland whom signs her emails Kasia. Her work is amazing. I have not had nearly enough time to digest all of the information she has provided, yet I felt an immediate need to imprint these signatures here, making sure these two persons would not be forgotten, not be destined to never be known to anyone ever again.

Stanislaus and Zofia are my great-grandparents on my mother’s side. They are the parents of Victoria, my grandmother, a woman whom in December 1909, on the occasion of her eighteenth birthday, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, alone, making her way to America and a new life.

Zofia and Stanislaus were real people.

They existed on this good Earth and they made a difference. My brothers, my sister, and I, and all our children, and their families are here because of them. I write this with the simple hope that they will never be forgotten.