Wiktoria, Who Could Read. The Family Circle of Wiktoria née Kozielecka, Primo Voto Kordziak, Secundo Voto Sosnowska (1885–1971), from the Village of Kroczewo, Płońsk County

Around 1881, a team of itinerant carpenters arrived in the village of Kroczewo (northern Mazovia) to rebuild a burnt-down church. Among them was Emil Kozielecki, who came from the Prussian partition. Here he met Anna Obyc from a peasant family. They married in 1882. In 1885, their daughter Wiktoria was born. A dozen or so days after giving birth, the young mother died, and Emil became a widower. The child was raised by her grandparents Kunegunda and Franciszek Obyc. Over time, the grandmother took care of her granddaughter’s elementary education (4 grades), and then of her preparation for running a household (working in the rectory).
Emil met a widow. They married in 1888. She had children from her first marriage. They decided to emigrate to the USA. It was agreed that each of them would leave their children from previous relationships in the care of relatives. They arrived in the United States in 1893. Soon they began having children, and in the 1920s, grandchildren.
Emil sent money to support his daughter. Shortly after 1900, Emil offered to pay for Wiktoria’s trip to the US, but her mother-in-law refused. In 1903, Grandmother Kunegunda decided it was time to marry Wiktoria off. The wedding took place in 1904. She soon gave birth to her first children. In 1908, her husband died as a result of an injury from the Russo-Japanese War. Wiktoria entered into another relationship in 1909. She gave birth to more children.
In the interwar period, letters and photographs continued to circulate between Wiktoria and her father. In 1933, Wiktoria was widowed again. World War II interrupted the exchange of correspondence. Emil died in 1943. After the war, Emil’s children living in the USA, Wiktoria’s half-siblings, renewed their correspondence.
Wiktoria died in 1971, and in 1991 three of Emil Kozielecki’s grandchildren came from the USA to Poland, wanting to get to know their ancestors’ homeland and the family living here. They spoke Polish. They visited, among other places, the church in Kroczewo and the family graves.