Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
Hello----I am from the Cywinski family from South Side Pittsburgh. My parents were Harry Cywinski and Mary Dzumela. My grandparents were Joseph Cywinski and Veronica Rajzner. My great grandparents were Anton Rajzner and Catherine Wisniewski from Trenton New Jersey. Her second husband was Louis Zabowski. And Joseph Cywinski and Maria Hiczewski from Gralewo, Russia Poland. Would love to hear from anyone who might be related or from anyone who knew them.
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
Looks great! And, so nice to finally see a new posting on this board!
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
My family is actually from South Side as well! My father is Ken Cywinski he and my aunts and uncles grew up on 18th street. My Grandma was Jean and grandfather was Henry, I believe he pasted before I was born. I believe I am the last of the Cywinski's in our family since there were three boys and two girls, my dad being the youngest. My uncle Bob pasted a while ago and no children. Uncle Henry never got married. I am getting married in 10 days and the Cywinski name for us will no longer be psted to the next generation, which is sad.
Just found it interesting to see this posting!
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
Hi Nice to hear from another Cywinski. I grew up on the hill above Mission Street. I knew there was another Cywinski family around, but my parents always said we were not related. They had a son named Robert who graduated from South High School around 1962. My teachers thought he was my brother because I also had a brother Robert. Your names do not sound familiar to me. My grandfather was Joseph Cywinski. He was a barber somewhere on the south side. I never knew him. Joseph married Veronica Rajzner. Josephs father was Joseph Cywinski. They were from Russia Poland. My brother had all girls so our family Cywinski also ends. My grandfather had a brother named Zygmund. They were from Ohio. I don't know much about them. That is wonderful that you are getting married. Congratulations. Please keep in touch. Diana
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
My husband, Ron, grew up on Jane St, born march 1947=St Joseph's Hospital. His Father, Raymond- son of Stanley & Josephine Truskowski(sp) Cywinski grew up on Ajax St. Desire to establish time period of the Cywinski migration to the US. Stanley Cywinski lived in Minnesota prior to 1913. Stanley was a widower w/son, Walter Bernard (b.1910)- when he married Josephine in August 1913-Pgh. PA. It is possible that Stanley's father name was Michael- had two sisters: Bessie - who resided in Scranton. No brothers. Since these generations have passed, it is difficult to note the true origin.
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
hi my name is sandra cynwinski milligan my father was william and his brothers were harry and edward and not sure if there was a stanley or not. have a picture of the three back when i was 16. my mother and father were divorce and the family wasnt close. do you think we could be related? you can contact me at bpmsam@aol.com
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
This is so interesting!! I am trying to plan a trip to Poland next year and hopefully meet some relatives. My name is Stef Cywinski and I currently live in Pittsburgh near my sister, Amy. I am related to you! Your Grandma is my Aunt Ronnie (my great-aunt...she is my dad's aunt)! I love her! I would love to know if you have any information about any of our family who may still be in Poland. You can contact me through email at: stefcywinski@yahoo.com
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
I'm not related to the Cywinski family, but for any of the Cywinski family who happens to search this message board, I thought I'd pass along this interesting piece of information. Yesterday I was going through some of my father's old papers and found an item from one of the photo albums he kept in his youth. It was a newspaper clipping from a Navy or military newspaper (similar to Stars & Stripes, I suppose, although the newspaper this clipping was from wasn't identified). The clipping reported the death of Stanley Cywinski, a US Navy Seaman 2nd Class. It read:
"Stanley John Cywinski S 2/c, Robert Peter McGillin SM 3/c, Heidle James Smith, Ens USNR, John Rodney Faulk, Jr., MoMM 3/c were killed when their LCT struck a mine at Palau in October 1944. Conrade Cywinski was from Pittsburgh, Penn., and married - Comrade McGillin was from Amsterdam, NY and Comrade Smith from Leakesville, Miss, Comrade Faulk was from Wickliffe, Ohio, 23 years old, and married. What is there for us to say, Comrades?"
My father, Kenneth Day, had taped this small clipping to a photo album page and had written beneath it "Destroyed October 14, 1944 ... 6 days after I was transferred to another LCT." An LCT was a large amphibious landing craft designed to transport tanks, artillery pieces, trucks, and bulldozers, etc., to the beach from deep-water cargo ships anchored a safe distance out at sea. The abbreviation LCT stands for Landing Craft Tank.
I then conducted some online research based upon the clipping's information and can report the following:
Both the Fold3 genealogy website and Ancestry.com have some records pertaining to Stanley Cywinski's military history. The records are spotty, but I found a muster roll on Ancestry that was dated 30 Sep 1944 and which identifies Stanley Cywinski and Robert McGillin as members of the crew of LCT-579. Faulk, Smith, and my father do not appear on this roll, but muster rolls do not identify all of the men assigned to a vessel, but instead only those who had a personnel change of some type during the given month.
In Fold3's "war diaries" category I located a CINPAC "Operations - Daily Summary" report for 4 Oct 1944 that contained the following entry: "LCT-579 struck floating mine off NE coast of Angaur 4 Oct and was sunk. Casualties, 1 killed, 5 wounded, 3 missing."
Angaur is one of the two principal islands of an island complex known as Papau, the other island being Peleliu. LCT-579 was active in the combined Marine-Army invasion of these islands in September and October 1944. Five days after LCT-579 was sunk, another LCT in its group (LCT-773) also struck a mine, but it didn't sink and was able to be towed to port. Apparently the waters around Papau were heavily mined by the Japanese.
Other online records at Ancestry and Fold3 indicate that Stanley Cywinski was one of the boat's three missing men and that his body was not recovered. A memorial for him was placed at the Fort William McKinley cemetery in Manilla, Phillipines, and the Ancestry database entry for this memorial lists a death date in October 1945, but this entry is in error.
Other online database entries for Stanley Cywinski include a roster of WWII Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard casualties that reports Stanley's designated survivor as his wife, Barbara Gertrude Cywinski, living at 10 Gregory Street in Pittsburgh, PA. Additionally, a muster roll for the troop ship USS General J. R. Brooke (AP-132) lists Stanley Cywinski as a passenger when it departed San Francisco, California on 19 Mar 1944 en route to the naval base at New Caledonia (where Stanley joined his new command).
These various records also report that Stanley Cywinski's Navy service number was 923 33 36 and that he enlisted in the Navy on 18 Dec 1943.
Finally, I cannot account for why my father identified the sinking of Stanley Cywinski's vessel as having occurred 14 October rather than 4 October, but I know that the photo album in question was created several years after the war and I suppose my father's memory for precise dates may have started to weaken. Also, I recall that he once told me he'd been in the hospital with malaria when an LCT to which he'd been assigned went down, so maybe his medical condition caused him to get his dates wrong back in 1944 when the events first occurred. In any case, the Navy's official records definitively establish that LCT-579 was sunk on 4 October, regardless what my father's post-war perception may have been.
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
Hi, Kerry. I'm not a descendant of the Pittsburgh Cywinskis (but am probably somehow distantly related to them), but want to thank you for posting this great information for whomever now or eventually may be interested in it. It was very thoughtful of you to take the time to create that excellent presentation of information, recorded in your dad's old clippings, and from your own follow-up research, that otherwise may not have been known.
Best regards,
Dave Wilson
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Re: Cywinski from Pittsburgh, South Side
Hi I am from South Side Pittsburgh. This is not my family. It is another Cywinski family that lived only a few blocks from each other. I am still trying to make the connection to them. Thank you so much for posting this. That was a lot of work you put into the research. I have been in contact with this other Cywinski family and I will try to reach them and give them your post. I will save it in case I can make the connection between the two families. Thank you for being so thoughtful and sharing with us. Diana Cywinski Hepner
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