Our Heritage Ride - Day 2 (Friday, 4th of June 2021)
I and Jacek slept hard after the first ride day. It was not the rum or beer we had had; we were simply exhausted. The 8 am breakfast was tasty and big (although I must admit the size of meals served in America is gigantic compared to what we are used to in Poland)
We headed westwards of Książ Wielki: the route was inside the Lesser Poland voivodeship that time. Now, why do Poles call their "states" or regions "voivodeship" really? The
wojewoda (voivod) was a duke in ancient Poland; a man leading warriors, hence the name.
The ride out was very pleasant, with Summer-like weather (yet the wind was not that warm as we expect from Summers here, and that was even better for riding). We were climbing, descending, climbing... I was practising faster and faster descents on the day
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In Jelcza, the home village of our eldest known female ancestor, Teresa Mikulska, née Zagrosz (her maiden name actually meant "For One Cent"). The wooden house here might have been built in 1920s, I just took the photo as I love old wooden houses. Jacek engaged in a chat with some senior woman there: She said two different Mikulskis actually lived in Tczyca, our ultimate trip destination.
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The landscapes there might make Bill Gates of Windows 95 era jealous
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Top and centre: We were trying to find someone to talk and find some Mikulski relatives but it was futile: People don't stay at homes on workdays. The two pictures look like the countryside of my youth, only the paved road is far better. Bottom: There were bells ringing in the chuch bell-tower when we approached Tczyca. "It's gonna be a funeral; trouble to ride through" -- Jacek guessed -- "No, brother. It is midday, so the bells are ringing the Angelus" -- and I was almost right.
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Tczyca: The name is hard for us Poles to pronounce: it makes you spit when talking, so unnatural for our tongue the "tcz" is Our 5th generation ancestor, Wojciech Mikulski was born in the village in 1755. He married Teresa Zagrosz of Jelcza in the same year the American Revolutionary War began. His occupation was a butler of landowner Walewski. The impressive church holds the family records, now digitized and available for genealogy fans, such as Jacek is. The bottom photo: The rectory. Although we think the Walewski's mansion house does not exist anymore, it could have looked very similarly to the rectory; the Lesser Poland's gentry weren't especially rich (except for the magnates).
Jacek was however right regarding the funeral; there were at least two of them on that day. So we rode to find the address Tczyca 60, the place where the traces of last Mikulskis of the area could be found.
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And we were riding, riding, riding not to avail.
When we returned to Tczyca, Jacek got aware of the broken drive-train issue. Nonetheless, he walked in the local cemetery to find some family graves (the best he could achieve was finding some graves of the Zegarek and Lex families he was familiar with from his genealogical studies). Then we decided to shorten the ride in the hope the Trance E+ drivetrain would hold.
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Jacek took that photo at our last stop.
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Our ride on the Day 2.
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The land of our ancestors.
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Within map of modern Poland.
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