Short History of My Family * Krotka Historia Mojej Rodziny
John F. Wysokinski, Baltimore, USA.
My name is John Frank Wysokinski and I live with my wife Vickie in Baltimore , Maryland . We have two children John Frank, Jr. and Wendi Jean. John Jr. and his wife Jessica have two daughters Kara Ann and Amanda Lorraine. Wendi has three children Cameron Arthur Dudek , Jordan Califorie Wysokinski and is married to Dan Vain. They have a daughter named Emily Ann. My father, Franciszek Bronislaw (Frank Bruno after moving to the US ) Wysokinski, was born in Zawadowka, Podhajce district, Tarnopol province, Poland , now Ukraine on Saturday, March 2, 1929 . He was baptized in Parish Markowa. His father, Jan had a home in Zawadowka on a hilltop on the Zlota Lipa River .
According to my father on June 24, 1944 he was arrested by German soldiers and sent to labor in a factory in Braunshweig , Germany . I don’t believe that he was reunited with his father ever again. During World War II, Frank’s army duffel bag was stolen. In it were pictures of his father and other important paperwork (i.e. birth certificate, etc.). On Saturday, November 11, 1950 , he left Bremen Haven, Germany , for the U.S. on the SS Sturgis. He entered New York on November 24, 1950 . He went to Naugatuck , Connecticut before November 27, 1950 . He lived first at 193 Elm Street , Naugatuck and applied for his SSN on November 11, 1950 . Frank died at home on Friday, March 29, 2002 from a heart attack. According to a cousin who lived in Zawadowka close to the Wysokinski family, Frank was the youngest of the children. The others died very young. Frank and Lucy Baldowski had five children, John, Richard, Christine, Jean and Edward. They all live in the United States . A search of U.S. military records for information on Frank was unsuccessful in 2004. Many military records were destroyed in a fire in the 1970’s.
Jan Wysokinski, father to Frank Bruno was born in Poland , on March 16, 1887 . Jan came to Wazyn in the fall of 1940. He died on Friday, May 27, 1956 at 3:00 pm , from pneumonia and was buried in Church of All Saints Cemetery, Brzeg Dolny, (formerly Wazyn), Poland . He had been sick for three years. Funeral was on Sunday, May 29, 1956 . John remarried in 1940, to Karolina Anna Wasylkiewicz who was born March 8, 1902 . They did not have any children. She died on May 16, 1984 and was buried in Komunalny Cemetery , Brzeg Dolny, (formerly Wazyn) Poland . Her headstone had the last name misspelled Wysoczynska.
Aniela (Nellie) (nee Zablocki) Wysokinski, mother to Frank, was born in Poland, in 1902. She had a bad accident that was caused by a horse. She was picking potatoes and tied the horse’s rope around her leg. Something spooked the horse and she was dragged through two villages. People still talk about the accident sixty-five years later. The doctor's had to amputate part of her leg because of a bad infection. She was stubborn and waited three days before giving the doctor permission to fully amputate the leg. This was too long of a time before the leg was amputated and she died in April/May 1939 from gangrene poisoning. She was buried in Zawadowka Cemetery , Zawadowka, Tarnopol province, Poland .
Maria (nee Dydyna) Wysokinska, mother to Jan Wysokinski, was born in Poland around1880’s. She died in February 1944 and was buried in Zawadowka Cemetery , Zawadowka , Tarnopol Province,Poland . She helped raise Frank after his mother died. Jan had a brother named Jozef who was born in 1880’s. Jozef lived in Zawadowka and died on December 22, 1944 at the age of 60. He and 43 other people were murdered by Ukrainian nationalists. He was mentioned in the book "Ludobojstwo dokonane prze nacjonalistow ukrainskich na Polakach w wojewodztwie tarnopolskim w latach 1939 – 1956" (pages 276- 277). The book was published in 2004.