Bonk – Page 2 – It's All About Family

July 4th Memories

From early childhood in the 1960s until my early 20s, our 4th of July was spent at our relatives’ cottages at Pickerel Lake in Colchester, Connecticut. They were owned by my mother’s sister and her husband and my mother’s brother and his wife. They were all good friends and found this property and decided to put two homes on it with a common staircase from the road and a shared beach area.

It was about 45 minutes from our home in Wallingford and even though we went frequently throughout the summer, the 4th of July was a special party. It was a family reunion!

Besides the regular cast of characters there were people we saw on this day only. From Wallingford, my grandfather’s sister Aunt Mary Biega and his half-brother Walter Bonk and his wife Bea were there every year. I thought for the longest time that she was his mother! Walt and Bea had 3 daughters and they would be there with their families.

From the Fairfield area were the “Fairfield Posts”. Although they were all born Posluszny, a few of the brothers changed their last name to Post. The Polish “L” has the ~ through it so they just lopped off the rest of the letters! Joseph and Anna would be there along with their adult children and families.

There would always hard rolls from New York Bakery in Wallingford that we would stuff with my mother’s sausage and peppers with a piece of cheese on top. Clam chowder, hot dogs and hamburgers and delicious desserts. Every one brought something to share.

The adults would play cards at the picnic table, and there would be horseshoes or bocci going on in the middle of everything because there wasn’t much flat space!

Kids would be swimming out to the raft to hang out or to play “Toss People Off the Raft”. There were rowboats, and a canoe to take out and Uncle Mal was always willing to take people out in his sunfish. He’d have his moccasins on his feet and pipe in his mouth as we sailed around the lake. There were tubes to float around in – remember when they used to be actual car tire tubes? – and the fish loved to bite your butt as you floated around! Each cottage had a motorboat and if we were lucky, we’d get to go out in it and every luckier, got to waterski.

Kids in the life raft we brought, someone in a big tube, and people on the raft. Uncle Mal’s motorboat and the canoe in the foreground. Way in the back you can see the big rock that of course we called Plymouth Rock.

I don’t recall having fireworks there as it definitely wasn’t like it is now with fireworks from June 1st through the end of summer! The sun would set and we would pack our belongings and head on home. Sometimes we would catch town fireworks going off as we drove home.

The relatives moved to Florida in the 80s and held on to the cottages to stay at in the summer for a few years but eventually sold them. By then we were off to our own 4th of July parties.

My husband and I had a summer cottage at a nearby lake for 12 years and one time we took our kayaks over to Pickerel Lake to paddle the lake and see the houses again. It was a nice trip down memory lane. The lake felt so much smaller than I remember and the opposite side of the lake that was always home free, had homes at one end! It was nice to see them one last time.

White House – Aunt Judy and Uncle Mal’s. Blue House – Auntie Irene and Uncle Lou

Every 4th of July I think back to those family reunions and the fun we had swimming and spending time together. I’m grateful that although we may not be together on the 4th, we continue to celebrate holidays together with these same people as we’ve grown older and had families of our own.

Burghardts and Ingrams and Straubs – oh my!

Early in the morning and during breaks from work and in the evening when I should be watching tv, I find myself standing in front of these books and papers.
When I should be sick and tired of sitting in front of a computer I plop down here sifting through “hints” and names on Ancestry.

There are some dead ends but many great finds. I finally broke down and subscribed to the World Explorer Membership which opened up a lot of records to me.

The biggest find was the Galizien German Descendants website. They’ve done incredible work compiling family information for Germans living in Galacia.

It led me to Julianna Ingram Posluszny’s parents, 2 younger sisters with their married names, and back in time to my 4th great grandmother!

On the Straub side – Caroline Straub Posluszny Bonk – it was a lucky break that I’ve been scribbling names for years because I found her parents Adam and Klara (Ingram) with her brother Albert on a list for Josefsdorf. That led me to Albert’s family listing and finally explained who Gertrud Straub, who’s buried in the plot next to Caroline Bonk at St Casimers Cemetery is – it’s her sister in law! Unfortunately Wildenthal, where the Posluszny family lived most of their lives is not part of the series. But I’m sure something will turn up!

In the meantime, some of the last names that have turned up are: Jung, Putz, Burckhard (as opposed to current day Burghardt), Karl (rather than Kahl), Dengler, Kaiser, Ungeheuer, Sommer and Huber!

One of many sheets of paper – the circled number to the right of Gertrud’s name takes me to her parent information.

121 Clifton Street

1925: A home to call our own!

The home of Julia and Konrad Posluszny at 121 Clifton Street in Wallingford was the place to be. But how did they end up there? They both arrived in Yonkers NY to family – Konrad in 1902 and Julia in 1903. They were married and had 4 of their five children in Yonkers.

Sometime between the 1920 Census recorded in January and 1922 they moved to Easthampton Massachusetts which lies just west of the present day 91-North and south of Northhampton. I don’t know the reason but the only surviving family member, Aunt Judy, says she thinks it was to look for work. She also told me “Gram hated it so much she wouldn’t unpack and didn’t push him on finding a job!”

When that didn’t work out they moved to New Britain Connecticut where my mother, Elizabeth was born in April of 1922. They appear in the 1923 and 1924 New Britain City Directory as living at 15 Derby Street same residence as Joseph and Agnes Ingram (although some of us might recognize better the names of his son Lou and wife Felice aka the New Britain Ingrams). The 1925 directory shows them “removed to Wallingford”. Perhaps they decided to move to Wallingford because by 1914 John and Caroline and the rest of the family were living there.

Pos and Wirth Girls — Betty and Pauline Wirth in front; Katherine Wirth and Judy in back.

121 Clifton Street was a brand new house when they moved there. Aunt Judy says that Caroline and John Bonk loaned Konrad and Julia the $500 down payment needed for the house. It was a simple very square house – in the front downstairs were 2 living rooms separated by a cased opening. The left one took you to the staircase upstairs, the one on the right lead to the kitchen in the back of the house which would lead you into the dining room. There was a door from the kitchen to the back yard. Upstairs were four bedrooms and a bathroom in the front of the house between two of the rooms. Every room was fully furnished as long as I can remember.

Judy and Betty – Steel mill tracks behind them

Cecilia and Betty – behind them you can see all the way to South Cherry Street

There was a chicken coop and Grammy had gardens of vegetables and flowers. She had a very green thumb. There was a dirt floor basement that had a toilet there so (as I was told) she could use the bathroom without having to track through the house. One of our favorite parts of the house on Clifton Street was the set of train tracks which shot off from the tracks along Colony Street and ran along the side of house to the steel mill. Whenever we slept over a train would slowly rumble by.

From Clifton Street it was a short walk to the two family house on East Street where Caroline and John lived along with Walter Bonk. By the time they moved to Clifton Street, Caroline Bonk, Konrad’s mother, had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Aunt Judy remembers going to their house with her mother (Julia) to take care of Caroline. I imagine my mother as a toddler would have been with them – or maybe she was home with Tootsie! Unfortunately Caroline passed away in March of 1925 but she’ll get her story told another time.

I’m sure the house was pretty crowded with five kids and two adults! But not for long…by the 1930 census Louis was listed as a farmhand for James and Mabel Cook on North Elm Street and in 1939 Judy married Malcolm Bellafronto. Mal Jr was born in 1942 and when “Big Mal” was off fighting in WWII, Judy and Mal moved home to Clifton Street.

Through the years, the house was the gathering place for holidays and Sunday dinners. We kids loved running around the yard, smashing up the red berries on the bushes in front of the house, walking on the train tracks, or creeping around the now decrepit chicken coop. The pictures I’ve collected of events taking place years ago – communions, confirmation, weddings – all have the familiar backdrop of the inside or outside of 121 Clifton Street.

John and Betty Jakiela 1952

Jakiela Girls Easter 1964

Aunt Tootsie sold the house in 1989 when she moved the Judd Square. It was bought by a family who’s daughter was the same age and went to school with Gail’s daughter Charlene and my son Cody! The lived there for quite a few years, it was sold again and maybe again. We found a listing for it online a few years ago and the homeowner had put a passthrough in the wall between the dining room and kitchen and I think cut through the wall to be able to reach the staircase from the dining room (correct me if that was always there!).

group_1985 — Judy (Posluszny) Behme, her mom my Aunt Irene, Aunt Judy, Aunt Tootsie (kneeling); back row: Bill Behme, Jim Posluszny (Judy’s brother), Uncle Ma, Catherine Wirth Blair, my dad John Jakiela. Day after Gail and Marty’s wedding 1985

Mal Bellafronto was in town a couple of years ago and we went to the house. It was in foreclosure and there had been a burst pipe and flood inside during very cold weather. Someone was working on the outside and the back deck that had been added was torn off and the exterior was in very bad shape. More recently it’s been sold and painted blue and looks nice from a distance.

I noticed in the pictures over the years the very large tree to the left and the wood steps and pillars turned to black wrought iron eventually painted to white. The garage in the last picture was added with Uncle Lester or Uncle Andy and it might have taken the place of an older shed and the chicken coop.

I don’t drive down the street very often but when I do, I drive by very slowly, looking for memories of the people who lived there.

121 Clifton St – 1989 – front

121 Clifton St – 1989 – back

Please – share your memories of 121 Clifton Street!

This is where it begins….

This is probably one of the most cherished pictures in my collection. Six sons and two daughters of Caroline Straub Posluszny Bonk. It was taken some time in 1907 or 1908 in Yonkers NY.

The front row is John Posluszny (said to go professionally by Post) and his son Johnny, Anna (wife of Joseph) holding daughter Margaret, Mary, Caroline with Walter, and Elzbieta.

Back row is Joseph (who went by Post), Frank, Charles (also Post), John Bonk (husband of Caroline), Juliana and Konrad Posluszny (my grandparents).

All of them came over in bits and pieces, seemingly individually, from 1899 (John) through 1907 (Caroline, John Bonk, Mary, Elzbieta and Walter). They all lived in Yonkers NY for the first few years and they gradually moved to New Jersey, Fairfield County and Wallingford. More on all that later!

I look at the faces and wonder what their thoughts and plans were now that they were all together again in the United States. More than dates and names, that’s the information I crave most.