PROFILES OF SZPARAGAS

In this section of our website I would like to present profiles of unusual members of our Family, people who proved to be exceptional through their lives, hard work, by taking care of their families or taking part in wars, those who were marked by patriotism, nobility, life wisdom, ambition, diligence resourcefulness, enterprise and many more values (of course not all those values had to occur at the same time). I would like the people presented here to set a good example to us, people living in a contemporary world and especially to our youth, an example of proper attitude towards life, family and homeland. It is my great desire to make our youth aware of how difficult our ancestors` life sometimes was, how they struggle to survive and how they won.

I would like to invite all members of Szparaga Family to co-edit presentation of ` Szparagas Profiles`. I am waiting for your suggestions and studies. I am always willing to help you in creating those profiles, if it is possible of course. It would be a great idea to present old photographs, copies of biographies, certificates, identity cards and other materials - in case they are retained - concerning presented people.

Dear me! I have to confess that the subject of Szparagas Profiles have been on my mind for long. Many a time I have tried to see a real man - his life and struggle - by getting information about him.

In this place I would like to present my proposals of profiles, or short descriptions, of members of our Family. The descendants of the presented people are kindly asked to help me in creating reliable publications. Our youth is also encouraged to take part in our undertakings.

Someone once said : `A man lives as long as there is a memory about him`. Let us save our forefathers from oblivion. Let us tell a few words about them.

Jacek Szparaga

A register of people proposed to be depicted in 'profiles of Szparagas'

1. Jan Szparaga (1859-1931, B.D)VI.VII) from a farm-hand in Osiecz Wielki became a manager in Lubraniec estate. `Respected by both the farm servants and the owners he was a magnificant type of a wise peasant` (quotation from `Amid Polish Field Years Ago`- Wśród polskich pól przed laty` by Maria Grodzicka). Among eleven of his children, three of his sons fought against Bolshevics in the war of 1920, and two emigrated to America.

2. Józef Szparaga (1864-1945, A.A)III.III)4.) born in Broniowo, working as a country teacher at the time of Russian Annexation, secretly taught Polish children their mother tongue - this caused serious repressive measures.

3. Stanisław Szparaga (1865-1950, B.D)VI.IX) ) went to America twice in 1905 and in 1907. He worked hard as a miner there just to provide a better living for his family and to buy his ideal own farm. In 1912 he sent to America - to have a better life - his oldest, a twenty-year-old son, Stanisław.

4. Mikołaj Szparaga ( A.G)....I)1. ) born about 1876 in Poznanka Hetmańska at the borderland of the former Republic of Poland. From that far away region, from a village of Horodnica, he went to America twice in 1912 and in 1914 just to buy some land for the earned money.

5. Stanisław Szparaga (1880-1940, D.E)VI.VII) ) born in Krawara on 11 May 1918, fought in II Polish Corps under the command of gen. Józef Haller in the battle of Kaniowo against the German occupant troops. In 1940 he and his family were taken away from their farm at Wileńszczyzna by the Soviets to Siberia . He soon died there `in misery and poverty` ( quotation from his daughter`s report).

6. Antoni Szparaga was born in 1883 probably at the region of Inowrocław. At the age of 14 he went to America - he might have gone there with his whole family ( in the photo from 1910 he is with his four brothers). In 1910 he was already an owner of a caffe `Caffe Sparaga` and a car (as his grandson states).

7. Marcin Szparaga (1885-1957, B.D)IV.IV)8. ) lost his sight at the age of four because of the past disease or rather its wrong treatment. He was a man of great courage and life will, he was also musically talented. He set up home and ran his own farm. In his life he could always count on his family, both the distant and the close one.

8. Stefan Szparaga (1886-1940) born in Warsaw, a medicine doctor, the reserve captain. In 1939 he was taken captive by the Soviets. He was imprisoned in a camp of Starobielsk and was murdered there in a very cruel way in 1940 in Charków. Being childless himself he used to help his family a lot.

9. Władysław Szparaga (1893-1969, B.D)VI.VII)5. ) took part in the II World War and the Soviets war in 1920. He is remembered as a noble, hard working and resourceful man always willing to help even his distant relatives in need.

10. Antoni Szparaga ( A.D)III.)4. ) born at the village of Kaleń near Rawa Mazowiecka. In 1941 he was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Oświęcim (Auschwitz). No news about him reached his family from there. It should be assumed that he died the death of a martyr.

11. Tadeusz Szparaga (1899-1940, B.D)II.III)1.2) ) he became an orphan at the age of fourteen. In 1919 he volunteered to do military service. During the war of 1920 he was wounded twice. In 1939, being a policeman he was taken captive by the Soviets. He was kept in a camp at Ostaszków. In April 1940 he was bestially murdered in Twera. He was burried in a cementary of Miednoje.

12. Edward Szparaga (1916-2003, B.D)VI.VII)2.2) ) born in the USA as a son of Polish emigrants, was a grandson of Jan from Lubraniec. During funeral ceremony in Erie he was honoured by the US Army with 21 rifle salvos to value his services to the country.

Translated by Maria Nowaczyk nee Szparaga