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                   About us

                        We met in Warsaw - Poland in May 1996. We were married in Victoria Falls - Zimbabwe                                                                 

October 30, 1999

   Apples of Our Love 

Boys! Boys! Boys!
We thank Thee, God, for the gift of them;
For the glorious reach and the lift of them;
For the gleam in them and the dream in them;
For the things they teach and the cords they reach;
For the ways of them and the blaze of them.

Boys! Boys! Boys! And we thank Thee, God,
For the light in them; And the might in them;
For the urge in them; For the surge in them;
For the thoughts they wake and the paths they break;
For the gong in them and the song in them

                                                          5 years later we renewed on wedding vows in Stowe - Vermont 

October 30th, 2004

Ania's home town in Poland

WROCLAW

      Family Name History - The Historical Research Center

Bartkowiak

  The Polish family Bartkowiak is classified as being of personal name origin. According to  scholars, the oldest and most pervasive type of surname is that derived from a given name. Such family names may be derived from a parental first name or from the front name of the grandfather or indeed a more remote ancestor of the original bearer of the surname. In this case, the personal name "Bartholomew", which was itself based on the ancient Aramaic "bar-Tolmai" meaning "son of Tolami". "Tolami" was a personal name meaning "rich in land". The personal name Bartholomew was popularized in medieval Europe through the veneration of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle, revered as the patron of vintners. As the "-owiak" suffix is patronymic, the original bearer of the family name Bartkowiak would have been "the son of Bartk". Among the references to this name is a record of one Marianna Bartkowiak, doughter of Ludwyk Bartkowiak and Marianna Roehr, who was born in 1844 in Gluchowo, Poznan. Franciszka Bartkowiak was noted in Polish sources from the year 1871. However research is of course ongoing and this name may have been documented earlier than the date indicated above. Polish marriages and christenings were recorded in church documents as far back as the early seventeenth century and indicate that by that time, many polish family names were already fixed and hereditary. Indeed, it is quite likely that that these names were well established as hereditary names before they were formally registered by the appropriate ecclesiastical authority. This name was introduced to the United States as early as 1884, in which year we find a record of the emigration of Hohann Bartkowiak, 34, who settled in Baltimore.

Taylor

   The English surname Taylor is classified as being of occupation origin. It can be said that most ancient and interesting of surnames are those derived from the occupation of the original bearer. Occupational names have provided what has been described by scholars as "an inventory of the common trades of medieval Europe". Such names offer a glimpse into the daily lives of our ancestors. With regard to the surname Taylor, it is ultimately derived from the Anglo Norman French word :taillour" from the Old French "tailleor tailleur," denoting "a cutter of cloth, a tailor". Variants of this surname iclude Tayler, Tailer and Tailyour. Record of this surname or a variant in England dated back to the eleventh century when one Walter Taylur appears in the Archaeologia Cantiana of 1180. In 1182 one William le Taillur is listed in the Pipe Rolls of Somerset and one Hohn le Talliur is mentioned in the Assize Rolls of Lincolnshire, in 1202. In 1273, the Hundred Rolls contain referencec to Henry le Taluir of Co. Norfolk. Cecil le Tayllour of Cambrigeshire, Roger le Taylur of incolnshire and Richard le Taylor of Northamptonshire. Notable bearers of this surname iclude Brook Taylor, the English mathematician (1685-1731), and Ann Taylor (1782-1866) and her sister Jane (1783-1823) English writers of children verses. This surname was introduced to the Unated States at an early dated. The "Passenger and Immigration Lists Index", record that one Abraham Talor is recorded in Pennsylvania in 1654.

05/14/2008