My grandfather, Joanas (John) Nadwodny, was born in Brooklyn in 8 Sept 1907. John's birth was never registered with NYC. Up until recently, that is about all we knew, other than his mother was Regina Kolenski and father was John Nadwodny according to his baptismal certificate, issued in 1944 around the time that my grandmother, Paolina Livaccari was applying for US citizenship. We also knew that Regina later remarried and was known as Helen Larson.
John's sister, Janiena, was born in 6 December 1909. However, this time, John's mother was listed as Brigida Kulinska on the birth record and John St. was listed as John Notdworny. The family was living at 77 North Henry St. in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Janiena was baptized Wanda on 13 Dec, 1909 at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
There was little mention of John Nadwodny Sr. and my mom never met him
as Regina was remarried before my mom was born. I've searched census
records but have never been able to locate Regina/John Sr. The only other record I could find of John Sr. with his family was his WW1 draft card. At that time, they were living at 174 Wythe St. Brooklyn.
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| John Nadwodny Sr. WW1 Draft card (1918) |
The lack of any mention of John Sr. along with the only John Nadwodny I could find ended up in Warrior Run, Luzerne, PA, prompted me to write this little story about the family.
Other than his Confirmation photo we have almost no information about John and his sister Wanda.
We know that sometime before he met my grandmother, Paolina, he traveled
to Detroit, MI as a young boy (probably Hamtramck), but we have no idea why or who he
visited. We also know that he worked for the railroad. There were
Nadwodnys living near where my mom grew up, but John always said they
were unrelated. And we know that for some period of time he went by the
last name Andryckowski. And to our absolute amazement, John's sister's marriage record (1927) lists her name as Janiena Andrychowska and her mother's name as Helen Andrychowska. At 17, Janiena (or Jennie as she was know) was living in Bozrah, Connecticut as was her future husband. And yet, there are no census records for anyone with any of these names from 1900 to 1940.
As mentioned in the blog post entitled: Grandma: Paolina Livaccari, sometime around 1927, John met Paolina Livaccari.
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| John (October 1927) |
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| John - Coney Island (Abt. 1927) |
Paolina and John were married in a civil ceremony on 17 Nov 1928. At the time, John was living at 214 E. Henry St., Manhattan. He is not listed at this address in the 1925 census (confirmed by viewing census sheets for the enumeration district). This likely the area where John lit the Shabbat gas lamps.
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| John (abt 1928) |
John and Paolina were married at St. Sebastian's Church in Woodside, NY on 31 March 1929. Church records state that at the time they resided at 43-18 58th Street, Woodside, NY. The parents of Joannes Nadwodny were Joannes Nadwodny & Eugenia Kaleuska (pers.comm, 2023). Ah yes, another spelling of a name!
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| John and Pauline - Woodside (Abt 1928) |
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| One of the sweetest things Mom and I found were the doodling John did for Pauline in their photo album. |
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| John - Staten Island Ferry (Abt 1929) |
By 1933, John and Pauline were living in Cresskill, NJ and John's mother Brygida/Helen was remarried to William Larson and living in the neighboring town of Demarest, NJ.
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| House in Cresskill, NJ |
Antonina (Nina) Nadwodny, John and Pauline's only child was born in 1936.
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| John with Nina on the day of her Baptism |
Nina was married at St. Therese Church, Cresskill, NJ, on 5 November 1955 to William Masten.
For some reason, I have very few photos of my grandfather in his later years.
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| John with Steve and Bill (Abt. 1965) |
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| John in the "Country" Highland Lake, NY (abt. 1969) |
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