There are moments in family history that are difficult to describe. This is a rare photo showing three generations of my ancestors. Standing in the middle are my grandparents, Sylwester and his wife Maria. My great grandparents are sitting in front of their parents: Franciszek and Paulina. All four of my uncles are also in this picture, left to right: Marian, Leon, and Ludwik. The fourth is Jan who is in the foreground, side by side with my father, Wacław.
   I estimate that this picture was taken around 1936. According to archival documentation on Catholic communities in the so-called West Prussia, the name Heiduk, also spelled Heyduk, was among those registered as that of the first inhabitants of Kleistdorf, aka Neu Kramzig or Nowe Kramsko. The first record of a Heyduk name in this area dates back to 1337, as reported by Mark von Ludwigs.
   To ask whether the Heyduk family, in its early origins, is Polish, German or both seems pointless. My ancestors come from a territory which for centuries had a mixed population and a mixed set of national identities. It was also hotly contested by both Poland and Germany. When Poland was re-established as a state in 1918, the Babimost (Bomst) region was technically in Germany, just outside of the Polish border, but Poles living there actually organized an armed rebellion, the aim of which was to incorporate this territory into Poland. The Heyduks of Nowe Kramsko seemed to be staunchly, if not nationalistically, Polish. But nobody knows what happened earlier and what ethnic cross-breeding might have occurred.
   The story for me, for the time being, begins with Franciszek Heyduk. I can only hope that with time I will discover more details of it. In fact, I managed to trace my family all the way back to the late XVII century, and all the details can be found here.