Pawel (Paul) Dzierba, our paternal grandfather, arrived in New York city on February 7, 1913 on the S.S. Bulow which sailed from the port of Bremen, Germany on January 25, 1913. You can see the microfilm scans (first and second pages - go to line #11 on both pages) of the relevant pages of the ship's logbook that list Pawel's name and information. More below.

From the first page we see that Pawel was 20 years old when he arrived. His 'Calling or Occupation' was listed as farm laborer, he was able to read and write, his nationality was listed as Russian, 'Race or People' listed as Polish, 'City or Town' as Kozice and his father was listed as Stanislaw Dzierba from Kozice/Lublin. His final destination was listed as Buffalo, NY.

Kozice is a village in southwest Poland but it was part of Germany before 1945. Pawel's relatives are from Lublin.

On the second page we see that Pawel paid for his own ticket, had $25 in his possession when he arrived, would be joining his uncle who lived on 289 Detroit St. in Buffalo, was in good health, 5'9" in height, blond hair, blue eyes and fair complexion. He was also deemed not to be a polygamist nor an anarchist.

In the late 1990's, I was contacted via e-mail by Piotr Z. Stefaniak from Lublin Poland, who found my web site and told me that his grandmother was Pawel's younger sister. She was born after Pawel had already left Poland for the US.

In May 2002, I attended a physics conference in Krakow. Before I left for this trip I contacted Piotr to let him know I was coming. He took the train to Krakow and we spent the an afternoon touring the city, having lunch and a parting beer before he returned to Lublin. Later he sent me a photo of his grandmother, Janina Budka - Pawel's sister.