The Serock Pienieks

"EPILOGUE   

 

"Toby Pieniek, who served in the Air Force after graduating college, was stationed as a second Lieutenant in Osan, Korea in 1957. Military personnel wore name tags on their uniforms. Toby was approached by a GI who told him that there was a soldier in his unit with the same name Pieniek. Although Toby could not believe it, he nevertheless called the other Pieniek who was stationed about 80 miles South of him in Tagu. His name was Ari and, sure enough, his last name was Pieniek. He hailed from Belgium and lived in Ecuador during the war with his family. He had moved to Seattle, Washington to work in the aeronautical industry and eventually was drafted to serve in the US army. Toby conveyed the information to me and I confirmed that I really in fact was a long, lost cousin.

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This Pieniek Roots report defines the chronology of the lineage of David Eleazer Pieniek and his wife Rona Flora. It is difficult for us to start earlier as we don't have definitive information. However, because of the fortuitous meeting between Toby and Ari, we can provide some additional highlights.

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David Eleazer Pieniek had  several brothers. One of them moved to a town, Serock, near Warsaw. He married and had four sons who apparently dispersed. One of the sons apparently moved to Brussels, Belgium. By coincidence, in 1930, I was in Brussels, Belgium having dinner in a restaurant when a young man sat down next to me, also an immigrant, and we started a conversation. He also came from Poland and was a furrier, and since I was a tailor from Poland, we had a lot in common. After I mentioned my name, he asked if I was related to the furrier, Pieniek, who lived at that time in Brussels. I didn't know who he was talking about but I took the address and went to Pieniek the furrier's house that night. He was married and had two sons and a daughter and he told me that he came from Serock. Remembering that my grandfather, David Eleazer, originally came from Serock, I realized that we must be related. It turned out that Pieniek, the furrier, was a nephew of my grandfather David Eleazer, and therefore my cousin.
 

Several of his other brothers moved to Brussels and, to this day, there are two fur stores in Belgium named Pieniek - one in Brussels and one in Antwerp.

Pieniek, the furrier, whom I met in Brussels later moved to Riobamba, Ecuador and settled there with his family, including two sons, Ari and Vladi and a daughter whose name I don't remember.

Ari (who met Toby in Korea) had moved to Seattle. After serving in the army he went back to Seattle and a few years later came to New York to live with us. Toby and he are like brothers. At the time, Ari worked for Pan American Airways in their computer department and went to school at night, studying engineering and computer analysis. Ari married      from Brooklyn. They now have two children, a boy, Marc David and a daughter, Lisa, and they live in the suburbs of Virginia outside of Washington D.C. Ari is currently in charge of the entire communication system for Amtrak.

About three years ago, we attended a combined Bar and Bat Mitzvah of Marc and Lisa, at which time we met many of the other members of Ari's family.

Vladi lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and three children.

Ari's and Vladi's  older sister is a doctor who lives with her husband and children in Ecuador. Pieniek, the furrier, passed away several years ago but the mother still lives in Ecuador near the daughter."

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"The Pieniek Roots" by David Joshua Pieniek and David Leon Skop, written in 1982.