Helena Kalinowska Smolinski
(1887-1962)
Known to her family most of her life as Nana, Helena (Helen) Kalinowska was 16 when she married Boleslaw Smolinski (Smolnek) in their homeland, Poland, though during this period their hometown, Kolno, was considered part of Russian Poland.
Poland, as an independent country, did not exist for more than 100 years; in the late 1700s it was partitioned among Russia, Germany and Austria. Not until the end of World War I was Poland restored.
Helena and Boleslaw left Kolno in 1903 and emigrated to the United States, lived awhile in New Jersey where they had a daughter (Wanda), then returned to Poland where son William (Boleslaw) was born. They moved back to the United States and settled in Solvay, NY, where they had two more children, Helen and Edward.
Mr. Smolinski deserted the family after Edward was born, leaving his wife to raise the children alone. Apparently he settled near Elmira. His whereabouts became known to his wife when he wrote to her, requesting a visit. She refused. From them on Boleslaw was a closed subject to one branch of the Solvay Smolinskis. (Boleslaw had a married brother who lived in Solvay. Another brother, Joseph, lived in Highland Falls, NY, near West Point.)
Eventually Boleslaw started another family, which the Solvay Smolinskis discovered by chance many years later in Washington, DC, when Tim Smolinski, son of Tom and Edie Smolinski, stopped at a store to pick up a rented tux for the wedding of his brother, Scott. The clerk commented on Tim's last name and asked if perhaps he was from New York State. Tim said his family lived in Falls Church, Virginia, but his father had grown up near Syracuse. Long story short, the clerk was the grandson of the same Boleslaw Smolinski who was Tom Smolinski's grandfather.
Helen worked for many years as a cook at the Solvay Process Company. She also was a doting grandmother to 11 children who called her Nana. She was a strong woman, loving and good-hearted, but with an iron will and a fierce sense of family loyalty.
