Cover art of Jadwiga's Crossing: Charles Frederick Ulrich, In the Land of Promise, Castle Garden, 1884; oil on wood panel, 38 ³/8 x 35 ³/4 in. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Museum purchase, Gallery Fund 00.2. Copyright The Corcoran Gallery of Art/CORBIS

Jadwiga's Crossing by Aloysius A. Lutz & Richard J. Lutz
Please join us for this special event, part of the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the PHSR. A co-author will read dramatic passages from this powerful story of the Polish-American heritage. Friday, January 23, 2009, 7:00 PM, at the Rochester Academy of Medicine, 1441 East Ave., Rochester.

Dr. Deborah Anders Silverman, author of Polish-American Folklore writes:

This beautifully written, meticulously researched work is a must-read not only for Polish-Americans, but for all readers who are interested in learning about the challenges and joys of the trans-Atlantic crossing made by millions of European immigrants in the late nineteenth century.

Richard and Aloysius Lutz have written a compelling tale about the hardships encountered by a group of poor Polish immigrants, viewed through the eyes of newlyweds Paul and Jadwiga Adamik. Readers are introduced to Poles and Polish folklore from several regions of then-partitioned Poland, as well as the tensions that existing between Poles and the three nations that occupied Poland in the nineteenth century: Prussia, Russia, and Austria.

This work of historial fiction will resonate with readers whose ancestors, three or four generations ago, made the same difficult decision to uproot their families from their familiar surroundings in Europe in order to secure a better life in America. Their stories about their emmigration from the Old World, often carefully passed down from generation to generation, have been woven into the fabric of Jadwiga's Crossing.

For many Americans today, the story of Paul and Jadwiga Adamik's crossing offers a fresh look at the courage of, and sacrifices made by, the grandparents and great-grandparents over 140 years ago.

Jadwiga's Crossing offers masterful storytelling - a riveting journey into the past.

The people who built upon the Ameriocan dream after the Civil War were immigrants who responded to the promise of a free country with the courage to leave all they had known... people with determination and confidence that they could make their way in a new environment... people who could risk everything on the gamble that they had what it would take to survive and succeed in a land where opportunity presented the possibility of rewards for thos who could invest their dreams and their labor.

The people who prepared the way for Twentieth Century America were people like Jadwiga Wdowiak and Paul Adamik.

Jadwiga's Crossing is their story, and the story of so many others who became part of the Great Migration of the late 1800s.

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