Author: Alex Colchiski; this is an ongoing webpage that was first published in June 2021.

Thaddeus Colchiski was my grandfather. Unfortunately, I was unable to really know him, for he died when I was too young to understand much of anything. His life has always been much of a mystery to me. As I was growing up, I heard stories of Thaddeus from my father, Michael (Mike), but never could never really appreciate them because I didn’t know the details surrounding the stories. In February 2020, I got accepted to Seattle University, and in September I switched my degree path to History. It was after a few of my history classes that I got inspired to dig deeper in to my grandfather’s past.

A long time ago, I decided to try and find out more information about what my ancestry is so I got on Ancestry.com and started researching. But I after coming to several dead ends I gave up and just left it at that. When I decided to begin researching my grandfather from a historical perspective I got back on Ancestry.com and found several great leads to Thaddeus’ past. I wanted to use Ancestry.com as my tool to keep everything organized and centralized but the formatting of Ancestry.com is a little rigid for what I am trying to do. This page will be dedicated to putting all of my research into one central location for me to organize and for you the reader to see my progress and learn something perhaps you didn’t know about Thaddeus Colchiski.

One of the most interesting things I have learned while researching my grandfather is the history of Poland and Eastern Europe in general. Much of Western European history is taught to American children. The blending of Eastern European kingdoms and the entanglement of state lines, however, is not a normal topic of the average classroom for an American student. The state boundaries between nations and states of Eastern Europe makes it increasingly difficult for a history student to know where someone was born in the late 19th century and where that location would be on a map today. For example, Poland as a state did not exist during the births of Thaddeus’ mother and father. Therefore, to say they are from Poland is difficult to say because Poland was not a state; however, in the late 19th century Poland was a nation. The nation of Poland is similiar to that of Israel in that in the late 19th century there was the Zionist movement to reunite the Jewish diaspora into a state with boundaries, which became the state of Israel in 1947. After the fall of Poland in the late 18th century, many Poles were forced away from their native land for various reason. Interestingly, some of the Poles that migrated were also Jewish making those people part of two diasporas.

The Polish diaspora makes defining the nationality of an individual and their place of birth a bit difficult to pinpoint. According to Ancestry.com, Mary Paszkowska was born in Czarkow (Krakow), Galicia (modern-day southern Poland); and Mieczyslaw was born in Zbaraz, Austria (modern-day Zbarazh, Ukraine). What makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly where either Mary or Mieczyslaw were born is 1) the shifting of state boundaries and 2) the documents that are used to support the claim of birth place. For example, on Mieczyslaw’s World War I U.S. Draft Registration Card, it says he was born in Austria, but in 1881 Poland had already been consumed by Austria. As a historian, I use emperical evidence to a conclude an objective fact or truth. Yet, due to the lack of evidence such as a birth certificate, I must use the current evidence and conclude that Mary was Polish and Mieczyslaw was either Polish, Ukrainian, or Austrian.

A few months ago I did an ancestry DNA test through ancestry.com DNA. According to ancestry.com, I am 42% Eastern European & Russia. As can be seen in the image below being Eastern European or Russian a large area to define. By process of elimination I have concluded that I, along with my brothers and extended family from Thaddeus and his wife Amelia, am indeed mostly Polish with some other Eastern European. The Polish diaspora likely had a great influence on the nationality and citizenship of Mary and Mieczyslaw, meaning they could have both been Polish but was just born outside of their ancestors’ native lands.

According to a manifest from Hamburg-Amerika Linie, Mieczyslaw departed Hamburg, Deutschland (Germany) in 1902. This means that if Mieczyslaw departed Hamburg, then he travelled a long way from somewhere in Austria/Ukraine to depart for the United States. During this period there was a mass migration of Poles and other people of Eastern Europe to the United States. This mass migration was part of the Polish diaspora which will be part of my research project in the months to come. For now, it is safe to say that the Kaulczycki family travelled a long distance to migrate to America.

There is a very good website that has maps of Europe over the last 20 centuries. I do not want to put any of their maps on this website because of the risk of copyright infringement. But I have left a link here that you can click on and go through the maps yourself and see the shift of the state of Poland. Again, it is important to repeat there is a distinction between the state and the nation of Poland. The state is the political boundaries of a territory, while a nation is a commonality among a group of people such as the Jewish nation.

Early Life

Birth and Brief Family History

Thaddeus was born on 9 January 1916 in New Castle, Lawrence County, PA. His parents were Mary Paszkowska and Mieczyslaw (Michael) Kaulczycki (Colchiski) (1881-1935). There are a few variations of the spelling of both of his names, from here on his surname will be Colchiski).

Mieczyslaw and Mary Colchiski was naturalized in 1924 and 1925 when Thaddeus was eight and nine years old respectively. Thaddeus and his four sisters were first generation Americans and the family must have been very excited when they learned that Mieczyslaw and Mary were granted citizenship. Unfortunately, Mieczyslaw died shortly after Thaddeus graduated high school. He would not live long enough to see his son join the U.S. Army and rise through the ranks. Mieczyslaw would have undoubtedly been very proud if he could have seen all of his son’s accomplishments.

Early Life

Not much is known about his early life before he joined the Army. I have found some photos of him as a child, the cover photo from above and the below photo with his sister Lona. He attended New Castle High School where he graduated with high honors in June 1934. Shortely after graduating high school he had his sights on the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was in contact with 26th District Pennsylvania Charles R. Eckert to pursue such ambitions.

Military Career

Early Military Career

Thaddeus joined the Regular Army in July 1935. As stated above, Thaddeus wanted to go to West Point but was not able to. He spent about 18 months as a court reporter and applied to the Coast Artillery School for Enlisted Specialists. He was accepted into the artillery corps. In 1937-1938, he attended the Artillery (master gunner) Course at Fort Monroe. As of June 2021, it is unclear exactly how Thaddeus went from Private First Class in 1939 to Second Lieutenant Adjutant by 1941. In 1941, Thaddeus was a Second Lieutenant Adjutant in the U.S. Army 38th Coast Artillery Brigade (AA) under the command of Brigadier General Richard F Cox. He was one of the first officers to serve in the Brigade Staff when the unit activated on February 10, 1941. This is also where he met and served with Major Lyman L. Lemnitzer. Lemnitzer would go on to serve “as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1960 to 1962. He then served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1963 to 1969.” Thaddeus had a lasting friendship with Lemnitzer. 38th Coast Artillery Brigade (AA) became 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade (see link for unit history) https://history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/lineages/branches/ada/0038adabde.htm Quotation from Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman_Lemnitzer

On January 8, 1942, Thaddeus married Amelia Slavick in New York City, according to the marriage log book. It is suspected right now that they may have obtained the license from NYC and then had the ceremony at Fort Dix, NJ.It is cited that Thaddeus was at least a Captain in September 1944. It is unclear if he was promoted to Captain on this date. “Thaddeus M Colchiski served his country in World War II with the 47th BW [Bombardment Wing].” I have not found any primary sources yet to determine when he was promoted to Captain or if he served with the 47th BW. I have reached out to the folks at 15af.org to find out exactly how they know that he was part of the 47th BW, but have not received any correspondence yet. If the information is correct, and Thaddeus was indeed affliated with the 47th BW, this means that, according to armyaircorpmuseum.org, Thaddeus served under Brigider General Hugo P Rush in Manduria, Italy in 1944.

https://www.armyaircorpsmuseum.org/47th_Bombardment_Wing.cfm

https://www.15af.org/colchiski-thaddeus-c2034-47bw.cfm

End of Military Career

Thaddeus exited service in 1952 as a Lieutenent Colonel, but just before he left the service he was involved with the Allied Screening Commission (Italy), and the Prisoner of War Claims Screening Commission. Historian and archivist Greg Bradsher prepared a draft inventory of some documents relating to the Commission. In his inventory he mentions Thaddeus as the “American representative to the Allied Screening Commission (Italy).” Thaddeus was assigned the position on July 22, 1946. Thaddeus was not in the position for very long, but he made an impact so much so that he could have been featured in an Italian film.

Dr. Greg Bradsher wrote an essay about a film that was to be made but did not come to fruition. The film was to be about Allied POWs in Italy that escaped with the help of Italian peasents and military officers, including the Camp PG 49. After the Armistice of Cassibilean–an armistice between the Allies and the Kingdom of Italy–was signed in September 1943, the commandant of Camp PG 49 at Fontanellato, Eugenio Vicedomini, allowed 600 Allied POWs to escape to Switzerland. Thaddeus, as Dr. Bradsher describes, wanted give the widow of Vicedomini more assistance.

I have reached out to the National Archives at College Park, MD to receive copies of the corresponce by Thaddeus while he was the “American Representative.” So far, I have not heard back from the Natonal Archives. Due to the Coronovirus pandemic it is unlikely I will receive any of the requested documents for several months.

In a letter from G.M. Daniel, Thaddeus seperated from United States Army Reserve (USAR) as a Lieutenent Colonel on 17 December 1952. Dr. Bradsher does mention if Thaddeus got promoted during his time of working for the Allied Screening Commission (Italy). As of now, it is unclear when Thaddeus got the promotion.

Transition to Civilian life to death

Post Army life

An interview with Thaddeus with an unknown interviewer. This interview sheds light on Thaddeus’ (aka Mike) life after serving in the Army. A transcript to the interview is coming soon.

Interview with an unknown interviewer, courtesy of American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges
Transcript to the interview is coming soon