Researcher uncovers city’s Polish roots

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This article was published 11/10/2024 (411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Frank Cedar, a retired federal government worker turned genealogist, is calling on the people of Brandon to help identify five individuals in his collection of historic photographs from the early 1900s.

His research focuses on Brandon’s Polish community, a group closely connected to the small village of Kaszyce, where many of the immigrants hailed from.

Cedar, a 79-year-old Ottawa resident whose family roots also trace back to the village, told the Sun he has spent more than 30 years uncovering the history of Polish settlers in Western Canada, and he’s hoping Brandon residents can fill in some missing details.

“My family’s connection to Brandon dates back to my first visit in 1955,” Cedar said in an interview. “I have family here, including my great-great-grandmother, who I didn’t even know existed until I started my research. The discovery of family ties and other Polish connections in Brandon has been a fascinating journey.”

Families with the names Broda, Konieczny, Bojarski, Sas, Dolny, Kolodziejczyk, Walczak, Wielgosz, Lorenowicz and Kielt, he said, have connections with the village.

Cedar’s research was first sparked by his curiosity about his grandfather’s origins, which led him to Poland after years of hitting dead ends in Canada. During his trip to Kaszyce, he discovered a monument commemorating the tragic massacre of nearly 200 people in 1943, some of whom shared the same names as families in Brandon.

“That’s when I realized the strong connection between Kaszyce and Brandon,” Cedar said.

In the first 10 years of his life, he added, he was told he was Irish.

“When I was 40, I was told I am a Polish and found I am Ukrainian in my 50s.”

His quest to learn more took him to Calgary, where cousins handed him old wedding photos dating back to the early 1900s, which further piqued his interest in Brandon’s Polish community. Over the past two decades, Cedar has made multiple trips to both Poland and Brandon, connecting with distant relatives and gaining access to village records, thanks to a local priest in Kaszyce.

“I’ve helped others reconnect with their family histories through this work, which has been incredibly rewarding,” Cedar said. His family tree, uploaded to the genealogy platform MyHeritage, contains around 6,000 names and has attracted inquiries from people all over the world, including Poland, Austria and Norway.

One of the people Cedar has helped is Lori-Lynn Sanduliak, a retired military officer.

She told the Sun a relative introduced her to Cedar and to her surprise, Cedar had already mapped out much of her family tree before they met.

“Frank has done so much legwork, travelling to Poland and Ukraine, and gathering invaluable information, including my great-grandparents’ picture,” Sanduliak said. “It’s a gift to have this history — my grandparents passed away young, and I would never have known this without Frank’s work and my daughter wouldn’t have known too.”

Daly House Museum curator Eileen Trott said the next step in Cedar’s project is an exhibit at the museum that will feature old wedding photos taken at St Augustine Catholic Church, located at 327 Fourth St., and other memorabilia from Brandon’s Polish community.

“The exhibit is expected to launch in mid-November and will run for three to four months,” Trott told the Sun on Thursday. “It’s part of our mandate at Daly House to promote local history. Frank’s collection of wedding photographs from the Polish community fits perfectly with our mission.”

The Polish immigrants who settled in Brandon in the early 1900s played a significant role in shaping the city’s history, especially the area between the train tracks and the Assiniboine River along McDonald Avenue, she said. The area became known as “Little Kaszyce.”

Many of these settlers, she said, worked as labourers on the expanding railways, contributing to the region’s development.

“The community was politically influential. I recall how Polish women once rioted on McDonald Avenue over road construction issues they believed were unfair,” she said.

“Frank has connected people to their ancestors in ways they never thought possible. He’s a wealth of knowledge, and we’re looking forward to welcoming him back to Brandon to discuss his research.”

Cedar plans to bring the photos and the stories he’s gathered to the Canadian Embassy in Poland, where they will be part of a future exhibition.

For Cedar, genealogy has become more than just a hobby — it’s a mission to preserve the history of a community that helped build Brandon.

“I’ve gained so much knowledge, but the connections I’ve made have been the most rewarding part,” he said.

“During the exhibition, I urge residents, particularly those with Polish or Ukrainian roots, to visit Daly House Museum and help solve the mystery of the unnamed faces in the photos. I hope, together, we can continue to uncover the stories of the past and preserve them for future generations.”

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