Amsterdam native Ben Kroup, Jr. of Waterford has a question, “Can anyone date an (Amsterdam) fire that claimed the lives of Catherine DiRosa or DeRosa and her children? She was the wife of James DiRosa, a steeplejack, who I believe was killed while working on a local smokestack. Catherine, whose maiden name was Kiskis, was a cousin of mine and I would like to include the circumstances of her and her children's tragic deaths, as well as her husband's, in a family history I am writing. James and Catherine were married in 1929. I believe both their deaths occurred in the 1930s or early 1940s.”

Kroup also wondered, “Does anyone know the original form of Johnny Podres surname? An Anna Podrezas arrived at the Port of New York on September 9, 1907, and she was headed for her brother Juozapas Podrezas in Witherbee, New York. Her father's name is given as M. Podresas. Josas Podresas had arrived in New York on June 8, 1907. Their ethnicity is listed as Lithuanian. Ship manifests often garble Lithuanian surnames, but except for the alternation of the penultimate “z” and “s”, these names are fairly consistent. Could these be the original form of Podres?”

Podres, a native of Witherbee and longtime Queensbury resident, shut out the New York Yankees in game seven of the 1955 World Series. He died January 13 of this year at age 75 at Glens Falls hospital. An Amsterdam man, Alex Isabel, was the baseball scout who recruited Podres to play for the Dodgers in 1952. John and Delia Zelinskas, who lived on Forbes Street in Amsterdam, were related to Podres’ mother.

REID HILL

Chad Majewski of Amsterdam had this question about the Reid Street Bakery, “My grandfather use to own a bakery in Amsterdam on Reid Street. I have for years tried to find pictures, history or any information about the bakery. Is there someone you know that can lead me in the direction of my questions?”

IMMIGRANT STORIES

Grazyna Castle emailed that her family in Poland has a blog about Delejow, near Stanislawow, that was part of Poland were World War II but now part of Ukraine.

Castle said, “On that site I've noticed several pictures taken in Amsterdam at the beginning of the twentieth century of people from Delejow.”

Castle has been in touch with Kathy Slezak Snyder who has researched and written the story of her grandmother, Mary Teresa Sieminowicz Leszczynski, who came to the Amsterdam area from Mariampol near Delejow in 1913.

In 1937, Mary’s husband John Leszczynski died of a heart attack. Mary was a 40-year-old widow with two sons and seven daughters, ranging in age from three to eighteen. She was determined to finish their farmhouse being built in Galway.

"Both the will and the body of Mary Leszczynski are strong as the concrete foundation of the new home in which she and her nine children live triumphantly," wrote the Knickerbocker News in a feature story about Mary's achievement in 1938. Mary died in 1983 at age 86.

MEDICINE SHOWS

Who remembers when medicine shows visited the Mohawk Valley? Doctor Wood’s Medicine Show came to Amsterdam in the 1930s and 1940s, according to callers to my WVTL talk show.

Dr. Wood would set up at a parking lot on Park Street near the Bigelow-Sanford carpet plant or at what became Hasenfuss Field on Locust Avenue.

Attractions included a woman with a huge snake, exotic dancers and a humorous skit called “Ten Nights in a Barroom.” There was a contest to find the person who could scream the loudest. Salesmen hawked cure-all medicines but there was no charge to see the show.