After some research, I think I’ve traced the marriage of my great-great grandparents, Frank Zalewski & Anna Lindner, to Parafia Å›w. Barbary w ÅšwiÄ™tem (or the Parish of St. Barbara at ÅšwiÄ™te.) According to a translation of their Polish Wikipedia entry:
The parish was founded in about 1300 by the Teutonic Knights. During the Thirteen Years’ War the church was destroyed and the parish declined. The present wooden church was built in 1723 on the land of the owner of the village – Waclaw Kozlowski. The last thorough renovation of the church took place in the 1990s.
Also according to their (wonderful) website, this church is the largest wooden structure in the area and one of the largest in Poland.
Their website has a great photo gallery of the church, inside & out, including the adjacent cemetery. They also have a very cool gallery of the cemetery on All Saints Day, November 1st, 2011. The photo above is from that gallery. Click on it to view more photos from that day.
It’s very cool to see the actual church from across the world that your somewhat distant ancestors were married in and baptised some of their children in.
I have to say I felt touched by your words. As the author of those photos and a very happy wife of the creator of this website (Emil GwinciÅ„ski) I feel proud that somewhere across the globe someone appreciates our work. Thank you. In the future we’re planning to translate this page to English and German as well. People used to ask us: what for? Well, here is our answer :)
Thanks for the wonderful comment. I thought your website was one of the best church websites I’ve ever run across. They’re usually pretty bland. I was just lucky that the church was the one my ancestors probably belonged to. Keep up the good work!