The words of Grandma "Lottie" Cole:

My mother was 40 years old when I was born, and my oldest sister, Josie, was 20. She was very upset because she had a four year old son and I would be his Aunt when I was just a baby. I was the youngest of 11 children of Margaret Kopycki and Leon Szalwinski, who were born and married in Warsaw, Poland. Their first three girls were born in Poland and came to this country when Josie, (oldest), was around 4 or 5 years old, (1891 or 92). We have a picture of the family with the three girls taken shortly after they came to America. All the rest of us were born in this country. I was born in Dunkirk, N.Y. where we lived at that time. Most of my brothers and sisters were fairly grown when I was born, but my brother, Eddie, was just three years older, and we had some good times together. Three brothers and one sister died of Scarlet Fever when they were very young. Eddie and I were named after two of them. I also had an older brother Alexander (Al) who went into the Army at a very young age (1917,18). He lied about his age, and where he was born, to enlist. He left and we never heard from him again ... no one knows what happened to him. He used to hear my parents talk about various villages in the old country.

My older sisters were more like Aunts because they were pretty well grown up and married when I was a child. We lived in Dunkirk, until my father got a job at the American Locomotive Works in Schenectady. Josie came to Schenectady from Dunkirk first. Then Julia and her family. Eddie and I were the youngest, so we were always with my mother. Helen lived in Dunkirk, and had 4 girls and a boy.

Mabel liked to travel and even took her kids to Europe. We were so proud that we had a sister that could make that trip! To us, it was hard to believe! She was a Registered Nurse, and her husband was a Lawyer. I have a picture of her. They lived in that house on Davis Terrace, where I lived for a while. His mother owned a grocery store and butcher shop, and quite a lot of property in that area. So when Mabel and Tony ran off to get married by a Justice of the Peace, they had no big wedding. Tony's mother let them live in that house. When Mabel was pregnant, and her husband was away at Law School, my mother sent me to stay with her. The Railroad was nearby and Mabel was afraid to stay alone. She even had a gun!!