Jill Biden and Stephen Nedoroschik at the 2024 Olympics, Wikimedia Commons
If you watched the Olympics this summer, you’re probably familiar with one of the U.S. team’s rising stars: “Pommel Horse Guy,” aka “The Specialist,” aka Stephen Nedoroscik. Nedoroscik is a ringer on the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Team, Dancing with the Stars competitor, and Worcester native. He’s a remarkable man of diverse talents! We explored Nedoroscik’s Massachusetts roots and discovered some interesting international connections along the way.
Worcester is an industrial town, and Nedoroscik’s ancestors were part of that industry. They were machinists, drop-forgers, iron molders, and factory workers. Six of Nedoroscik’s eight great-grandparents worked in textile mills in or near Worcester, specializing in all parts of the fabric production process. His paternal great-grandfather John Andrew Nedoroscik was a carder, a job that required preparing raw wool or cotton to be spun into thread. Mary Louise Gendron, his maternal great-grandmother, operated the machines that wound and untangled newly spun thread onto bobbins. As a teenager in the 1920s, his great-grandfather Stephen Leland Stewart worked making shuttles, key pieces of 19th- and early 20th-century looms. On his paternal side, his great-grandmother Susan Zelonka was a weaver, using all those products to create a finished fabric.
Wool carding, winding, spinning, and weaving machinery, ca 1909. (via Wikimedia Commons)
Nedoroscik’s family has roots in Slovakia, Poland, Ireland, Wales, and Canada. Four of his great-grandparents were immigrants, and two more had parents who were. Like many industrial cities across the U.S., Worcester has always attracted foreign workers who settled, raised families, and enriched the city’s vibrant culture. This is as true today as it was over a century ago—in 2018 one in five Worcester residents were born outside the U.S., with the highest concentration of immigrants from Ghana, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam.
What brought Nedoroscik’s ancestors to Worcester? Job opportunities and family connections.
Stephen Nedoroscik’s great-grandmother Cazmiera (Katherine) Wielgorecka arrived in Worcester in 1911. She came from the Kalisz region of the Russian Empire, now part of modern Poland. Cazmiera grew up in a farming family but found work as a mill operator after moving to Massachusetts. She had followed her uncle Anton Wrobel to Worcester. Anton had previously arrived with two cousins to meet their brother Marcin. Later, Cazmiera’s brother also immigrated to Worcester, listing her husband Stanislaus as his American point of contact upon his arrival in the U.S. Whole families gradually trickled across the ocean from the Russian Empire to central Massachusetts, looking for work and joining a thriving Polish community in Worcester.
We were able to trace the Nedoroscik line all the way back to 1792, when Stephen Nedoroscik’s fourth great-grandparents, Jacob Nedoroscik and Maria Koczik, were married in a tiny village on the edge of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They lived in the town of Haligócz, in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary. It’s now the village of Haligovce in Slovakia, near the modern Polish border. Haligovce and its neighboring village Vel’ká Lesná (where Stephen Nedoroscik also has roots) are now remote farming villages in the Slovakian mountains. However, around the turn of the 20th century, these towns had a strong relationship with East Douglas in Worcester County. For decades, East Douglas and Haligovce maintained community connections as young people migrated back and forth. Some made money in Massachusetts mills and factories and returned to Slovakia, while others, like Jan (John) Nedoroscik and his wife Zuzanna (Susan) Zelonka settled permanently.
Haligovce in the 21st century, via Pieniny.sk
In interviews, Stephen Nedoroscik has talked about his connection to his grandfather and namesake. Generations of his ancestors maintained similar connections, whether joining Slovak social clubs in East Douglas, helping siblings and cousins migrate to Massachusetts, or sharing names.
Line 36 – Stephen Nedoroscik’s great-great-uncle Stephan Nedoroscik, born 26 Dec 1895 in Haligovce. Via FamilySearch
Learn More
Guide: Massachusetts Research
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Webinar: Getting Started in Polish Research
In this webinar, researcher James Heffernan presents tips for getting started researching your Polish ancestry.
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