Here is the help from our PTG - Polish Genealogical Society:
FAMILY NAME
Dzwoniecki is given with Polish etymological works, although very rare in Poland - this would be any advantage in your wife's family roots search, according to Polish census 2002 they were only 2 adults in Poland surnamed Dzwoniecki, and all 2 were from Warsaw, here the source giving the surname map in Poland:
http://www.moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/dzwoniecki.html
FAMILY ORIGIN
Your message gives his last address as Warsaw. On this our PTG website we have open database presenting some genealogical records from the 19th century including Warsaw with a hard job collected for free by PTG volunteers, and fortunately the one record is giving Dzwoniecki!:
http://www.geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index ... ac=&w=71wa
This is the marriage record of 1884 from Warsaw parish - Leszno, record numbered 145, Jan Dzwoniecki & Marianna Heller, maybe the parents of your Wladyslaw Dzwoniecki, you have also the scan - SKAN - for free!
The U.S. IMMIGRATION RECORDS
This must be researched by you with the U.S. databases, please try to find your Wladyslaw Dzwoniecki on the ship manifest - this would give more infor about his parents and origin, the N.Y. immigration port could be researched with this search engine:
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/eidb/ellisgold.html?
If not N.Y. port, it could be Baltimore, Philadelphia, etc., this would be researched by you with Ancestry.com
Please also check his obituary, SS-5, his church after immigration, etc., but the most worthable would be his Petition for Naturalization, where he stated his exact origin in Poland, and the names of his parents.
With the best good luck!
Tadeusz Wysocki
PS. Any donation supporting our PTG volnunteers' works would be highly appreciated, the way is given on this website.
+ interesting note from American/Polish historians thay you may know, but could be valuable to other helpers:
"W tym celu i w tym czasie zostało przeszkolonych 15,000 sowieckich marynarzy w porcie Cold Bay na Alasce, którym planowano przydzielić 30 fregat, 60 poławiaczy min, 56 ścigaczy łodzi podwodnych i 30 barek desantowych. Szkoleniem kierował kapitan marynarki William Maxwell (urodzony jako Dzwoniecki w Warszawie, a ponieważ umiał kląć po rosyjsku, więc dostał takie zadanie)"
The point interesting for you: President Roosevelt and the U.S., while preparing to the WWII war with Japan, have trained 15,000 Soviet mariners in Alaska Cold Bay port, and this training was headed by marine captain William Maxwell (born in Warsaw as Dzwoniecki).
source:
http://www.powstanie.pl/index.php?ktory ... class=text
For more details you could contact the author of this note:
Prof. Dr. Andrzej Targowski
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
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Tadeusz