I have found the place of birth (Chelmek) of my Grandfather, what is the next step.

Hi:

I have found the passport of my Grandfather with his birth place being Chelmek, Poland. I found the phone number of one house in Chelmek with the same last name. Could that be a relative - I plan to visit in Sept of 2008. How would I go about contacting the family with the same last name (one sister remained in Poland along with the parents) - Call them - What would be the next step for me before I made the trip...

Thank you,

The fact that there is one person with the same surname in the town is no indicator that they are relatives. Do more research on what it takes to track genealogy - then decide whether or not you want to make the efforts.

Agreed, you need to do some more research. What else do you know about your grandfather and your family history? Some documentation with additional relatives (names, dates and places) would be helpful to have just in case.

You can call them but try and have as much info on hand as possible. They may be a relation, they may not. You could also use the services of a researcher based in Poland who aside from checking the parish records to flesh out some more details on your grandfather, etc could also visit Chelmek and dig around the place.

Definitely. I can highly recommend the one I employed to research my family's records. If you'd like her contact info, let me know.

phone numbers were changed a few years ago, your old number could be invalid