how many know their own family histories?

Some of the church records were in Latin... no problem!
The Polish records were a little fuzzy, but up on the International Floor, there was a helper ther who could speak Polish and translate. Also, once you figure out the pattern, they all pretty much follow the same. (These are Church records that I'm talkinf about)

what towns are you researching? or have researched?


I know,, i have that kind of power :)) LOL

I will start a commercial, have you had your fix of genealogy today?

;)

Right now I am researching Podhorce, near Tomaszow, Lublin and Sierpc, near Warsaw.

Have you heard the saying: Genealogy is a great hobby, except you lose your census!

Well sad thing about American raised.....is that my grand pa was a very hard working man but yet a alc..........he didnt think it was important to carry things on......my family for some reason dont like to talk about the past.....I think my family must of had some horriable things happen since they burned pictures and sold belongings =(......

All I know is that my family use to own many salt mines in poland, they abandoned them (well I know I still have family there that I do not know) during ww2 because of hitler was after salt for gun powder...I know my last name is Grabinski (from Grabben(german)) ...and the other is like wicicoft or something along those lines.......

I really wish I could find my family and talk to my family I was never allowed to know........if anyone knows anything please get back to me since must sites leave me to other languages =(

thats a good one :)

the FHC where i go theres a picture of guy sitting at a computer with roots growing
off his feet :) LOL


theres always a chance.. but we need to dig further in the past.
I am sure theres a few on here willing to help.


I hope this isnt the case.

Ya I hope so 2...... but why else would you burn pics and sell things? It's like they wanted to wipe the history away

I'd be grateful is someone would help me =)

well. there could be some things they dont want anyone to know. or
just to burn the past lifes.. my grandparents didnt talk much either..
my uncle told me bits and pieces of what he asked his mom. but it
wasnt offered to them..

my moms side was the same,, so dont feel left out.. :)))

we can try to help. did they immigrate after the war?

ya during ww2 to New York.....my grandpas name is Valentine Grabinski.....TAG is the most commen abbreviation in my family.............

I am going to check something real quick.. :) bb

Garden Grove, Orange, California

and another in New york.. did they stay in New york? or california..

is your grandfather still alive?

Most of our grandparents didn't want to talk about their former lives, probably because it was too painful. My grandfather would tell me "We are Americans, now" Even though we went to the Polish church, ate Polish food and they spoke Polish.

When I asked why our last name didn't sound Polish, he would tell me it was all in the Pronunciation. It wasn't till just recently thay I found out my ggrandfather and ggrandmother shortened their last names. Even their first names to sound more American.

I'm just sorry that I wasn't allowed to go to the Polish school, where I would have learned to speak Polish. They didn't want me to talk with an accent... I was an American!


What have you done to research you family names? Knowing this would give us a clue as to how to help you.

Witek found some info last night for her and I found cencus with her grandpa on it
and his father.. she has somewhat of a idea now.. :))

thanks GS

Super, it's always nice to hear good news like that.
Witek and you are the ones to be thanked!!!

:)

System wants me to put more than 5 characters, so I have write something here.

Witek,
I saw on anotherdiscussion that you have knowledge of Family Crests.
Have you ever seen anything connected to my family Surnames?

Kordulasinski, Narucki, Stempora, Swiecicki, Tyburski, Zywiatkowski, Adamczyk

I would appreciate anything you could tell me.
Thank you! :+)

My Polish family history ends with my Grandfather Grzegorz Makaruk, my Father Stefan came over to the UK at the end of WWll as a displaced person, he never spoke about his life in Poland.

And he never had any contact with his family after he was caught up in Hitlers forced labour camps.
I have been unable to find anything out about them at all.

On my father's maternal side of the family things can be traced from the first ancestor who plopped down in the states back in the mid-1600's to the early middle ages....the hard part has been getting from that ancestor to the modern day family. You'd think that it would be fairly easy considering that guy from the 1600s is the patriarch for that entire family in the states, but so far there have been many deadends. As for my dad's father's family little is known and my sister and I haven't had the time to do more serious searching on our grandfather....or even finding the missing link for our grandmother's family.

As for my Polish roots there is a lot of detail known. It helps that my Polish great-grandfather didn't cross the pond until the early 1900's and that many of his brothers and sisters remained in the same village where he was from. We also have been able to remain in contact with those family members through the years.

As with my dad's side not much is known of my grandmothers family except that she was Irish and had a VERY common Irish name so that will make things difficult.

well i know bugger all about my grand fathers(fathers side) side of the family!

i have only these names :Josef Kubiak died 1921 wife Victoria Dorna (no date as to when she died) there kids
Kazimierz Karl kubiak(grand father) born 28.2.1915 at 83 Grunwald st,Pozan Poland.

josef kubiak,Agneska kubiak,Wanda kubiak and Helena kubiak.....who i know nothing about i asked my Grand mother(still alive today) Wiebke Bracker(German and Kazimierz wife) if she knew if any survived the war and i just got a long look in the eye with no answer.....?

other than Pozan i don't even know were they came from?

searches on the net have turned up nothing!......so I'm going to see my lovely grand mother(Germans can be very arrogant at times) and "question" her with the great grand kids to soften her up :)

cheers Steve

i don't know that much... the main things i recall are war stories by my grandpas. i know that my extended family is large but i don't really know much beyond that. i have just recently reconnected with some blood in Canada though.

It does happen. For example, I am also researching Szylkiewicz and was able to get in touch with some persons carrying the same surname in Poland. It turns out that their Szylkiewicz ancestors were from the same town area as mine but the elder members of their family refuse to let anyone see what documentation and pictures they have.

Sometimes it is a good idea to make some sort of presentation to soften them up. It can also help if you tell them something historical/good about the family that they didn't know. This will show how serious you are about your family history and how important it will be to future generations.

Re: Presentation.
I used enlarged copies of photos, biographies and extra info, like who was king or queen at the time.
If you are lucky Gran or whoever will take an interest and then start to correct your notes, without realizing what they're doing. Don't expect older folk to admit to a suicide or illigitimate birth in the family.

Very often they are hiding the things you least expect.

All I know was that my family was in Russia during the Krakow Uprising and that my grandpa was a WWI vet and then changed his name from Kucharski to Kay (on the legal papers it just says for "convenience"), other than that I know absolutely nothing.

Grand mothers is here in Australia and we know she has all sorts of photos and paper work...but she is a very bitter old lady as most of the family is fighting each other for almost no reason its only that i live over 1000kms away that i didn't get into it all and Ive always stayed neutral

the German is is very well documented.....all the way back to when they came from Denmark my mothers side(Scott's and welsh)is also well documented the Polish side is well....almost nothing!

some of the stories from WWII are grand father(Kazimierz Karl kubiak) was a motorcycle messenger in the Polish army he was captured(funny that) was sent to ausvitz then onto a "prison farm" were the guards use to let him go into town in suit and tie to the local PUB!??.......starts to make me think he was Prussian or half German???

and then Grand mothers Family were happy for them to marry?! after the war....to me this is odd as the Germans and poles hated each other at the time??

so its got me stuffed as to WHY how and was grand father more than"just a pole"

Well I am English, and I can trace my family back to before 1086 and we are recorded in there as sheep farmers coming from Wales. Hence most English surnames have a meaning of some sorts i.e. Baker..a person who makes bread and so on.. mine is Walker and I have been told that it comes from walking over the hills looking after sheep.

On my wife’s side she is related to the Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski whose wife was Izabela Czartoryska and the Palace was built in Pulawy for them, I keep joking with my wife and asking her when are we going to move in there lol Their family is also related to some Lithuanian Nobel family, but this needs a lot more research.

I'm begining to know more of my Polish roots, my youngest son got the ball rolling by asking Grandma some questions, (they are stubbourn at times, arn't they). I always thought it was just them but even on my visit to close relatives in the "stary kraj" I found they do not talk easily about the past.

I'll be going back again in October and visit the Zelem family in "Zielona Gora" and see if I can pick up a thread on my fathers side the Wozniak family in "katy Wroclawskie."

I realy do not know how far back to go, Polish people do not seem to have embraced the geneology thing and I've found lots of official records are difficult if not inpossible to access, especialy those relating to the years between and during the two world wars.

This brings up an interesting point. When I was in the UK a few weeks ago I visited a pub, that was once owned by Great-Great Grandfather. The pub still has some of the original tables and fittings. For me, this brings the past to life. To the present day landlords amusement I was able to tell him things about his pub. A pub I'd never seen before.

Go to the palace, soak up the atmosphere, take some photos and add your part to the family's history.

As with every thing in life there is a down side. The town my father was born in (in fact sone 9 generations of my family were born in this town) is now in the Ukraine. I had hired a researcher from Lwow to visit and take pictures, etc. He reported that the catholic cemetaries are no more. They were either destroyed in the mid-late 1940's or left untended. I cannot even find the grave stone of my great grandparents.

I've heard the same from other people. It can be very disappointing. But I'm sure that if you ever visit the area you will get a feel for what it was like in the past.

It might still be possible to find the cemetery, if it was in the countryside. But you would need the help of local people.

Are there any church records of your family ?

Tons of them! I have had researchers check (1) the LDS microfilm of the parish records (2) the archives in Warsaw and Krakow and (3) the archives in Lwow. They have been able to find enough parish birth, marraige and death records to trace my family back to approx 1690, all in Sokal.

The Lwow researcher visited Sokal for me and sent photographs and also a video he shot while there. He checked the cemetary and according to him there is no trace of my great grandparents.

Picture of the Catholic cemetary in Sokal

• 
  Sokal Cemetary
  

Peter,

Amazing. I can see that you've put a lot of effort into your family history.

I've got to say that your research tells me that I'm going to have some problems looking into my wife's side of the family. But at least the records can be found, and that's very heartening..