how many know their own family histories?

My Cousin has spent over ten years researching our family that came from Poland.
He has had a difficult time getting links from Poland but was able to go back to my great grandfather who was married in Prussa then imigrated to NZ during the war

We have all the info on the relatives in our own country, but no info on the rest of my great grandfathers family.
We do know that some of them went to the US. We also know that there is Jewish blood through our line as well.
The surname is Zimmermann, and it is possible that the name was changed at some stage, or miss spelt.

Does any one know if the name lescinskas is of polish origin? My father was from Lithuania. Thanks, Marita.

I would love to have the time to trace my family roots. My grandmother's parents were Polish and Russian and my grandfather's were German. They all went to America at some point in time. That's on my mother's side. On my father's side, his family came from Lithuania. So, it's a lot of tracing! I'm thinking about hiring someone to do this for me - any suggestions?

Hi all

I received some information about my grandparents after the war when they were in Germany as DP's. I was a little surprised to find out that they were not married until 1949. Right now I will take that part as truth until proven wrong. It was nice to find out when they arrived there and when they moved before emigrating to Canada. Now I can look into some information about a cemetary in Pabianice. Maybe they can provide copies of death certificates.

well from what im told by a cousin of mine still in poland, My Rykowski family is "High society" in Dzierzęga

lescinskas it's probably more Lithuanian than Polish. But it's possible to be some kind of mix as those two countries were one at some point in history.

My Uncle has been working on a family tree for something like 10-15 years now. He has our name, Grzeskowiak, traced back to the village it originated in apparently. I've asked him about it before, but he has so much informatoin on it I never know where to begin. I'm hoping in the next 1-2 years to visit Poland for the first time and visit the area our name is from.

i no the french side they where rich & chased outa france by the poor people then the parents used up all of the money cuz they whernt used to being poor & so their friend the governor(well alot of them) helped them but then they diecided to be farmers & thats why im not a millioneir today

All I know is that when my great grandparents came to America they changed their last name to hide...

It seems like I am the only one who is interested in knowing the family history. I have no family tree to work with or any documents. I do have a few scattered facts and photos though. I am the decendent of Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Austrian and Slovakian ancestors. What is sad is that no one has ever stayed in contact with family in the original countries. I did not grow up with any of the family, language or culture from any of those backrounds.

However, I continue with my research and try to educate myself in history as best I can. I recently found out that I have cousins in Poland, Nowy Swietow, and if I can find them I would love to visit and get to know them.

Here is a picture of my great uncle Henry Froelich in uniform with a friend or colleague of his. Maybe someone can recognize the badge on the sleeve and let me know what it means.

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  Henry Froelich and friend
  

The amount of people looking for their roots amazes me. It seems like we're living in some kind of identity crises times now. The search for identity is enormous, it is almost fashionable to to list your heritage, it's a part of conversations at a party...third generation descendants improvising cooking foods what they 'think" their "busia' or 'nana" did...why not then but now?

Phew! Luckily, I know who I am :) ....hmmm, do I?

its because in the United states, there is very little to show or prove heritage and why do they want to know? because so many people identify with countries what nationality they are.. this has been going on for centuries.. but the importance of it became more distinguished in the early 1990's Genealogy has always been around , the interest hasnt though.

and with the internet and so many history centers popping up, its becoming a business just like everything else.. who would have thought that our own family documents would cost us a arm and a leg.. go figure.. and its our familys.

I was told as a youngster NOT to go looking into the past. Well, you know what that's like for a kid. Like saying stay out of the cookie jar. It's not a good thing to keep the past secret, for years I had fears that we were related to someone very very bad. When people, decades after WWII were hauled off to stand trial for war crimes, I would be afraid that maybe my family had someone bad like that.

I do remember my mom got upset when I said my aunt (on my dad's side) looked like a russian babushka. She said never to say that to her face.

So far, and I haven't got very far, there's no one evil in my family tree...boring! Just kidding. But because so many of my older family is gone, and they didn't keep documents, there's not much for me to go on.

P.S. some of you wonder why pictures and documents may be destroyed on purpose. Often times it was to protect other family members from being identified by authorities if they lived under a repressive regime. It could also be to get rid of the bad/sad memories...survivor's guilt maybe.

[quote=Domino]
P.S. some of you wonder why pictures and documents may be destroyed on purpose. Often times it was to protect other family members from being identified by authorities if they lived under a repressive regime. It could also be to get rid of the bad/sad memories...survivor's guilt maybe.

well, for those who are looking, theres alot out there.. unfortunately the above stated is true as I have watched documentarys on hitler and his familys decendants have changed names, or dont speak of history, documents are sealed etc.. and some live in the united states ... I dont feel its their responsibility, but a great deal prob do, so they live in hiding.

its a sad way to have to live , under the shadow of the most evil person in history.

I cannot speak for anyone but myself, but maybe some of what I will say rings true for others as well.

I live in the United States. I grew up with my mother and one brother. My mother worked 16 hours 6 days a week so we didn't see her much and the rest of our family lived too far away. After my grandfather died, we didn't even get together for the holidays anymore.

My point is that the traditional family does not exist the way it used to. People are not having the same large families they did before. Also, it seems rare that whole families live together. Relatives live farther apart and don't visit for Sunday dinner anymore, for some even the major holidays. It seems like many families don't pass on their history from one generation to the next. Everyone is "too busy" doing whatever and the family is weakening.

I got into genealogy because I wanted dual citizenship. Then I continued on because I found it facinating, to be able to understand my family and the history of the time period each lived in. I love to travel and meet new people, why not meet my own family?

As far as the "identity crisis" someone mentioned earlier I can only pose additional questions. What is American culture, or Polish culture? Are people trying to define themselves or the society's values they live in? I say this with an open mind and am really interested to hear what others think.

last week while my aunt(moms sister) was here she gave us this game & one of the questions was where did your family come from & she was telling me how my greatx2 or 3 grandfather came from bohemia & was a mason or something like that & we looked up bohemia/czech republic to see what was goin on over there in the 1800's & turns out they where busy getting rid of unwanted germans & we guess he didnt really feel like being in the middle of a war so he came to america

my dads dad taught people how to fly in ww2 but thats all i know besides the french people that got kicked out & another story(probly made up) why some people on my mom's side came to america from wales was because they ticked off some rich people but aperanlty this happened to four diffrent families related to me note this sotry came from one of my great aunts who threw green beans at planes

Here is both sides of a transport card (i think) that my grandfather had while he went to the Politechnika Warszawska in 1923/24. Would this school be willing to look through its archives to provide me copies of my grandfathers' transcripts and other information provided by him when he applied?

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  photo side
  
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  student id side
  

now her i would like to meet.....!