Law / Polish Citizenship for a foreigner whose parents was born in Poland [174]

Hi Bobert

I don't know if you are still watching the forum and this posting in particular. But a website that might be able to answer your questions is known as foreign expat in Poland. Click on forums and look for Poland and click on the main section labelled immigration. Ask for Polish guy and he can direct you to his posting about all the paperwork that may or will be needed. you can also ask there. But at the same time, try and find the nearest consulate or embassy nearest to you and send them a message to about verification for what you do have and where you can get the rest done after your arrival regarding the rest of the documents that you receive between your visit to the consulate and your trip.

Law / Looking for confirmation of Grandfather's citizenship... [17]

to delphiadomine
I obtained dual citizenship with one country in Europe despite being born here in Canada. So even if the mother of the 1 poster was born in the U.S., chances are she may be Polish. But that poster will have quite a few hoops to jump through in order to get any and all pertinent paperwork in order to prove a point.

to cafeguy
check out the website poland forum expat chances are, there is more information to be found on that site in regards to others that are trying to do what you are doing. Also ask a member on that site by the name of curiousgeorge for a link to his posting in regards to the paperwork a person will need to find/obtain in order to prove a point. While you are at it, check into the Polish Citizenship Act of 1920. That one will be pertinent to your case to determine how much luck you will have to prove a point.

Law / Unable to repay bank loan in Poland. What are the consequences according to the law? [18]

Mie1988
if your employment contract runs out in June 2015, do you have other employment lined up in your home country or do you have job offers lined up after this in Poland itself? try and deal with the bank now so it will be easier later on after June. defaulting on the loan may or may not affect your credit history in your home country but why risk it. That is why it is best to talk with someone from the bank well before hand in order to be able to still repay the loan if you do leave the country. especially what the best method of making the payments without having to pay huge fees over and above in order to make a transfer through bank draft or wire transfer such as western union.

Real Estate / Mother died in Poland, children are US citizens. Real Estate Inheritence in Poland? [5]

Sienna1

Another option to decide who will represent or if all go. The option is to find out if you can find out if you can use video links when court is in session. This way, if it is permitted, then all you have to do is decide who gets to go and the others can partly fund the cost of the trip. Then they can watch the court proceedings and ask/text messages if there is any questions about certain things. Worth asking.

Real Estate / Property on my wife's name - Inheritance in Poland [3]

It might be easier, so to speak, to dispose of the property. But wouldn't it be just as easy to make sure that there is no hidden surprises in dealing with the legalities of the property, such as liens from contractors or debt collectors. I could be wrong. If I was going to buy a property, it would be nice to know and have verified that it has a clear title. If it was sold under the presumption that it had a clear title and didn't, wouldn't that make things rather difficult in order to improve the property and may lead to a court case of misrepresentation. If the 2nd wife lived there until her death, there is no way of knowing what she debts or business dealings she had or made prior to her death. It is also partly confusing when it is mentioned there was 3 children and then it is intimated that there is a 4th.

Life / Will an English bought TV work In Poland? [20]

From what I understand Europe uses the 220-240 volts a.c. at 50 hz Therefore the t.v. that was bought in Britain will work in Poland. The only problem you will have is to use an adaptor for the difference in electrical plugs that are used. If they were to try and bring here to North America, it would not be worth the cost or effort to bring it here since we use 120 volts a.c. at 60 hz.

As for reception of programming signals, that I can not answer of what type of equipment you will need.

Law / Wills. How much time is needed to wait after the death and funeral before the will is dealt with in Poland? [3]

Ouch. As I have said, I know the name of my grandfather's uncle and when he died and the name of the uncle's wife, but nothing of any children. That is why I am having someone try and look for the will for this person. I just don't want to be faced with a large bill in an attempt to find this document. For me, I want to see if the will provides names of surviving family members and maybe that will provide clues to making contact with that part of the family.

Real Estate / Land claim in Poland. [9]

While trying to look into my grandmother's 1st husband's family, an aunt of mine, said she did not want me to continue with my research. It was something that she wanted to more or less forget and put behind her. Not only that, she hinted at owning some property there. But she did not tell me as to how she came to own it. I do not wish her to know that she gave me a clue to look into. I just hope that if she inherited this property from her father, then he may have left a will to indicate who else inherited something of the estate. The only thing is, I don't know if this property is registered in her name. How would I ask about this in Polish? I know where she was born and where her father was born, raised, died, and got buried so I suspect that this property is in that same general area. Hopefully her father left a will and that will give me a clue about others in the family.

Genealogy / Katyn/Starobielsk family survivors in Oz Australia? [11]

Sorry, my grandfather was one of the lucky ones that survived being a P.O.W. whereas the commissioned officers were executed. A draft letter that my grandfather had typed in regards to applying for pension mentions that he was by Czortkow Sept. 1939 when he was captured and may have been interned as a P.O.W. at Starobielsk. Part of my problem is that the military archives are claiming that they are unable to find his service records. Has anybody else had any luck in obtaining military records of family members? My grandfather served in the 1st Signals Regiment in September 1939. Does this ring a bell with anyone else? Thanks. I am hoping there might be records of the prisoners from this camp.

To Wroclaw

I found a report in English that talks about the Katyn Forest Massacre. It can be found at archive.org/details/katynforestmassa06unit. It says it is part 6 and I have been unable to retrieve parts 5 and 7 so far. Maybe someone else will have better luck in checking for those 2 parts. From the information on the frontispiece does not indicate it as being German this was published in the U.S. in 1952 by the Government Printing Office. This report makes reference to exhibits 32 and 33 presented to the committee by the Polish Government in exile.

I had some time after I left the previous message to experiment in order to see if there was a way of checking for other parts. I was unable to get part 2 since it was not digitized and uploaded in a pdf format. I did have luck in getting parts 1,3,4,5,6, and 7. that seems to be it on that topic for this since I tried to see if there was an 8 or 9 but nothing came up and it wasn't indicated on part 7. In the last third of part 3 you will find a list of names for the 3 camps. So I hope that will help. I did get in touch with the Boston Public Library about part 2 and was told they have not been able to get around to digitizing the film that it is on. I will try and find out how much it will cost to either duplicate the film and mail it or get them to print it out for me. Best guess it will be about 150 pages in all so I am not sure how much they will charge for the print out. I will let everyone know when I find out.

Okay, here is the one website that I found reports of the hearings on the Katyn forest Massacre. It is: archive.org/details/Katyn forest massa01unit. Substitute 3,4,5,6, or 7 in place of 1 in order to find 6 out of the 7 sections. I got a message from the Boston Public Library in regards to the missing part 2 and they referred me to the website catalog] catalog. hathitrust. org/Records/000595698. broken link?

On this 2nd website I was able to download part 2 1 page at a time since I didn't have the ability to download the whole report because of some technicality. Now I have all 7 parts that I am aware of and now am in the process of printing it out. As nice as it is to have it in electronic format, I kind of like the paper version since I don't have to lug around the computer or need access to it in order to read. Also, I find it easier to make notations when and where necessary if there is something I want to follow up on. But if someone is unable to access either website, let me know and maybe something can be worked out that I could email what I have.

to the mod watching this, I was able to find the site again despite the mix up in the previous posting. But when I was able to get back onto the website, I had some problems in trying to locate the files that I mentioned. Since I was lucky enough to download all 7 parts, albeit from 2 different locations, if someone is interested, they can ask.

Genealogy / My Grandfather was born in Poland and migrated abroad - Can I get a Polish Passport? [68]

I am sorry to say that you can not get a Polish passport just like that. You have to go through some hoops by getting all the documentation you can as to when your grandparents were born, when they immigrated to the States, when your parents were born. When did your grandparents get naturalized in the States? Was it before or after the parents were born? If it was before you have a very slim case. There is the 1920, 1951 and the 1962 citizenship acts for Poland. There has been some updates to the act within the last 10 yrs, but that may or may not help in case. look up the website known as 'talk for expats in poland' and the forum under Poland. if u were to read the 3 sections that they have in regards to polish citizenship you will learn what others have gone through and what you will need in order to try and get a passport.

Real Estate / Land claim in Poland. [9]

You will have to ask yourself when this all happened. If it happened after the 2nd world war you may not stand a chance on getting the property back. Between then and 1990 the communists were in control and the property may have been split up into smaller units and disposed of accordingly. So, if you were to try and claim the property as inheritance, you will not only be fighting a losing battle because you will be fighting the current owners. which could be upwards to 5 or more depending on how the property was subdivided.

So, do some research as to what happened to this property from the time of the eviction and now. If you can obtain legalized copies of any paperwork after the eviction it may or may not help to determine course of action if this property is still in one piece of the size you mention. But do not get your hopes up that you will get the property back. You may be stirring up a lot of bad feelings with the current people that live in the area. Chances are, if you want to pursue the matter, all you could hope for is limited compensation if at all.

Genealogy / My Grandfather was born in Poland and migrated abroad - Can I get a Polish Passport? [68]

Did you look up the Polish citizenship acts of 1920 and 1951? Also, check 'website to check passport in poland' click on forums, scroll down to the list and click on Poland. Click on the section that talks about citizenship confirmation. There is 3 sections to it and you will find others with similar situations. Good luck. Let us know what you find.

Genealogy / Pazdyk Coat of Arms [3]

Maybe part of the problem is that certain families died out since there was no male children to carry on the family name or the older generation never talked about the family background. Or after the older generation died out in most cases the younger generation wasn't really interested at the time with asking questions about where the family came from. So when there was someone that started asking questions, by that time, sometimes it was to late to ask the older generation so in a lot of cases all they have is just the names to go on.

Travel / Exchange Euro to Zloty - I am going to arrive in Warsaw [17]

Dvar

Where is your point of origin? If you don't plan on entering Poland from one of the EU countries, why bother with carrying Euros with you into Poland. You would be better off taking around 100-200 zloty with you for immediate needs when you enter the country. After that, you can use an ATM. That is what I did when I traveled both times into Germany and Poland. I just made sure I had enough cash on hand for immediate needs such as transportation from the airport,food, and in most cases, for the cost of accommodation.

History / WWII - who really was the first to help Poland? [900]

While I was never taught about Polish history or raised there and despite Germany invading Poland in 1939, the Germans did Poland a favour. What did the Americans or the British actually do in return? All these 2 countries did once they were informed of the Katyn graves was to sweep it under the carpet in order to keep the peace with Russia. To me, it sounds like these 2 countries were just as bad as the communists. Also, what did these 2 countries do for Poland after the war to prevent the take over by the communists?

Life / Importance of awareness of Poland's heritage and culture among Polish children abroad [24]

I think it is important. I have a couple of aunts that said right to my face years ago before my grandmother died 'what do you want to learn the language for?' 'it is a dead language.' Then 4 years ago I made a trip to Poland to visit family I never knew about. The cousins there asked me why I couldn't speak the language. When I got back from my trip I threw the comment about the language being dead back in my aunts faces and they did not like being reminded of that fact. Not only that the only time I ever Polish being spoken the most often was during holidays and occasionally when the everybody paid an official visit partly because of the old folks. So now I am trying to play catch up to learn.

Genealogy / Vintage Photos of Polish ancestors [144]

Thanks for the translation. then the Stara Wies that is pictured is probably the one that is NW of Wegrow. I have a sneaky suspicion that the person who wrote the note on the back is a cousin to my grandfather.

Genealogy / Vintage Photos of Polish ancestors [144]

While this does not contain anyone directly related to my family, but for some reason does have some kind of connection. I have included the flip side and maybe someone that knows Polish can give me a translation of it. To Mwhary, this is the Stara Wies that I am aware of. But I could be mistaken since there is no specific connection of what is pictured and the reference in the letter on the back. So for all I know, it may be one of the ones you had referred to.

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Travel / Poland is unsafe for visiting British Citizens ! - so I've been told ... [18]

To Ivorsmallfaucet, I am from Canada and visited Poland a couple of times. I had no problem whatsoever for being an English speaker. I had visited a small town roughly 79 kms east of Warsaw and walked around the town. Even went to smaller community where another cousin of mine moved to of which within 15 or so kms from the border of Belarus and definitely had no problems there despite having dual citizenship with Germany.

Genealogy / FINDING ANY INFORMATION ON BIOLOGICAL PARENTS, BORN IN 86- ADOPTED IN 87. [3]

Now that you are over the age of 18, have you discussed this with your adoptive parents? By starting with them, if they adopted you, they would have had to file legal papers in order to adopt. Those papers should contain the name of who your mother was. Even if your adoptive parents are not willing to talk, chances are you may know the lawyer that they have been dealing with. If so, that person may be able to provide the information or contacts that you may be looking for.

Travel / Driving in Poland, are there any rules at all? [149]

I am not sure if the rules of the road are lenient or not. I found that the drivers in Warsaw to be aggressive. That was my first impression of them from my trip in Oct. 2010. Once you got out of Warsaw, the driving habits seemed to be more normal.

Love / I'm getting married to a Polish guy and need advice before visit his family; gifts, topics, customs [82]

You are welcome and good luck. If you never met the parent(s) before the first time can always be a stressful time. Your hubby should remember what his mother prefers to drink. Such as coffee or a specific type of tea. Remember some teas taste better fresh made while others require some time to 'steep' before you notice a difference and that sometimes makes them a little stronger over freshly made. Part of the reason is the tea in loose form or bags.

Life / Golden Wedding in Poland, the protocol for giving gift for a wedding? [58]

As you can see some here are of the opinion that it was rude of the married couple to ask for money. But I don't think so, since these people don't have all the facts as to what belongings each person had prior to the wedding. This way, they avoided the risk of guests giving duplicates of a gift someone may have given or what they may have already. By asking for money instead, the wedded couple can purchase what their combined households are missing or they could put the money into the bank and save it for a rainy day. Also, we don't know what their combined salaries are or what their expenses are. Those things are not for those of us here to know since that is private information and none of our business.

News / Priest from Poland claims Lego is "a tool of Satan" [35]

Better yet, find out what kind of drugs he has been using all these years. When you look at how the Catholic church behaved over the last 1000 years, being rather dictatorial and not allowing the clergy to marry makes you wonder. No wonder a lot of the clergy has resorted to molesting boys and getting onto the front page because of that and giving the church a blackeye. And yet they are still blind to the fact that they need to get with the program and bring it into the 21st century and tell the clergy that they will need to get married.

Love / I'm getting married to a Polish guy and need advice before visit his family; gifts, topics, customs [82]

If she has been born and raised Polish, one way you may try to break the barriers with her is to try and learn about cooking the Polish way. Such as what your husband grew up with. Such as his favourite dishes. If you don't know any of them by now, you can talk with her about them. Since you and your husband have converted to the Muslim faith, maybe you can explain some of the differences to her. Were you Catholic? If so, that may help you give her the pros and cons of both religions since you and your husband switched. Also, try to tell her that in no way are you trying to convert her as well. Just that you want to explain why you switched faith.

UK, Ireland / Polish mum wants to take child back to Poland [10]

Can her parents come for 3 or 4 days and stay at a b & b ? this way, they can take the child off of her hands and she can tell the boyfriend that a 'friend' of hers is babysitting the child. That way the child is out of harms way with someone that she can trust. Also, see if she can get a video camera set up to record what goes on behind her back. While what ever evidence that is recorded may (or may not) help in court, but it may substantiate her side when it comes to getting legal advice. I forget if it was here in Canada or the U.S. where a parent got charged with the death of a baby from shaking baby syndrome.

Travel / Has anyone ever stayed at the Guest House Wytchnienie in Lublin? [6]

So long as it is not a closet, but is reasonable enough in size where I can move around some. Roughly 2m by 2m.

Law / Applying for Polish citizenship through marriage. [116]

While you are living outside of Poland your chances of acquiring Polish citizenship is next to nil. Your best bet is to relocate to Poland for at least 5 years.Sounds like a bit of a difficult hoop to go through, but that is one option. Check with the nearest Polish embassy or consulate to make sure what the rulings are before you actually move. They may be able to properly inform you what needs to be done and what kind of paperwork will also be needed.