Polonia / Poles in Norway? Polish community in Oslo. [43]

Yeah, heritage is important. But I have to say that in this new world its getting sort of weird. If I have kids with an englishwoman then my kids would be English/Polish/Norwegian/German. Thats a lot of cultures to embrace xD

Genealogy / Looking for my father's family, Roman Rydel or possibly Rydelski [30]

Ok, I'll see what I can find out, but you should find out wich voivod he was from, and whether or not he was part german, that could eliminate my family. I know my grandfather has lots of siblings, some are dead and some are living in germany I think. Its hard to find out anything conclusive in my family, seing as we are notorious for fighting and never speaking to each other again. There are also some things my father doesnt like to discuss, especially regarding his fathers side of the family, he mostly embraces his mothers side of the family (which I suspect is because they are a polish family).

Yes, its highly likely that my fathers side of the family were prussians who were forced into changing their name. The entire area where my family lives in now used to be a german state.

I'm heading over to Poland before new years, I'll ask around about anyone named Roman Rydel, and try to draw up some family map. The hard thing will be seperating real cousins from polish-cousins. Growing up I had like 10 "uncles" and 20 "cousins".

When you say he came over after WW2, just how long after the world was over? I assume some years after if he was only 17 and had been in the army, seeing as there were two polish armies during the war, the pro-exile-goverment one and the pro-kremlin one. So I'm guessing he was in the peoples army during the age of the peoples republic? If you could provide his year of birth and any other fact you might remember then it would help.

Polonia / Poles in Norway? Polish community in Oslo. [43]

Here, you might find this helpful: pl-oslo.no

Thats the Polish - Norwegian organization. I haven't been in too much contact with them, but they have meetings and stuff like that.

As for me, I am the second generation immigrant here in Norway. My father came here in the early 80's, and he married a Norwegian woman.

But a word of advice to any poles who are thinking about moving here; please dont solely seek out polish groups. I beg of you, we are already having enough trouble integrating people from Iran, Pakistan, Somalia and every other country from here to Antarctica. The last thing we need is another minority group that doesn't learn to speak the language, and creates another generation of children who clog up the educational system because their parents doesn't speak the native language. Go out and make some Norwegian friends! Dont do like so many other polish people I know have done, and just keep to your own kin. A friend of my father has lived in this country for nearly 10 years and knows only a few sentences in Norwegian.

Genealogy / Looking for my father's family, Roman Rydel or possibly Rydelski [30]

Hi, I'm not sure how much this helps but this is pretty much all I know.
My name is Tomasz, my father's name is Piotr and my grandfather is also named Piotr. My family is originaly from around nowe miasto lubawskie, and I'm not sure if this is true, but I've been told that up untill WW2 our last name was spelled Riedel, allthough I cant confirm that.

My grandfather had two children, Piotr and Robert, they live (woj.mazurskie) and woj.mazurski respectively.

I've been told that someone from my grandfathers side of the family fought during WW2, but if Im not mistaken, they fought on the german side (our dark family shame).

That's all I can think of for now, if you can come up with some more information, for example your fathers home town, his closest relatives, etc. then I can ask around the next time I go down to Poland to visit my dad.

- Tom