I repeat my question: Against Lithuanians (residents of former Great Duchy of Lithuania) or Zmudzin nationalists? You wrote they wanted to be Poles but all your story means the weren't Zmudzins nationalists only. That is the reason for my question
In my opinion you confuse ethnic Zmudzins and Lithuanians in general. That id due to "Polonization" propaganda in the second half of 19 century. There were no Poles in Great Duchy of Lithuania even in the early 19 century. Only Lithuanians
I dont carre against who they fighted all I know that they were on right side
I repeat: there is the difference between the historical meaning of Lithuanian and its today meaning. According to old meaning there are no Poles in lands of Great Lithuania. All are Lithuanians
Because today Lithuania isn't the same thing than Great Duchy of Lithuania, non ethnic state. So those who call themselves Poles now show only that they don't feel themselves ethnic Zmudzin. Nothing more.
Adam Mickiewicz could also declare himself Pole now in Wilno although in his time he wrote he was Lithuanian
Hello, my grandfather, Basil Karasevich b. 1890 in Fedorki Russia (maybe Ukraine) always said he was a "white Russian" when he was here in the United States. He also told my father that we had another family name "Zmud" I have found info that Zmud's were born near Ternopil and found a Fedorki close by. He was very secretive and never spoke much about his homeland and I've had a very hard time finding anything out. His mother's name was Zofia Blashkova. He came to the US in 1910 I thought maybe the family left behind changed their name to Zmud but maybe not, maybe he did when he left.
What would the surnames Zmud and Karasevich be? He did spell the name Karasiewicz when he first came to America. His parents, born 1865 +- supposedly owned a farm
On my mother's side... I'm 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Polish, 1/4 German, 1/8 Russian, 1/8 Ashkenazi Jew.
Don't know much about my father's side.
This isn't a statement of nationality but of trying to identify with the cultures of my ancestors. For example it is important for me to differentiate -- especially with Poland being a war-torn area -- were my ancestors cultural Poles? Or were they Germans living in an area that is now Poland?
It is important to me because our ancestors' cultural traditions play a huge part in who we are today...
thats engough! my great x3 grandmother i think was from poland(all i can find is prussia) she had a polish name but married a german so not really 4 sure but ur more than me but im more czech than you...........maybe :)
of course ur very Polish , if ur mostly Polish by blood that's good enough, no one in Poland is 100% Polish, we've been mixing with our neighbors since Poland became a country, it's just not everyone knows what they are since it was their great great great grandfather or mother that was something else for example, or the family is ashamed of it and was hiding it, i found out just 5 yrs ago that i'm 75% Polish 25% Ukrainian, i have at least 8 or 10 friends that are a lil German, Ukrainian, Lithuanian or Jewish
That's how my family was. They were ashamed of being Polish (imagine that!!) so they kind of "Germanized" themselves. All the recipes my Grammy made while I grew up, she always told me they were German. I only found out recently they were traditional Polish dishes!!
