Genealogy / Searching for Wincenty Dec born 1888 - emigrated to Argentina 1929 [14]

Merged: Found my family "Guras" in Poland

For those who are looking for old documents or to build the family tree I will widely recommend a guy that helped me a lot.

We know how frustrating is not finding help so here is the story:

Guras family from Wielkopolska ran away to US and Argentina in the first world war. The families never contacted again, names changed and even the Polish Embassy gave a document confirming the no existence of my relatives...

After 10 years of trying trough the Embassy, genealogy websites and 2 migration consultants I got to Antonio Castaneda, a guy that went personally to the local churches and the real state registries and found information about the grand-father. Thanks to this he created a new birth certificate, needed for recovering the nationality and making the whole family tree...

Cost and time?... he went 3 times to the civil registries and send me the original birth certificate , everything for 500Euros, I don't think was too much. It took him about 3 months because in the Real State registry required a sing from my side.

Here is his contact if someone needs local support Antonio Castaneda "office@castaneda.com.pl"

The guy is not asking for a consultancy fee so you can write questions and not paying him. He only will ask you to recommend him if the case works, so I am here doing it ( I just came to Poland to visit again my new family!)

Good luck guys

Polonia / Family in Venezuela - how can I find one? [3]

I found my polish family and I think this guy can help you in the other direction, you can write and ask him
His name is Antonio Castaneda and his mails is office@castaneda.com.pl

Genealogy / Any tips for tracing ancestry? Having problems with variations of my surname Skotak [9]

cool! me too, I just met last summer old family , cousins, aunts, it was great. Poles are truly a cool people and I am proud to have some polish blood. ( the liver I will never have it, vodka it's just too strong...)

Law / I have an Israeli Driving License. What do I have to do to get a Polish driving license? [19]

The international driver's license DOESN'T exist!

Is just a translation of yours. If you want to drive in Poland you can do it for 3 months , if you live in Poland for more than 3 months you have to apply for a "residence visa"and they you can 'exchange" yours for the polish one without needed to do any exam.

Real Estate / Looking to buy property in Poland - understanding the different types of ownership! [10]

Yes, both ways mean that they can sell the apartment and you can buy it.

But you don't need to be an expert in polish law, better look for options and get a lawyer, they are not so expensive and they can save your butt ;)

I opened a polish private company and I can recommend my accountant, she is in Lodz and save me all the time I need a basic advice. She is helping with the accountancy of foreign companies. She has some kind of master in Accountancy that allows her to check another national accountants, I can not remember exactly what it is but means that she is one of the few accountants in Poland with a higher knowledge in law.

You can give her a call. 0048 42 634 87 84, this is her email: e.fabijanowska@ef-rejestr.pl

Genealogy / Any tips for tracing ancestry? Having problems with variations of my surname Skotak [9]


My family is Majda, but in America was translated , Maida, Meida,Maidan, Machda and even Makda, so to follow the family tree was a real mess.

I wanted to recover the nationality so I was trying to follow the family story with no success, I even werein the the small cities in Poland myself as a turist-reseacher but the lack of the language really makes a problem...

I am not sure if I can post email addresses my I got a guy that help me to build the family tree, he went to the the real state registries and confirmed names and match the story, so even if the birth certificate of my grand father was not existing, he created a new one. So maybe you should try them too. Their contact is office@castaneda.com.pl

Basically I show him some communication letters between the family and some photos, so he could guess the original city, then got a real state document of a land sold and there he got the real name, later he went to the local church and read in Russian the old documents... until they got the name of my grandfather as witness... this was the prove that the person really existed and thanks to that they created the new birth certificate needed to recover my polish nationality

I know that the story sounds crazy, but it worked... I spent too much time myself doing it alone that I was happy to find someone who could help me. I hope can help someone else too.

Genealogy / Obtaining Original Poznan Parish Records, Greater Poland archives? [22]

yes, you got it, you need to write directly but you need a local address and phone so they can call and send the documents.

I was in the same situation and got local help from a Spanish Lawyer, he resend me the documents after two month of the whole process, not bad actually.

I am not sure if I can post emails, but I leave you his contact, maybe he can help you : Lic. Antonio office@castaneda.com.pl

Genealogy / Rozyszcze Birth Registry [9]

that is totally not true!

Each civil registry has their own rules, and that is the problem with Poland.

After 100 years they go to the main civil registry in Warsaw, but before they stayed in the local civil registries.

By the way, not only family can access the birth certificates and you don't need a lawyer for that... please write directly to the local civil registry and confirm it

Genealogy / Mikilewicz - Birth certificate for great grandfather [4]

Yes, it is possible to get records but from the local churches or civil registry...

In my case my embassy confirmed that the records didn't exist. But trying to find my family tree I got the contact with a consultancy company in Warsaw. The Spanish owner was really

nice and explained me that could be possible to create a new birth certificate if we have prove that the person really existed, so we did the whole process like in 2 months.

Here is their contact, maybe they can also help you. office@castaneda.com.pl

Genealogy / Searching for information on where to find 1880's birth records for Lachawa, Poland [14]

My embassy confirmed officially that my family records were destroyed. Then after years of trying to find family in Poland I got with a consultancy company, they helped me to make my family tree based in real birth certificates and they got created a new birth certificate for my grandfather, the key was to prove that he really existed.

The consultancy company is Castaneda Consultores and the contact is Lic. Antonio, here is their contact: office@castaneda.com.pl

I hope it can help you

Work / Find a Job in Poland speaking just English and Spanish [2]

I have a friend from Finland that doesn't speaks polish and he got a nice contract for a private gym here in Poznan. Their main clients are from a Finnish-Swedish company so they wanted a personal trainer with native Finnish.

I think that specialized jobs are well payed but hard to find, nevertheless keep trying!