Genealogy / Poland Genealogy Resources [130]

If anyone does manage to locate Polish (or Russian-language, my great-grandparents were from villages taken over by the Russian Empire) records, Polish Origins does free translations - I believe there are Latin and German translators as well, but I haven't needed their services so I'm not sure.

They all do wonderful work, and I've found out so much about my family from the records - because of them I'm now able to recognize the names I need in Cyrillic.

There's also an archival site called BaSIA (basia.famula.pl), and an index of marriages (Poznan Project) for families in Wielkopolska. My great-grandfather's family was from near Częstochowa and those church books (microfilmed original records) are available for free on FamilySearch.org.

Hope this helps a little.

USA, Canada / Poles in America: How do you pronounce your Polish surname? [128]

Hello, everyone - I'm new to this site. I've been researching my genealogy for the past two years and have discovered so much information about Polish family I didn't even know I had. (My family didn't speak of their past.)

My last name is very American because my grandfather, who hated his father, changed it from Black (which I use in most Polish-related forums) to [current name] after HIS father changed it from Błachowicz.

My great-grandfather, Karol Błachowicz, came from the village of Krasice, near Katowice, in Śląsk. He was born in 1878 and went to the United States in 1907 to work in the steel mills in Pittsburgh. In American records, his name was spelled variously "Blachowic, Blackowitz, Blachowitz, Blackovitz" etc. He Anglicized his name to Karl Stanley Black eventually.

His American-born children's birth certificates are under "Blackowitz," and his daughter was born Ewa, listed as Eva, and eventually called Caroline (Karolina, presumably) after her father.

For convenience, we use the name he chose, Black, but I try to pronounce it the Polish way even though I sound like a dolt: "Bwah-haw/hoh(?)-veech."

Karol's wife, on the other hand, was named Urszula Gielicz, from Lądek, Słupca County, Greater Poland. She also came over in 1907 and they married in 1909. I recently discovered that her half-brother, Leon, settled first in Pennsylvania and then went to Chicago - his grandson (b 1943) is able to speak decent Polish, and he pronounces the surname "Gyelleech."

In records it's spelled "Galycz," "Gillich," "Gelics," or "Grelicz." My side of the family, because we never knew what her surname looked like (until I found out) and had to rely on phonetics, generally pronounces it as "Gillich."

Interestingly, both Pittsburgh and Chicago have/had a large Polish population (especially between 1870-1920) and our dialects sound kind of similar because of it. I'm trying to at least be able to read Polish, but I stumble over the words - even my relatives in Poland are like, "Yeah, we don't understand our language much either."