how many know their own family histories?

How far back have you gotten on your genealogy? And where in Ukraine are you searching? I have family who was from a town called Rohatyn in Eastern Galicia (now Ukraine).

I'd love to trace back to Polish records myself, but it's far too expensive. I'm still hoping the parish in Lubno writes to me with records.

When I first started out the only documentatio I had was my father's original birth certificate and a translation of it. I have since been able to trace my family back to approx 1690-1710, all in the same town. My research is concentrated on the town of Sokal which is north of Lwow, just over the border inside the Ukraine.

I have heard of Sokal. Rohatyn is SE of Lwow (or SW?) Good for you to have researched that far back....I'm only as far as the mid 1800's....... :(

How is the research in Ukraine? I haven't contacted the town churches yet. If I send a letter in English, are they likely to understand English?

What I did was bypass writing to the town churches. Instead I used a freelance researcher who (a) visited the Lwow archives and took his own notes (b) made digital photos of various archive pages and (c) visited Sokal and made enquiries and made a video for me.

Lots of family lines were broken by wars and Soviet occupation. For many, to research their bloodlines it meant to go back to painful memories, often not so distant. A sentence from your post kinda touches on the subject(quoted below)

In my case, I somehow convinced my grandmother to talk about her side of the family. In 1970's she was able to take me back to 1812, all from memory. Every single male who was alive between 1812 and 1942 was killed as a result of some war or military action. One who lived longest was my grandfather, killed by the Germans at the age of 42. Going further in time required a lot more effort and research (but it paid off).

Also, as you may know, Poland, like most other European countries, had this nobility vs commoners system. It never occurred to the latter to inquire about their roots. Because of social systems they lived under, they often lived in the same place (as an extended family) for centuries. There was no need. All you had to do was go to the local cemetery, or ask your grandparent. Many of those who would be in a position to trace their bloodlines beyond the times of their immediate family members were killed as soldiers, or exterminated by the Germans and Soviets. In Poland the intelligentsia and nobility were usually the first targets.

Also, a lot of records were systematically destroyed by the Germans during WW2. We were deemed to be Untermensch and designated for complete destruction, so it certainly made no sense to the Germans to hold on to the tradition and documents of an unworthy race.

You are doing some serious research here.
Glad it's yielding good results.

i am jealous :)) in a good way.

Don't get green so fast! The archives only go back to approx 1720 so I've gone as far as I can on my father's side. Still, a lot of gaps exist within his line but due to the gaps in the parish records some may never be filled in. I started trying to go back doing my grandmother's side but quickly ran into a stone wall and have not been able to make any progress.

yes me too..I think also the work ahead of me on certain records that I still have yet
to work on.

but for the most part.. I dont think I will be able to fill in the gaps either.. if I do
it would be miracle.

What's really annoying is that I know my grandmother had 2 sisters and I also know their children's names but also no luck tracing them either!

No, you have to write in Ukrainian. I don't speak (or write) it either hence why I used a freelance researcher which probably was much quicker.

I have a great great aunt that I believe her children ( few of them) came here to the
states, but can I find any records? no.. can I attach anyone here to anyone ? no

frustrating , its more then that.. but I still love doing it :) as much as I have wanted
to call it quits because I hit the brick wall.

Regarding the name in this posting, we'd like to establish contact. The name is in my wife's family history; and we'd like to see if your aunt knows anything about one of the members of this family name. Thanks
email address is ...
ussshields_dd596 at yahoo.com

Even though registered now, likely will not visit this forum again as so far we have no Polish folks in our lines.

Well, i'm only about 4 months into my research.

My grandparents ended up in Germany during WW2, then went to OZ as Dp's a few years after the war. They never spoke about Poland/germany, apart from vaguely knowing the names of their brothers/sisters, and where they were born, everything else i need to find out. And so i'm more or less starting from scratch.

I have been fortunate enough to find a family member in Poland, through a letter i wrote to someone with the same surname as my GM's. Anyway, this really has been a critical find, as sharing gathering info about my GM's side of the family is now much easier.

As for researching my GF's history/family etc, boy, thats proven to be much more difficult.

Found out that my GF was married before he married my GM. Yea, bit of a shock, and i must admit, i was a bit dissapointed when his war papers mentioned what children he had from his first wife - none. Would of been exciting to try to find children from his 1st wife.

Seems to be a common theme regarding those whom were caught up in the war - its not spoken about, and this also seems to impact on life prior to that, thats also kept pretty much quiet.

Anyway, i've now got a hobby that will keep me going till i end up in the ground.

My family history is interesting. I wish I could know more of it than I do.

All 4 of my grandparents came to the US in the 1920's by themselves. They all met their respective spouses in New York City. 3 came from Germany and 1 from Switzerland.

As far as one grandfather is concerned, the trail grows cold with him. I can only go back 1 generation with my father's mother as she came from what became the DDR and all old records were lost. Her father came from Poland and forgive the spelling, his last name was Mikolajczyk.

I have the best results with my father's father's side and my mother's mother's side.

My mother's mother is the one who came back from Switzerland. Some of my cousins still live in the town she was born in. During one of my visits there, I was able to trace the church records back to the 15th century. My earliest known ancestor on her side was a criminal who was arrested for stealing linen. He was caught while bleaching it.

As far as my father's father's side is concerned, I am able to get back to the late 1700's. I also know that my last name should be the German equivalent of "Cooper" and not what it really is. Seems that there was a baby born out of wedlock....

As far as my wife is concerned, she can go back a little ways. She came to this country from Stalowa Wola, Poland. I have to have her sit me down and explain something a bit more to me. She actually brought this up last weekend, I haven't quite gotten my hands around the issue yet. Supposedly, she has some Polish nobility in her, but then somehow, there was a theft of the title of from the rightful owner and then a sale of that title. I am really curious to see how that stuff works!

Sounds like everyone has done alot of research. I belong to ancestry.com. How can I go further?? Not knowing polish, any suggestions.

Thanks

my fathers side doesnt go far back because of his mother...
my grandmother (my dads mother) was still in her mothers womb when she came over from germany. her mother was apparently a ***** who had become pregnant and sold her to an irish family (adoption they call it lol) who had just moved to upstate NY and bought a large farm out there.
being "bought" by this family turned out to be the best thing for her, because they became christians and officially adopted her and raised her like their own child instead of the "farm help" they had bought her to be.

my grandfather (my dads father) goes back really far into the dutch/german culture and they have it fully researched and everything so i didnt look much into it. they showed it to me and we are german from Leipzig Germany.



my moms side is also fully dictated and is german/welsh but i never was as interested in it. i suppose its because her father and step mother are asses and i have no interest in them.

I don't have documents, but I know the history by heart. I hear stories all the time.


Starts like this:

Looooooong time ago....we were farmers. Then family members started to become soldiers and actually got pretty far up there in the chain of command. One of my great grandfathers became a very highly decorated Hussar for a Polish noble (yes, he wore the wings) and recieved a ceremonial sabre. After him it kinda simmered down a bit and we just passed down the sabre from father to son, father to son. During WW1 I'm not sure who, but a few family members fought alongside the Russians, then against them in the 20s. In WW2, great uncles of mine fought against the Axis in Africa, France, and in rebellions in Poland. Some family members were sent to gulags, others to concentration camps, and some were POWs. My grandfather told me how his father used to hide jews in their basement whenever he could feed them. You see my most of my family lived in small villages at that time and close to the mountains in southern Poland in Lapsze Nizne, so they really weren't bothered too often by the Nazis, but when they did show up the whole town tried to help the jews. After WW2, my fathers side of the family moved away from their home town (can't remember the name) to Nowy Targ, and my grandfather was in possession of the sabre. There, my father was born, then his brothers. Not too long ago my father's father passed away, and my father now owns the sabre, being the oldest. He refuses to take it away from Poland though, so he has his brother and mother hold on to it for now. My mother's side of the family is actually lower-upper class in Poland, or they would be if we lived there. My mother's father, who is an ox of a man (survived 3 heart attacks, 5 strokes, diabetes, leg amputation, and then some) owns about 70 acres of land, and a very nice looking house on his farmland. (nicest farmhouse I have ever seen, by far) It's bigger than the house we live in now, but he wanted his children to have a chance at a better life. My mother, her sisters and one brother were all small children who showed up in New York Harbor on a boat when my mom was about 6 or 7. They lived in the US for a little bit, but moved back to Poland. My mother grew up there, met my father, who was in the military and was widely known as "that guy who looks like Patrick Swayze" (I've seen old pics of him, it's not a lie) and they married. While my mother was pregnant, her sisters were already in the US, and she wanted to visit them, so she hopped over for a quick vacation. While she was here, I was born, and that's why I am a US citizen. Then, we lived in Poland for two years, moved to the US, and my brother was born. We've lived in Garfield, NJ and now live in Erie, PA for some reason unknown to me.

That's our story in a nutshell. :]

It has to be very interesting to research your family history. We all want to know and feel the connection "where do I come from". It is amazing, how many people try to find their roots...I wish, I knew more about my grandparents, even tough I was born and basically brought up in Poland. I know so little about my grandparents. I only remember a little my grandma (my mother's mother, I was in my teens when she died). All others were gone when I was born. My parents died early too (teens again)...I just have some stories from my older sister...that's it, even about my parents...

I have to go by stories that I hear at family get togethers like Xmas dinner, Easter, etc. There is absolutely nothing about us on the internet. Supposedly, we have family that came to America in the 1920s, but I doubt they would even care about being Polish anymore, thats 3 generations to get "Americanized" as I call it. I was thinking about writing a letter to them or actually going to see them, but figured they would be too distant from their Polish roots. I'm happy with the family that sticks together. All 1,000 of us, or something like that. If I take both sides of the family and added up all the people, we would be really close to that number. Both are rare last names, but damn we like to have kids.

My mother has had the least amount of kids so far in our family's history in the past 100 and some odd years. Just my brother and me. It's hard to imagine having about 3 more of him.

Also, as a little side note. A couple years back, they used to say there are nothing but girls in my family, but then my father and his uncles were born, they all had son's except the youngest, Grzeg, my mother's brother had son's, his daughter's even had sons, and all of my recent cousins are male. This leads me to believe that a rather large war is coming. Anybody else familiar with the Polish saying: "In times of war, boys are born."

Just a little something to think about.

:]

thats where i am from el gato!
well lancaster.

Gotta love the weather...

I live in Summit, so we get all the lake effect snow, and right now we have about 2ft, maybe 2.5

It really sucks. Cold as hell too.

I always assumed that would be hot rather than cold.
I like cold weather, so perhaps I ought to misbehave more.

its very interesting, The one thing to do is document what you know now..

I can tell you from experience, you remember it now, but it does fade..
I used to have all the names of my grandmothers family in my head, and
I couldnt tell you now because I became uninterested for a short time.. but
its easy to do that.. this is a hard project.. you really have to be dedicated and
have alot of time to get somewhere fast with it..

Lucky bastard! Mate, you must be salivating waiting for that sabre to come to you. These sabres are rare as hen's teeth and go for 10's of thousands (not that you'd ever sell it). Any chance of posting piccies of the sabre?

What have you checked, have you ever been to the NJ Archives?


I lived in Wood Ridge at one time.... is the Fleischer Deli still in Garfield?

GrandeSande

I don't finding it really hard to figure out more as all my Polish family died in the war except my grandfather. My great aunty survived and married but that is all we know. I am going to write to the church of the local town my grandfather was form and keep trying.

Deb, how far back are you with your history?

first of all , dig out all old documents.. or if you dont have them, ask the family
member that does.. it gives you clues as to which direction to go.

the local church they attended..
the city records ( Birth, Marriage,Death).

on my grandfathers death cert it says Russian Polish. but his sisters said
the town name.

same with my grandmothers sister.

on ancestry you can get cencus, death dates, immigration, old papers , Obits,
WWI drafts.

Make sure the name is spelled correctly, if you suspect a change, ask family or
look for other spellings or off spellings... alot of times on the immigrations
you will see name mistakes..

hope this helps.. :)

Can you get census returns for poland on ancestry? I haven't found it