How do you find relatives in Poland?

I have never been to my native land of Poland and I have talked to my eldery aunts and and my father on his side and my grandfather on my mothers side and no one knows anyone personally in Poland. They all agree "of course we may have some distant relatives" but no one knows for sure.

As far as I know no one from my family tree has immigrated here since the early 1900s so anyone I might find would have never met me or my family. I can't just look in a Polish telephone book when I get there for my last name (I am guessing it is common in Poland but foreign here) and call someone I have never met just because of their surname and say "Hey I am from the U.S. we may be related based on our last names."

Anyone in their right mind would hang up. Also, is there an online search engine where I could type in Krakow or Warsaw etc. and then enter my last name to see if anyone might have the last name? I guarantee if it is in Poland anywhere we would be distant relatives since it is so rare and was to my knowledge never anglicized. It is Nicholas in Polish by the way, what do you think of that? Nicholas was a Czar so I am guessing it is common however my last name is generally a male's first name I understand.

Also, the reason I want to find relatives is not only to correspond but WHEN I go to Poland after I graduate University, I would like to have a place to go etc. It would have been perfect to hook up with someone and go to the World Cup etc. How do you meet potential family members if you have no where to start?

Is there a website that helps with geneology or a general database that I could type in a few surnames? is the a "Find your relatives" information center in any of the main central cities? Thanks

yankees_hater1@hotmail.com please email if you can assist.

What is the point of this forum if you want us to contact you by hotmail ?

I could help you but I won't because I have no idea if you have already spoken to someone.

The reason Genealogy and Family History work on the WWW is because many people can read a question or reply and then react to it. Sometimes the question and /or reply will help a third person to come up with an answer.

You seem to need as much help as possible: go to Rootsweb

I would start by looking on the Mormon Church site. They have a lot of the parishes from Poland on microfilm. If you know exactly where your family came from you could get a lot of valuable information there. But, you won't get much help from anyone on this forum. They are into bashing one another.

Yes Mormons are only in America but they do have many records from Polands Parishes transcribed on film. Check it out maybe some of your relatives are there somewhere, it seems America is a little ahead of the Polish in this aspect.

I do not understand what you are babbling about.

Here, every citizen has a PESEL - and id number that is being given to each citizen born in Poland. If have the name and the access to the proper databse it is possible to locate anyone in a matter of seconds.

You don`t have anything like that cose you don`t have Id-s in the US.

Not everyone is in Poland. As for the government assigning numbers to citizens as soon as they are born it seems they haven't gotten that far away from thier communist roots after all. Better look behind you as if they can find someone in seconds you might be #1 on their list.

Everyone - cose everyone has to register the place he`s living in.

Most of the civilized world has Ids - it dosn`t have to do anything with communism

what about all the undocumented foreigners that come to different countries-there goes your theory on everyone having their own little ID #. They might have one in there place of birth but where they go from there no one knows. Try to locate all those doing the bombings and such. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could find them in a second or two. We could go on forever but its just not worth it. We all the same in my book no matter where you come from. No one is better than the other.

Well, if a non-Polish citizen wants to stay here beyoned a certain time period, he has to register - he has to have a name and an adress.

It is possible for someone to be unregistered - to have no address - but without an adress your options are very limited - you can not do the most basic things.

Ofcourse someone could get into hiding - but in the longrun he wouldn`t have a normal life.

Yes I do need as much help as possible as I have no idea if I even have any relatives in Poland. I am not a troll. The reason I use email is what else do you suggest? I don't even know if this method would work. I am just putting out feelers because I don't know the approach to take which is the whole reason I came here in the first place, to at least learn more about my main nationality from people that know more about it than I do.

As for the Mormon site, I haven't visited it, but I am not sure what good that would do. I am not a Mormon and isn't Poland something like 95% Roman Catholic anyway?

what surname are you looking for

I wrote the second post.

The Mormon site [ LDS ] has nothing to do with religion as such. It is a group of people who happen to be from the Church of Latter Day Saints. They collect information from church records in many countries. Their aim is to have a genealogical record of the world.
The LDS site can help you because they have already done the hard work for you. However, they don't have all the records and those that they do have will be more than 100 years old.

A good site for you to start your family search is Rootschat. This is mainly a British site but if you check the threads you will find some good tips and links to Polish sites.

Also, as I said earlier try Rootsweb.

Now I know how serious you are I will try to help. Please try the sites I've mentioned and give me your thoughts.

Try on this site

archiwa.gov.pl

You wrote:

"I guarantee if it is in Poland anywhere we would be distant relatives since it is so rare and was to my knowledge never anglicized. It is Nicholas in Polish by the way, what do you think of that? Nicholas was a Czar so I am guessing it is common however my last name is generally a male's first name I understand."

Nicholas, the way you spell, is not Polish. The first name as Poles use it is Miko 2;aj, so the surname could be Miko 2;ajczyk, Miko 2;ajczak, Miko 2;ajski or similar. ( 2; stands for l with a dash and you pronounce it as "w" in English).

So it may actually have been anglicized or you got the translation not exactly right.

If I were you, I'd start with finding out where your ancestors come from exactly (city/town, region). Then you may actually look your name up in teh telephone book (www.pkt.pl) but don't bother calling, most probably there are going to be many entries.

Also, you mustn't forget that before the wars the Polish borders were different and at the start of the century there was no Poland at all, that many non-Poles lived on Polish teritory, that many, like your family, emigrated, many died. Once you gather all the information, including all possible names (given names, surnames, maiden names) and other data, start your search.

I hope you don't get disappointed once you find somebody. An uncle from America is synonimous with someone rich who wants to find someone to give their fortune to so people may treat you not as you may expect.

Anyway, all the best, good luck to you and your search.

b

My grandfathers were actually born in what was called Prussia. This is the case on both sides of my family. What can you tell me about the s

Sorry, My grandfathers were actually born in what was called Prussia. This is the case of both my grandfathers on both sides of my family. What can you tell me about the surnames Mikolai and Knopik?

Mikolai is probably the U.S. version. I think it can be spelled Mikolaj according to

weddingvendors.com/baby-names/meaning/mikolai/

Also, I don't think anyone actually posted the mormon website link. Look above I can't find it anywhere. I checked Roots web and I dont recognize any of the people that came up for my surname. Also none were in Europe.

As for the Polish data base website nothing came up on my surname.

I cannot read archiwa.gov.pl because it is in all Polish and I am not bilingual. I probably am at a 2 year old in that language. What is the word for "database" or "search" (information here) etc.

Do you know anything about this?

the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland,"

It came off here
polishroots.org/surnames/surnames_41.htm#MIKOL~AJEWSKI

MIKOL~AJEWSKI

To: Curtis G^D_Polecat Mikolajewski, polecat@texas.net, who wrote:

... I wish to know any Info on the name Mikolajewski. My heritage wasn't taught to me and I wish to build it again for my future children since my brother and I are the only males left to carry the name on. Thank you for your time.

In Polish the name we call "Nicholas" takes the form Mikol~aj. I'm using L~ there to stand for the Polish L with a slash through it, which I can't render online without a lot of fuss most folks don't want to mess with. That letter is pronounced like our W, and Mikol~aj sounds like "mee-KO-why."

The suffix -ski is adjectival, meaning "of, from, connected with, pertaining to." The suffix -ew- is possessive. So Mikol~ajewski, pronounced roughly "mee-ko-why-YEFF-skee," means literally "of, from, connected with, pertaining to the _ of Nicholas." In practice that blank is filled in with something so obvious it doesn't need to be spelled out, usually either "family, kin" or "place." So most times you see Mikol~ajewski it started out meaning either "kin of Nicholas" or "one from the place of Nicholas." Surnames ending in -owski and -ewski are especially likely to refer to names or places, such as Mikol~ajew, Mikol~ajewo, Mikol~ajewice, sometimes also Mikol~ajki, Mikol~ajow, etc. There are a lot of place names this surname can come from, and there are a lot of villages in Poland by those names.

So all we know from the surname itself is that it means either "kin of Nicholas" or "one from Nicholas's place," and the latter could be any of a large number of places in Poland with names beginning Mikol~aj- because of some historical association with a fellow by that name. Only genealogical research into the history of a specific family might uncover facts that would help establish exactly what place the surname refers to in their particular case. This Mikol~ajewski family might come from here, that one might come from there, and so on. There is no way to tell without tracing each family.

As of 1990, according to the best data available (the Slownik nazwisk wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych, "Directory of Surnames in Current Use in Poland," which covers about 94% of the population of Poland), there were 4,189 Polish citizens named Mikol~ajewski. They lived all over Poland, with no significant concentration in any one place -- which is to be expected, since there are places by those names all over Poland.


How do I know WHERE a name was common/concentrated? Lodz? Warsaw etc. Also, wasn't Lodz once part of Germany?

Well, my father did tell me this weekend that my relatives come from the rural regional area of Silesia, Poland and Trembatschau, Poland, and Neudorf Poland. I have no idea where these places are or what is poignant about any of these cities but that is all I know for now.

What can you tell me (if anything) about these apparantly rural farming areas?

Apparantly Neudorf is now called Nowa Wies Poland
polandpoland.com/nowa_wies.html

I googled Silesia and it is a legit region but found nothing for Trembatschau. Is it the same as Trzemeszno? Also, nothing for Neudori (these are all the ways my father spelled them).

I originally thought these 3 names were <b>cities</b> but alas they are still only geographic regions. I still don't know the cities that my relatives come from but I am getting closer! What do I do next?

Some of my husband's Polish relatives in Texas were/are named Mikolajewski. Some of them live near Bremond, Texas, and others in Washington County in various smaller communities, such as Chapel Hill.

There are Polish Genealogical Societies all over the U.S., and they are most helpful to people getting started. Just do a Google search on Polish Genealogical Societies and you'll probably find one for your state, and perhaps very close to where you live. I've found them all to be very helpful when I asked them. Of course, the only ones I've met were from Texas.

My husband's Polish kin of that name came from Gniezno and small communities near there. I had help to find the microfilms, but the LDS (Mormon) church had microfilmed records from there from about 1800 to about 1872. I believe they have now filmed some more recent ones, but I have not looked for those.

Other good places to begin:

Polish Genuis Forum

and

http:// polish.genealogyforum.eu /index.php (no spaces)

Here are several ideas for you to try:
There is a book "Polish Roots" by Rosemary A. Chorzempa ISBN 0-8063-1378-1 which is one of the best handbooks for finding your Polish roots.
Go to the FHC website, and there are instructions on how to start searching for your family history.
You can visit any FH Library and there are people who can tell you how to go about starting your search. They are very knowledgeable and will hook you up to the records, etc. that you might need to start with. There is no fee and no religion involved.
There is a website, Poland Border Surnames, which is very helpful.
Don't expect this search to be easy, or without a lot of hard work! Good Luck!

Mormons are not only in America.
You can also watch microfilms in Poland in their center in Warsaw.

Family History Centers in Poland

Warsaw Poland
38 Nowy Swiat
Warszawa, Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Phone: 48-228 276 311
Hours: Tues- Fri 1000-2000, Sat 1000-1700


familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

I might be able to find an immigration record you do not have, which may have the Polish or Austrian/Galician town and place of origin listed on it.

What is the first name of your father and of his father? Who originally emmigrated here and when--a great grandfather in the last century or the 19th century?

There are numerous immigration records at ancestry.com that I can find for you in a matter of minutes--original ship manifests from the ports of Boston, Louisiana, NY (both Ellis Island and Castle Garden), draft registration cards from WWI and beyond, etc.

I found too many Mikolajewski names and variants to figure out which one could be yours, on my own. What we do in genealogy is work backwords from the known to the unknown, so if I find your guy here, then we work backwards from there back to Poland.

Try also surnamenavigator.org and geneanet.net and also go to familysearch.org if you can't get to an LDS family history center in the UK or US, to look up their listings of microfilms from Poland. It's free to look at what they have indexed, but you have to pay to order the microfilms from the vaults and to print the pages you want from them. Nominal fees, very insignificant.

Well hi guys

I went on that rootsweb site (cheers wroclaw) and searched for Zigmunt Tarasiewicz came with some hits so i hit the link for ancestry.com and searched deaths .. i have discovered that Marjorie (Margaret) Tarasiewicz my fathers mum died in Jun 1988 (which i was aware of that she died in this time) i have now discovered which i knew to have been the situation that Zigmunt Tarasiewicz died Feb 2003 ... I only saw him the once that was in June 2001 to tell him my father had died of cancer in November 2000, he was somewhat ill then.

Oh .... excuse me a while ... a little overcome!

no Nicolas is U.S. version, and polish would be Mikolaj , that is my grandfathers
first name, but is also a last name for some.

Hi, this is Wolfgang from Florida. I'm a member of the Trembatschau list in Germany.
Please give me your last name and I'll let you know asap.
Best regards
Wolfgng aus Florida
wolfusa2000@netzero.com

Hi, my name is Wolfgang from Florida, I'm a member of the web page Gross-Wartenberg/Trembatschau. Please provide me with familyname and you will hear asap from me.
wolfusa2000@netzero.com

Hi, my name is Wolfgang from Florida, I'm a member of the web page Gross-Wartenberg/Trembatschau. Please provide me with familyname and you will hear asap from me.
wolfusa2000@netzero.com

Thread attached on merging:
I would like to know how to find someone in Poland

How do I search for a person in Poland? I have her name and I know her maiden name. I wanted to know if there are resources on the web I can use?
Please help.

I have a phone number of possiable family in Gdynia. It is for Lochka's but I only speak English. Can I find the address from the phone number? I want to know about the family but I am unsure how to make contact. Do they speak English in Gdynia? What do I do now?