REMEMBER

 

TRACES : CLASSICS IV

 

Dennis Yost was the singer on this 1969 classic.

I REVIEWED THE WORK OF A PRO SALT LAKE GENEALOGIST AND WAS ANGERED

It's not uncommon for the work of one genealogist to be handed over to another. Recently a report, granted compiled in 2003, was handed over to me. It was compiled by a "certified" genealogist from a company that was lodged in Salt Lake City. (I will not comment on if it is still there.) The presentation of the research was rather professional for 2003, a booklet like the kind you can get from a photocopy company with plastic claw binding, nice logo and official looking. The report kept noting "sessions" as in "previous research sessions." Never the less, any information previously handed over to the client and repeated in this one should have shown documentation.

The client had paid for more information on their Irish Catholic ancestor who had come to the US about 20 years prior to the Famine and with an expertise. The report went forward with documents of his children BUT THAT WAS NOT THE PROBLEM. The problem was a family mystery. He had gone to Hawaii and disappeared. There was no further communication from him other than a letter from him stating that he had made it, or so the story went. I asked to see the letter and read it aloud to the client. It was clear that there had been an estrangement as he says he has not heard from anyone in a long time as if he's been cut off, he suggests he will return if that's what's best wanted. In a long PS he suggests maybe his wife and family might want to move to Hawaii.

The date of the letter cannot suggest when he left or even how long it took to be recieved. 

My research showed that it could take six months or more each way to get a letter from New York to San Francisco. A year or more could have gone by.

Of course I cannot know how many times this pro communicated with the client and what was said but I started to feel angry that so much time had been wasted. 

There were photocopies of books read seeking some mention of mystery man's, name and in the business he was supposed to partake in. Since he was not supposed to be an owner, I saw this as a debatable pursuit.

Had he died? When? Did he forget his wife and children and marry another women? Had he gone and failed, perhaps because Protestant missionaries were busy in Hawaii and he was Catholic and was not allowed into the ship captain, missionary, sugar business cabal? Maybe he died of disease or fell off another boat. Or he had to find the work of a common laborer  - with Chinese - and had not a cent to get back home. Then there was the mail which could take months - had he sent another letter that was never recieved? Had she replied?

When had he died and where?

I'm reminded of a person I knew years before who was illegitimate. Her mother told her to tell people her daddy had been killed in the war circa 1948. I wondered if the whole Hawaii thing had been a deal circa 1848 between a couple who couldn't divorce!

This report I was reviewing was a culmination of various "sessions" over many pre database years. It was clear to me this genealogist was hinting at more books he could read but had failed to find the mystery man on records. This can happen despite extreme efforts. But where was evidence that a proper search had been made?

And if someone wanted to disappear mid 1800s it was a lot easier than today. The long sail trips around the Cape Horn - the spirit of adventure - he could've written a letter and had a shipmate friend mail it from Hawaii. 

But one fact hit me. The widowed wife of an immigrant was able to send a son to college and law school. How was that afforded? How did a woman with children who never remarried in the pre Civil War days in a town in a smallish North Eastern town keep going? Had one or both of them come to America from Ireland with a fortune?

Further she bought land in her own name about 1846. This any feminist genealogist will tell you is a clue. A couple years before the date on the letter. Did she come with money of her own?

And one had to have land there and then in New York to become a citizen.

Immediately I suspected she knew her husband was gone for good though the letter that supposedly stated he had "made it" to Hawaii was 1848. I reread the letter.

Was it possible that her husband never came back to her but did prosper to send money for years? Had there been a quiet divorce? The potential for court records and land purchase had been unexplored.

The report repeated the family story, perhaps a mythology. There is no documentation for the story.

There is no name of a ship. No departure date. No manifest. No citizenship. No church records.

The thing that most struck me is that if it was not at the Latter Day Saint's Family History library in Salt Lake, it was as if that resource did not exist. 

Therefore, after an hour of research with five pages of my notes in hand, I asked the client to give me all previous research sessions.

A much fatter report from 2002 began with evidence of trying the Hawaii State Archives and University of Hawaii to report on their collections and some of these collections held potential but there was no evidence that any of them had actually been examined by anyone, stating he'd have to go to Hawaii to look. No - that's when you're supposed to actually contact an archivist there for guidance or pay them! Same thing about Irish archives.

Irish genealogy can be problematic due to a repetition of common names. I've had to tell a client there were 16 men with the same name coming over the same year - there was more that could be done - but he didn't want me to look for naturalization that would give me the town because he didn't want to pay more.

Years into this professional's research there was a note of a naturalization in New York but no copy of it. Perhaps it would state where he was born in Ireland. Yet in 2003 the pro was still ? On the place and date of birth.

I was researching at and through LDS Family History Centers at least as far back to 2000. Why had he not looked at/ for the naturalization? Indexes are meant to help us get to originals.

There is no evidence of a search for wills. Or confirmation of the land purchase of land.

I started to feel angry. 

Imagine when I got to the middle of a pile of reports and noticed a different genealogist working for the same company had started this same research problem in the 1980s and had actually done, despite more obstacles, more and better research. Still, no documentation.

*****

Believing undocumented family stories is a genealogy myopia.

*****

It's ethical for a pro genealogist to say they gave hit into a brick wall and can go no further with what's available. 

It's another to not look at appropriate available records just because they are not at an LDS or other research library.

*****

My recommendations are for the descendant who inherited these reports to go forward with Hawaii State Archives, the Catholic diocese of Honolulu, and the Catholic diocese in the US, as well as land purchase and naturalization for the woman who reportedly never knew what happened to her husband. If court records are not in existence, II would still approach historical societies and reach out to libraries local to the questions 

It's good to know history and read books about Hawaii developing but not realistic to find mention of a worker who was not an owner or executive in these authored and edited books. However, details about the island. Catholic Missions, and Sugar might enrich the story, such as telling what the island was like when the ancestor wrote his letter.

I would learn more about how someone might get to Hawaii from the East Coast. Based on Catholic and Irish heritage it's my notion the port of Boston would've been used.

C 2021

TWO STACKS

 

MARRIAGE RECORDS; POLAND GENEALOGY #4

I hope if you have not yet, you'll read the  previous posts of this series.

Without reading headings, it's obvious you're looking at a church record for births, marriages and deaths. Indexing projects seem to focus on births. While this is helpful, it's not the start of research for some. So it's my hope that marriage indexes will be next, be it the Polish Genealogy society people busy indexing at GENETEKA or the Latter Day Saint's FAMILYSEARCH projects.

You'll probably be able to make out the names, ages, parents of the couple, and so on.

If a surname seems unreadable or questionable, try running a Google search for the surname as you think it's spelled. Often a suggestion will come up that's the correct spelling and if not then my guess is that if you keep reading you will find it spelled clearly in better handwriting elsewhere in the book.

Some things to consider:

The given name in Latin has a Polish equivalent. Watch the Ls turn into Ws. The Ws into Vs. Valentius is Valentine is Walenty.  (Wally, Wallace, or Val in America?) Is your Aunt Betty not Elizabeth but Bronteslava? (Bronte?) So much is in Latin but consider the translation of given names.

Next, if a person has been widowed it will be noted and it may say who they were married to previously and that's before the name of the parents and grandparents! This is terrific if you can find the birth/ baptismal too, the previous marriage, all the children and step children.

Ok you're maybe going to see three dates, say, 1/4, 1/11, 1/18. Or I, II, III. These are the banns of marriages, the announcement of the intended marriage. Today these are posted in church bulletins and even end up on the net. Soap Operas / Day Time dramas love to include into the plot that during the very marriage ceremony someone will object to the marriage. But the original idea was to cause a person with an objection to come forward to the priest before the ceremony to cancel it. Objections in the 19th century and past could include knowing someone is already married or that someone is homosexual, or that they are a criminal on the run, or that an agreement about who will live where or own land has not been peacefully decided. 

My research leads me to think remarriage was a pragmatic contract but there were more concerns too as I have found records where there's no mention of banns when it's two never- married individuals joining their lives but only on the remarriage of those widows and widowers! 

Now, there are often notes that need to be translated as well. I believe one priest was writing in 2 or 3 after "widower" to state the person lost two or three previous wives. Also, I've seen notes that banns were posted in two villages. Maybe they were stuck on a door of a church but since few could read and write, I think verbal announcements were made.

Another note on marriage records is a house number. Possibly if you can find a cadastral map of the habituation from the same year you can see where they lived but these don't usually relate to today's house numbers.

Testifiers or witnesses may or may not be related to the couple. Note them but sometimes they are elders of the community, employers/ farm owners (implying the groom has employment), and you'll see two, or three, or four, all or mostly men. In villages where surnames are repetitive be especially careful not to assume the testimonial people are related. Don't think of them as best men, maids of honor, or the wedding party. 

Also valuable are those records that include where the person was born and where they live/habituate at the time. If no remark is made, the person is local, a part of the parish. That may mean a neighboring village which is part of that parish. If they're from somewhere else you'll go to those records for baptismal.

I've noticed some listings that give the birth dates of bride and groom. Thank You!

Remember, priests were hard working, had influence, were called upon for advice, were able to read and write, and church was central to the people's lives.

But farmers and farm laborers couldn't always make it to church. They didn't have tractors back in the day and had to hoe, plant, water, and harvest by hand or might be lucky to have horses or mules.

Professions may also be listed but more by industry. Agriculture is general and covers a wide range of possibilities.

Cobbler. Military. Official.

D. may indicate a person is of nobility - implied is of importance. Note the Germanic names in the Austrian Empire.

Notes can include statements. One I read was "person is low" a servent. Another was "this man is rustic." 

So what was a peasant? Actually peasant is supposed to mean that they lived a countrified existence; that was most people. Peasant started to infer that a person was ignorant or poor, perhaps maintaining folk beliefs, and became a put down. There's no reason to think that way. Landless people who could not live off their own land became like our migrant farm workers, going from farm to farm to work odd jobs or harvest. Others went into trades and became skilled craftsman and artisans. There were traveling salesman and shop keepers and some few became more educated. 

See if a statistical almanac or gazetteer is available for the habituation. Learn about mines, forestry, and industry. Oil wells, steel mills, and market towns.

Finally, note the name of the priest and try to find the name of the church.

There's a lot on line, especially the beautiful churches that tourists go to see with Baroque interiors. The wooden churches of the Greek Catholics are also wonderful.

Once you've found s marriage, see what the church where the marriage was performed looked like.

C 2021 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot

 

FOUR STACKS

 

EAST GREEK OR WEST ROMAN CATHOLIC AND ETHNICITY : POLAND GENEALOGY

Earlier I mentioned that you might think a person to be Polish but discover a person had a Ruthenian, Ukrainian, or other ethnic identity. You may also discover in your search for archival documents that there are religious records and duplicates called "city" or "town" records - Civil Records. You may notice the start date on these is about 1860 - compliance was not immediate. What happened is that Priests were told to make duplicates of parish records of births, marriages, and deaths to be submitted to government so then these second sets got called Civil. It's a good thing because two handwritten copies meant more survived. However, I've noticed the year dates are not always the same between church and civil as if some records were lost. You may have to look at both.

I recently had an experience that made me question previous research that went to a date I was seeking for a baptismal. Not finding it, I decided to read every page of marriages, taking notes by hand. And there I found a selection of dates out of order. However, sometimes the civil copies are more readable since an effort was being made to copy.

Some collections are clearly from Roman Catholic parishes and others are clearly Greek Catholic. Also called Eastern Orthodox, in archives and databases I see "Greek." Generally there was an implied ethnic difference in religion. Ruthenians tended to be Greek Catholics or Uniates (accepting the Roman Catholic Pope but following their own rituals, saints, and calendar). They also tended to be living closer to the Carpathian Mountains or where the eastern part of Poland was, about where Ukraine is now.***

But take the following into consideration:

Ruthenians had three sub-ethnic groups or tribes within their ethnicity. The most familiar to us today are the Lemko and if you're looking at records for Village up close to mountains or mountain passes. they are probably Lemko.***

Then, the Ruthenian people had their own language but back in the day when few people went to school - girls were often not sent at all even when their family had means - just about everyone was multilingual, especially because these were Slavic languages and had many similarities, they could understand each other. (German would be the most popular language after the Slavic.) In market and trade towns very many languages were spoken. Some documents are in Latin, German, or French. Or Ukrainian, which is the only one I panic about due to Cyrillic alphabet.

Last but not least, there were marriages between people of different faiths. And it's not clearly recorded. I suspect priests might have felt that if a person was being baptized, married, or buried in their church then that's enough to claim them. I've seen one note in a Roman Catholic record that says "This man comes from Ruthenian lands."

So here are some clues which may help.

The first is the given name of a child. Children are often named after a saint because of the day they were born that honored that saint or thereabouts - so you'll see a lot of girls who are baptized in a Franciscan run Roman Catholic church named Rose/Rosalia after Italian Saint Rose of Viterbo in early September. There isn't much diversity of names or honorifics of parents or family in Polish records. Children chose a Confirmation name that might honor a parent. (And use that as a middle name.)

When you get to names such as Basilius, Anastasia, Demeter and Tatiana you're probably looking at a child who has a Greek Catholic heritage, at least one parent because that name honors an Eastern saint. I've found these names in Roman Catholic records. They don't just sound Greek. They sound Russian.

Second, you'll find certain settlements had substantial populations and separate churches but others required travel.  It might be easier to just go into the closest church. 

Or, home births with family or midwives being the common way, a baptism could occur after birth and people might not make it into church, staying up in the mountains.

Third, you may find you do have to move over to Greek Catholic records and into records of other countries so it's worth checking into in any case if a village that figures into your heritage had a Greek Catholic Church. 

Interesting to me is that Polish Roman and Greek Catholic records and Jewish records record the name of the midwife which I feel is part of a testimonial such as, "I know who the mother is. I delivered the baby." Midwives did baptized babies after birth. (Anyone can.) Notice any pattern on day born and day baptized ? The same day might mean baptized at birth.

A question of the Ruthenian ethnic identity has existed for hundreds of years, a controversial subject for sure. They are considered to be of the country from where they lived. (i.e. Russia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania....)

But if you know someone who is Ruthenian, ask them how they wish to be identified.

Here is the last but sometimes most important thing. There may be a ten to twelve day difference in the dates from the Eastern, Julian calendar that was the old calendar begun by Julius Caesar and used until 1582 throughout Europe and the Gregorian, begun by Pope Gregory used by most of Roman Catholic Europe. So basically if you're reading records of the Eastern Orthodox or Greek Catholic Church, read the dates forward and back of the date you're targeting.  (Many of you are familiar with the difference in when Christmas is celebrated.

***

So, the three groups of Ruthenians are the Lemko, who are usually found in Ukraine,  Poland, and Slovakia. The Hutsels, usually found in Ukraine, Romania, and Bukovina. And the Boykos, usually found in the mountains of Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary. Ruthenians are also called Carpatho- Rusyns, Kiev Rus, Eastern Slavs, Uniates, Belarusians, and mostly Ukrainian...

If you learn you're Ruthenian or are simply intrigued to know there's an ethnic group you never heard of, you may find the nation's first cultural center in the Pittsburgh area.

They bought Saint John the Baptist cathedral.

NATIONAL CARPATHO-RUSYN CULTURAL CENTER

POLAND GENEALOGY : EVER BETTER RESOURCES #2

Those of you doing Polish / Poland genealogy research feel you're facing obstacles unknown in research for other parts of Europe. Political upheavels and war, the disappearance of a country called Poland for about 170 years, changes in borders between Poland and Russia, the creation of Galicia as part of the Austrian Empire, border changes with Slovakia, the partition called Prussia, changes of names of villages by spelling or languages, and changes in Diocese, can be confusing. 

Don't despair! Remind yourself Poland fits in the state of Colorado and the population wasn't what it is today. You may hit into obstacles but you may be rewarded.

There is lots of information so easily and quickly available compared to the days when traveling to Poland or writing to archives was the only way to research.

While location of records has been confusing, you can find detailed information at AGAD (Run by the Central Archives of Historical Records) which is online, based in Warsaw. It includes information about Poland/ Ukraine. It can link you elsewhere.

Additionally, while multiple archives and resources hold originals, some were microfilmed, and some were scanned, digitalized, and some were uploaded to be searched on line, image by image. 

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS, be patient.

First, be aware that sites accessed from the US in Poland may raise an alert on your phone or computer because they're not "secure" with an https. (I ignore the warning. I also clear my cookies, history, etc. frequently.) Or simply because Poland is not considered to be a country reliable for security and I've even found the whole country to be blocked on public computers!

Look in the PRADZIAD database. This is a regional archive locator. If you seek information more quickly after exhausting what is readily available on line, you can still do the time honored contact with an archive. 

NAC is slowly replacing this site and I love it. I've found the best way to pull up the collection you may be seeking in it is to search by location - TOWN / settlement name. Yes, you will browse image by image because it's not indexed but hey I too prefer rolling microfilm. You can get to a date fairly quickly. I've used NAC extensively to take me to image collections when I know the TOWN/ settlement name. But you will face the fact that collections are missing years, especially the World War I era. Also Poland privacy laws are stricter than America but that doesn't account for year gaps.

Google translates Polish into English so titles of collection are easy.

You can also search a terrific database that is volunteer driven called GENETEKA hosted by the Polish Genealogy Society (of and in Poland) which is perhaps the best but not the only indexing project in Poland. It is being added to every week - I know this from trying it - you can volunteer to index or donate. Though I'm not big on posting to ask for information through sharing, you can - in Polish. I suggest you do this only when you've done everything possible and have hit into the brick wall and think only other people will have the documents you need or you want to network. Other aspects of the site can be turned to English or German.

Though far from complete, it is worth trying first and then going to the previously mentioned site(s) if they don't yet have what you want on line. 

You can run surname searches in GENETEKA and some family groups emerge. However, I think marriages are also quite important. This is because you can get the ages, who is widowed, and the names of parents and grandparents on the marriage. For instance, Marianna, the widow of Jan Borek, the daughter of Walenty Sliwa and Marianna Baran, age 29, marrying the widower Wincenty Jacobowicz, age 51, tells you to expect a blended family, gives you a birth year, and allows you to confirm a birth date via parents.   

You begin to imagine the world as it was not so long ago. Babies and children dying before adulthood pre vaccinations and antibiotics. Women giving birth at home with a family member or midwife there, not a hospital and a C-section. That women died and left children orphaned. That people remarried and family became blended due to death rather than divorce. Not many really old people. And, I know there were love stories and affairs but 19th century and past was a time when people were pragmatic about marriage and were matchmade - of all religions though rarely between Jews and Christians or Protestants and Catholics but up to 20 percent of Roman and Greek Catholic.

Sometimes families or a village all had a say and determined who would marry who because of who owned land which they wanted to keep in the family. A couple of old people might marry having experienced the loss of a few spouces. As a result of being cousins by blood or marriage with much of the village there could be a bit more of "it takes a village to raise a child" mentality. Yet, I also see that there are people who waited into their thirties to marry suggesting resistance, a wait to inherit a farm, or some other issue. (More on marriage records later!) Also, sad to say, the abandoned died of starvation.

Villages a few miles apart meant a potential groom could walk or ride a horse to go see a potential bride. After you read the records for an ancestral village you'll begin to see that you're probably genetically related to everyone there and begin to wonder how alike people looked and you'll wonder if this reinforced certain characteristics of physical and mental health. Undoubtedly!

Currently the database has very little marriage or death records indexed or linked. So what I've done because the marriage isn't indexed and scanned is find the marriage at another resource.

If they've indexed it at GENETEKA, you will go directly to the image scan of the page and can go forwards or backwards from there. So without leaving the site you can read an entire book of birth records by town. Otherwise it will take you to images to browse the collection at the archive where it's sourced and you can page through. (S is for Scan, I is for image.)

If this database does not go right to the information you want, you can check back in a week or month or try the previously mentioned archive site. Don't assume marriage, death, or records for settlements not listed do not exist.

Here is a research strategy for you to follow and some hints. I'll get more into it in future posts.

Most Americans who know little of their Polish/ Poland heritage find the name of a settlement - a village, town, or city, that the immigrant left through Naturalization papers or ship manifests or a death certificate (though the person providing information for this document may not know). Be careful with this. Asking where they left is not the same as asking where they were born. See my posts about Ellis Island from earlier in this year, even if you're sure they didn't come through Ellis.) 

You want your timeline to begin at the ancestors birth and take them through the historical and archival changes. This can help you locate the right place and thus the archive storing documents.

Situate yourself by searching first by TOWN or settlement but don't be surprised if you find your ancestor gave the name of a county, a diocese, or the town where they went to church rather than the family home. This would be like if someone from Westwood near UCLA said they were from Los Angeles but their baptism took place in Santa Monica which is not far away but a separate city within Los Angeles County. Ask them where they're from.

Print out an all county map of present day Poland. Print out maps of the county you're focused on which show habitations today. Print out a map from the closest date in which your ancestor lived there. A good site is MAPIRE.

Take a good look at the names of habitations, how far they are from each other and present day borders. Encyclopedia can give you historical information. If you find yourself with a rather vague location such as Krosno, as there are a few, you can refer to these maps and circle each village you've seen the documents for, perhaps progressing in a circle out.

Also run searches of settlement names because there are many times multiple locations in various counties with the same or similar place names.

This research also helps understand historical changes such as German place names or because a settlement name changed spelling over time. A gazetteer may also show these town name changes.

A web site called Gesher Galicia proves to have the best free chart that's Galicia focused, giving the name of the settlement, and where both civil and religious records are kept for Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Jewish records. Even if you aren't doing Jewish research, Jewish sites have lots of information about places where Jewish people settled and Christians lived there too.

Some documents will be titled in Polish, some in Latin or German, but the TOWN name is the key which will lead you to what's available and you can use a translator from there.

Another resource is the Polish Genealogical Society of America, which has a web site, is based in Chicago and has a focus on Poles who settled in Chicago. You may find there are Polish genealogy or history special collections in American city libraries. Check WORLDCAT. 

You may just find yourself looking into the Familysearch catalogue and database as well. However, due to national pride in the archives of Poland and database projects in that country, I do not think Familysearch will have a comprehensive Poland database any time soon, if ever.

C 2021 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot

This icon is in public domain through wikimedia.

Links mentioned:

AGAD in Poland 

Stands for Program for Registration of Records for Parish and Cival Registration Offices;

PRADZIAD

GENETEKA

POLISH GENEALOGY SOCIETY DATABASES IN POLAND

NAC

MAPIRE Europe in English

GESHER GALICIA

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE THROWN OFF THE TITANiC GOES THROUGH FORENSICS - FOUND IT'S WAY TO CANADA

DAILY MAIL : MESSAGE BOTTLE TITANIC WASHED UP IN CANADA  by Jack Wright for MailonLine

Very interesting article.  Apparently there have been other messages in bottle supposed to have been thrown from the Titanic before it sunk but some were hoaxes.  In this article the scientist go about authenticated the paper, the cork, the glass, and verified that the French school girl, Matilde Lefebvre. did exist and did drown. Lots of good photographs in this article!

EXCERPT : The mold and tool marks on the bottle and the chemical composition of the glass are consistent with the technologies used in making this kind of bottle in the early 20th century,' he said

'The cord stopper and a piece of paper stuffed in the bottle's ore yielded radiocarbon dates consistent with the date on the letter - we didn't date the letter itself, since the method is destructive.

'So we haven't caught a prankster red-handed yet, but this still doesn't exclude a recent hoax....

MOTHER AND CHILD

 

ARE YOU POLISH? POLAND GENEALOGY #1

Though devout Americans, my Polish lineage ancestors were also proudly Polish. As a result it never occurred to me that they might have been of an ethnic or religious mix in Europe, that is until I began to learn history as a result of genealogy research.

Did you know there was once a migration of Scots into Poland, the Scottish surnames Polishified?

Actually there was considerable mixing in Europe in the 20th, 19th, 18th Centuries and past. Maybe not the American Melting Pot type mixing but more than we thought, as DNA proves. It's just that there was also a lot of trouble - migrations - forced movement and resettlement - genocide - border disputes - prejudice - politics - Two World Wars being played out that included tremendous horror, numerous uprisings, The Holocaust, ongoing issues related to what I call the battle for souls between Catholics and Protestants, and socio-cultural expectations that were not always compatible. So, I think people had to choose to self identify and if you said you were Polish when you left the Austrian Empire that included a new "country" called Galicia, not to be confused by the Spanish Galicia, it meant you self identified as Polish no matter what country it was. This ethnic identity was about your values, your lifestyle - such as your food, your clothes, style of house and church, your occupation, and how you got married and to whom - most important.

Today Poland is known for traditional Catholicism, having contributed a Pope who may someday be a saint, rural poverty, non-gmo farming, and a place where Jewish people tour to affirm or recover their family history.

All this tumultuous history our ancestors were living through makes for a certain stress for the researcher because location of documents may require more obstacles and, as much as I talk about fires being blamed for missing documents, well, there really are lots of missing documents when it comes to Poland research. This is what happens when enemies want to destroy your people - your country and burn and blow up houses of worship and use your tombstones for road.

Sometimes when you're aside someone whose traced back to 1600s in England or Germany it can feel a bit competitive and like you're a dummy for not being able to go back too far. I want to give you hope.

I'm calling it Poland research because the country of Poland didn't always exist but it's where you're now seeking documents even though you might find out your ethnicity is German Mennonite, or Carpathian Rus (also called Ruthenian  Greek Catholic, Lemko, Boyko, etc.), or Ukrainian, or Russian or Scottish. You might also be Jewish or part Jewish and maybe not know it.

I feel the Holocaust that was played out in Poland also has the effect of emotionally upsetting researchers and there's some avoidance of learning truths. But honestly this is tied in with my only complaint about the Finding Your Roots genealogy show series: There's a lot of slavery and slave ownership and Holocaust revelation on that show and an asking for condemnation. (The only show I saw that traced back for a Christian Polish roots person was on Martha Stewart.)

I don't think we need to apologize or take credit for our ancestors deeds or ought to be held accountable or shamed, which happened to the actor Ben Affleck. I've met many who have some heritage linked to violence or the loosing side of war. I eish humanity would be at peace.

Who you are and what you stand for in this, your life, is what counts. And we as Americans long past the Civil War do not know what it's like to live in war on our land. We need to do more listening to those who have. I'm not hiding from soldiers who might rape me as one of my ancestors explained to her daughters.

I'm going to be telling you about some archives that include open source images and data. Please be conscience of following the rules and not reusing what you find in any way to hurt people today. (No perpetrating pain with Neo Nazi or anti Polish or anti Catholic stuff!) 

Poland is a country that's experienced great hardship with crimes against humanity having taken place there while Occupied during World War I II by Germany. It's ironic because Russia was an allie and liberated Poland but Poles living in or near Russia faced tremendous bigotry similar to what Irish immigrants faced in America, such as being depicted as apes on anti-Polish posters by Russians. And Poles have found themselves subject to bigotry and prejudice in America too. The Polish joke always depicts Poles as stupid. I was hearing that crap into the 1990's.

What other country has to put that "no abuse of our images and documents" warning up on archival possessions?

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