Sherlock's Genealogical Adventures

After the time spent in the church office, it was time to pay a visit to the cemetery. I had a photo of one grave and was hoping to findit. I know that graves most often are "recycled" so I knew I may not find the grave I was looking for....

Church in Maków PodhalańskiMy Blog Posts have not occured that often the past few days, as I have been busy doing some client research in the church office(Kancelaria) in Maków Podhalański. For those that wonder what it is like to do research here in Poland, you will gain some insight from...

I will be speaking at the Annual Seminar for the Polish Genealogical Society of Michiganat the American Polish Cultural Center in Troy, MI, October 15th! I will be giving two presentations:"Finding the Family: Problems, Successes and Rewards" - This presentation will explore researching for family from Poland explaining the process used to locate over...

I will be traveling to Poland again this year. This trip will be a combination of work and fun as I have a client that needs research done in Poland. Since I was in Poland last year, I will again have the opportunity to also visit with family. This is my...

If you have been stuck in the house with all the snow we have had in the northeast, March is the time to get out and attend some free Polish genealogy presentations.FINDING THE FAMILY: Problems, Successes & RewardsTim FirkowskiPOLISH TRADITIONS CUSTOMS and SUPERSTITIONSAleksandra KacprzakMarch 7th, 10am - Noon at the Kennebunk...

Most people have a good understanding of basic relationships, but what about the relationship terms that we don't use in everyday speech? Terms like "second cousin" and "first cousin, once removed"? We don't tend to speak about our relationships in such exact terms, so most of us aren't familiar with what...

This year The Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts (PGSMA) will be celebrating it's 25th year anniversary by holding a day long event entitled "An Eastern European and Polish Genealogical Roadshow" on June 21, 2014 at the Polish Center of Discovery and Learning in Chicopee, MA. You will find me there on Saturday and...

Most of us encounter languages other than English when we are doing our ancestral research. For those brave enough to tackle translating these documents, I would highly recommend a series of books called "In Their Words - A Genealogist's Translation Guide to Polish, German, Latin, and Russian Documents".These guides were created for...

Today is the 10th Anniversary of a huge change in my life in every way imaginable.It was Saturday August 24th 2002 at 3:27 pm and I was using the chat program ICQ. I put in a search for users with my surname, as I had done many times before and lo...

When I was at "Who Do You Think You Are? Live" in London the end of February, I met a group who had a booth set up for the Kresy-Siberia Museum & Foundation. This group is dedicated to Poland's citizens who fought for freedom and survival in eastern Poland and in...

What is the best language to learn? It is not the answer you might first think of. Let's say you are a native English speaker, therefore, lets rule out English. If you are not a native speaker of English, of course the answer is English! To learn Spanish, French or German...

Friday I went to get the mail and saw an envelope from another country. This is not uncommon as I have family in 22 countries around the world. What made this letter much different from all others I had ever received is that it was from Russia. My excitement started before I...

Oświęcim... Most people know of this place in Poland, but just are not aware of it. To many people, they are unaware that the city of Oświęcim is also known as Auschwitz (The German name for Oświęcim). Although most people think of the camp of Auschwitz, it really is the German name of...

If you are looking for a place to learn more about what is happening in Poland today, Polish traditions, history, culture and what is happening in Polish communities around the world, I suggest looking no further than the Polish American Journal.The Polish American Journal is a monthly newspaper chocked full of useful and...

You should be aware that all calendars are not created equal. Throughout history the calendar has been changed, adjusted and tweaked. The calendar we use today is called the Gregorian calendar and was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in about 1582. This new calendar was a big change from the dominant...

Have you ever wondered what life was like for your ancestors during the course of your research? It is easy to get wrapped up in the document research for your ancestors. Take a moment to examine how they lived. This will giive you a new persepective on their lives and may help your research.

While visiting with my distant cousin Tadeusz in Słupsk, Poland this summer I had the opportunity to see many places around Słupsk. One of the places that fascinated me the most was a historic polish village musem in Kluki. I think I took about 400 photos that examined all the details of the construction of each building.

I was visiting my cousin Adam in Wroclaw at the end of August during my stay in Poland this summer. Adam took me to the Wroclaw Community Cemetery to show me graves of some family members. Adam prepared ahead of time by calling the cemetery office and found out the location of the graves we were interested in. A smart move!

The person in the office surprised both of us with some information we were not expecting. There were two children that had the family name, but neither of us were aware of these children.

The Community Cemetery in Wrocław is VERY Beautiful, and also very large. This is not a cemetery that you want to just wander through to locate graves of your ancestors.

Many people have asked me where I was when I visited Poland this summer, especially my genealogical colleagues, so I thought I would answer that question with a map.

I had the opportunity to do some research in the Diocesan Archives of Tarnów when I was in Poland.

The process is simple... you must sign in the "guest book" and then if you have not been to the archives before, you will need to purchase a researchers id card which is good for that calendar year. Of course you must present some identification which for the foreigner would be your passport.

If I recall correctly it cost about 15 złoty which is roughly about $5 give or take depending on the exchange rate. Research time costs 6 złoty per hour.

The Archive is open Monday thru Friday 9 am to 3pm with a break for lunch from noon to 1pm. On Saturdays it is open for only 3 hours from 9am to noon.

I had to go to Szewna, Poland to do some research for a client. The project is filled with many mysteries. I had a short time to at least go through the cemetery before I had to continue my journey to the southeast part of Poland. 

There was one mystery that kept bothering me. The name of the parish is św. Mikołaj (St. Nicolas) but the name św. Roch (St. Roch) was remembered by a family member. I was unable to find a parish with this name that was nearby and I was left puzzled.

I finally learned that the parish had two patron saints, those two being St. Nicolas and St. Roch. St. Nicolas is the most known name for this parish.

It may sound like a small thing if you know you have the right church, but since it has been difficult finding records, St. Roch may have been another church where the family records I needed were. That did not turn out to be the case but at least I finally solved that small puzzle.