PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

New member

BarbOslo — Thu Apr 23, 2026 6:23 am

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2026 6:23 am

rimatro wrote:

Hi everyone,
Just joined the forum and glad to be here. I’m interested in polish genealogy and learning more about family history, so this seems like a great place to explore.
Looking forward to your insights!

Hi,
Welcome to the Forum. Let us know if you need any help.

Regards,
-Barb

Test Email - Test Email

Zenon — Tue Oct 28, 2025 7:00 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2025 7:00 am

Sophia wrote:

Zenon,
In my opinion, this is a genealogical thread, since it is about people knowing or not knowing that someone has replied to their post. I cannot count the times that a volunteer on this forum has put time and effort into replying to a person's question, only to have them not know about it. I can say this because I have contacted some people by private message (after waiting an appropriate amount of time since not everyone works on genealogy 24/7) and they have told me they never knew they had received replies.
In future, should I observe that I have not received an email notification, I will send you a private message as you have requested. I'm sure we all want the forum to run smoothly. It is a lovely little community.
Best wishes for a happy weekend,
Sophia

Sophia,
Of course, please let me know if you notice any problems with the notifications.

By the way, after many months of fighting spam and testing different solutions, our IT specialist implemented a new, creative mechanism this weekend. We hope it will significantly reduce the amount of spam on the forum and make the whole experience more pleasant for everyone (but the spammers).

Best,

SCAMMER RaymondO and rayoliver and Ray003 - DO NOT RESPOND!

Zenon — Thu Sep 11, 2025 2:25 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2025 2:25 am

Ray003 was banned yesterday but before we did it he managed to sent out some private messages like this...

Wesołych Świąt - Merry Christmas!

Skowronski — Wed Dec 25, 2024 6:09 pm

Author: Skowronski

Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2024 6:09 pm

Merry Christmas and a happy new year

How to report inappropriate posts?

Zenon — Sat Jul 27, 2024 11:28 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2024 11:28 am

Dear SPG,

We monitor the forum and ban and remove spam/scam posts and users when only we notice them. However, within the last few months the activity of spammers increased dramatically and sometimes we are not able to react immediately.

If you notice such innapropriate posts and users please contact admins of the forum, namely users: Zenon, Dawidz, Magdalena.

Thank you for taking care of the forum.

Best regards,
Zenon

Webmaster Announcements or How to take the most out of it

BarbOslo — Sun May 12, 2024 4:18 pm

Author: BarbOslo

Posted: Sun May 12, 2024 4:18 pm

Marianna Bachta nee Fortuna remarried in 1852 in the parish of Szebnie.

https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=S&w=09pk&rid=8016&search_lastname=Bachta+&search_name=Marianna&search_lastname2=Kosiba&search_name2=Jan&from_date=1852&to_date=1852

Scan 28
https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/jednostka/-/jednostka/22559473?_Jednostka_delta=20&_Jednostka_resetCur=false&_Jednostka_cur=2&_Jednostka_id_jednostki=22559473

-Barb

Advice for Finding Information in Poland

PolishStrong — Sun Sep 03, 2023 7:57 pm

Author: PolishStrong

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2023 7:57 pm

Dave, thank you for the swift reply. Wow, you really gained a wealth of knowledge from the site. It is heartbreaking to think about, but so important to remember and pass along to future generations.

Thanks for the tip...unfortunately, while I did receive two hits on my grandfather, Jan Zawiślak, the information is limited.
There were two lines coming up for him with his birthday...one with his Polish name, Jan...and one with the name Johann he was listed as being on another.

Source:
Documents concerning foreigners residing in a given town during the war
70483999/2.1.1.1/2383/21
ITS Bad Arolsen
kind of repression
deported to the Third Reich
stayed in
DEUTSCHLAND - HESSEN - WOLFHAGEN - WETTESINGEN

Personal data
last name
ZAWISLAK
name
Johann
date of birth
1914-08-01
Information about harassment
Source:
Documents on marriages entered into by foreigners
70483877/2.1.1.1/2382/209
ITS Bad Arolsen
kind of repression
deported to the Third Reich
stayed in
DEUTSCHLAND - HESSEN - WOLFHAGEN - WETTESINGEN

No information on how he was captured. I'd imagine he wasn't active military? I guess it would have said so if he was. I just don't know.
Since he was put to work very early in January, 1940, I know he was rounded up early.

I saw one hit on my grandfather's brother, Stanisław Zawiślak.
Kind of Confinement: Concentration Camp
Seat: Majdanek
Additional Notes: STAYING MAJDAN KASZTELAŃSKI. AT MAJDANK 1944
I don't know if he survived. Odds couldn't be good.

Very sobering information.

Polish-Ukrainian Origins Foundation

Zenon — Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:57 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2023 5:57 am

History, Healing, and Hope Tour. A new project of joint forces.

This link to the recent newsletter sent out to the PolishOrigins email list subscribers: https://puorigins.org/history-healing-hope/ .

We introduce there a new initiative, the Polish-Ukrainian Origins Foundation.
Our first project, realized together with people and organizations from different parts of the world, is a 12-day tour in Ukraine and Poland for teenagers from Ukraine (part of the tour is with Polish teenagers).
Here is the Foundation website: https://puorigins.org/

And here is link to Alex Brzezicki story who many of you may remember from his updates from Ukraine from the last year: https://puorigins.org/alexs-story/

PLEASE SHARE the message with people who you think would be interested in supporting the project.

Information

Sophia — Mon Apr 11, 2022 7:50 pm

Author: Sophia

Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 7:50 pm

gabby wrote:

Thanks Sophia, I am now able to see the Jan info relative to #144 with your new link. It is rather interesting that there appears to be two death records for a Jan Garbula, hopefully I can get both of these looked at. Do you think Marcel might do the translations?

Gabby

The best way to ask Marcel for help is to place the links to the two scans here on the Russian records translation thread:
https://forum.polishorigins.com/viewtopic.php?p=60024#60024
Just enter your request in the message box.
It would be helpful to give the name you're looking for (Jan Garbula), the name of the town (Tomaszow Lubelski) and the number of the Akt.
For easier magnification of the 1913 death, use this link:
https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/jednostka/-/jednostka/10507718?_Jednostka_delta=20&_Jednostka_resetCur=false&_Jednostka_cur=12&_Jednostka_id_jednostki=10507718
And specify that the scan is # 226 and the Akt is # 135.
I hope the records contain info that helps you ascertain which Jan is yours. The death records are often the least informative, in my opinion. But one can hope.
Sophia

Help for Ukraine

Zenon — Sat Mar 05, 2022 6:25 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2022 6:25 am

Ukraine. Zhitomir. Personal account from Alex from yesterday...

https://polishorigins.com/blog/ukraine-zhitomir-missile/

"I got up today at 3.30 am from sirens and a distant explosion. The missile landed somewhere on the outskirts of the city. But since then I could not go to sleep.
I had a mission to evacuate a family with kids from Choroshiv (45 km North from Zhitomir.) In a previous life, it took me only 45 minutes to get there, but I live in a different world now so I decided to leave home at 8 am and have 3 hours in advance. The family of three, mother and two daughters should have been waiting for me at the center of Choroshiv."

More: https://polishorigins.com/blog/ukraine-zhitomir-missile/

Agnieszka Pawlus — Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:23 am

Author: Agnieszka Pawlus

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:23 am

To be honest with you, we do not know when traveling between the continents will be possible again. What we know for now is that vaccination programs started both in the U.S. and in Europe.

In February hotels, museums, and archives in Poland have reopened (with restrictions). In the previous year, summer in Poland was relatively calm with stable infection numbers and minor restrictions.

We are aware that movement between countries and continents is still very limited and we do not know what the upcoming months will bring. We do not know if and when flights to Poland will be restored.

So, is it a good time to plan a Genealogy Tour to Poland?

We managed to withstand the last 11 months by offering you Genealogy Services and our team in full force is ready and steady to receive guests during the Genealogy Tours, as soon as it will be possible.

Most of our Genealogy Tours were rescheduled for safer times. We expect that as soon as it will be possible we will be setting new dates. We have also scheduled our Galicia Tour for September 26 – October 6, 2021. We will organize this tour if only it will be possible.

There might also be a lot of new guests planning to travel. We hope that we will serve everyone, but the priority will be given to people who agree on details with us beforehand.

We accept deposits and assure you that if the tour will not be possible due to external law regulations, we will return or account them for the future tour, according to your preferences. This is what we did last year for people who decided not to postpone their trips for the future.

The world has changed and will be changing by the pandemic. We believe that individual, personalized journeys tailored to your needs and expectations always were and still are more convenient and safer than larger tourist groups. Will this become the new way to travel in the changing world? We hope so!

If you wish to read more about our Genealogy Tours, visit our website: https://polishorigins.com/tours/genealogy-tours/

We invite you to contact us by email: tours@polishorigins.com

This message was originally sent in our last emailing (from Feb 15).

Wanna Discuss Something

katarzyna_t — Fri Oct 02, 2020 6:33 am

Author: katarzyna_t

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2020 6:33 am

Henry211 wrote:

What type of topics can be posted here, what things we can post in off-topic boards?

Hello Henry,

when you scroll down the main page of our forum, you can find several groups of topics e.g. News&Announcements, Researching your Polish roots, PolishOrigins Tours etc. with the detailed description of what each topic is about (e.g. "Origins of surnames" - Are you interested what your grandparents name can mean in Polish or where it derives from?)

As I wrote you before, here is a link to the community guidelines https://polishorigins.com/guidelines/

I hope it helps. I can advise if you tell me what kind of topic you are wondering to post?

Best regards,
Katarzyna

What would my ancestors do? Your response.

Agnieszka Pawlus — Fri Apr 10, 2020 7:54 am

Author: Agnieszka Pawlus

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2020 7:54 am

Here is an extract from our yesterday's emailing written by Zenon. I hope that you will get from it a bit of an optimism and encouragement for this difficult time. Thank you for all your uplifting messages!

Dear Readers,

We received an amazing response to our latest message ‘What would my ancestors do?’ https://blog.polishorigins.com/what-would-my-ancestors-do/

I didn’t want your stories and comments to be read only by me and our team. They are so important that they just have to be shared with more people to raise at least the same feelings I had reading them.

If we wanted to quote even a small part of your responses in this newsletter would be a long read. That’s why we decided to prepare a separate post on our blog. You will find it here: What would my ancestors do? - Our readers’ response: https://blog.polishorigins.com/what-would-my-ancestors-do-your-response/

Here I will quote a few excerpts to show you the spirit of your reactions.

These are not all and not full responses. I picked out for you these fragments which had the greatest impact on me.

I believe my father, who experienced the Great Depression in America, which brought poverty to all, who served in WWII where he fought for America and their allies freedom and was attacked on his destroyer ship by Nazis and Japenese, has seen much worse than what we are experiencing now with this Coronavirus. We can’t see the virus, but we know what to do to keep it from us personally and in our communities. My ancestors had great belief in God and resolve in knowing that things would get better and they were in some awful situations. We are free here in America, we must keep it that way. We must maintain our love for this country and the love for each other too. God Bless,
Elaine

My grandmothers and grandfathers, all of whom came from Poland, each left “. . . their tiny village far away from civilization, to travel to a completely new world. . . " where they made a new life for themselves. They certainly were fearless young adults. They experienced many hard times and I'm sure had times when they wondered why they left their homeland.

What would my grandparents do today? They would persevere. Their decision to leave Poland, commit to a long and stressful journey to a place they did not know much about, and learn to live in a very different culture taught them to stick with it and that with patience their hope for better times would be realized.
Jim

My hope for the whole world is that we all learn something about peace and love starting within oneself, respecting everyone's life at every stage, lovingly communicating with each other without devices, discernment in life, and being here to help each other. I trust that God will bring out good from all the events.
Christin

They are heroes to me, these uneducated flotsam of Eastern Europe deprived of their country, their language, their culture suppressed in the land of their ancestors.

Two generations and 72 years on I sit, their heir, having earned a PH.D. having prospered beyond their imagination. Only by their will, their embrace of risk, their acceptance of mistreatment and their belief in possibility do I sit in satisfaction.

They fought America's wars, endured her depression and celebrated her rise and theirs to pre eminence. Grateful and humbled I am by their commitment to the future which is my present. Dzięki, babcie, dziadkowie.
Fred

They were hard working and God fearing people. I believe that is what got them through 5 recessions and 2 World Wars during their lifetimes. My Great Grandfather came from Upper Silesia to the U.S.A. in 1869 with a wife and two young children and the shirt on his back. By 1920 he had accumulated 715 acres of land. He died in 1924 and left 3 farms to his 3 living sons at that time. I think this shows that he was a very enterprising individual and provided well for his family. I am proud to be one of his descendants.
Curt

What my ancestors would do is unclear, but my grandfather left no doubt. He was resourceful and a survivor. I believe I inherited, from my dad, his pluck and nerve. I had a kidney transplant when 42 (33 years ago) and kept up a great professional career by working out. Five years ago June 1, 2015 I was diagnosed with non Hodgkins lymphoma at the Mayo Clinic. But I survived. My grandfather taught me that life is tough. It's often grim and not pretty. But there is much joy as well in our love of family, wife, children and friends. I know why Poland survived. The people have guts. We all need to be strong and disciplined like the Polish people during these last 200 or 300 years.
Joe

I am proud to be a descendant of the bravest group of people. I will channel their spirit remember their stories to get through difficult time. I will do as they did, pray, work with what I have, share with others, protect my loved one. Peace and love to all. Be safe. Stay healthy. Be prayerful. We will get through this....Together.
Donna

I just explained this to my daughter living in quarantine in NY. Sometimes I when I think I cannot deal with a situation, I think of my Busia and Dziadek. My mother was a 1st generation American, my father 2nd generation American. They instilled all the fire and passion of our Polish ancestors!! We remember and honor them thru traditions, incredible food and the language PROUDLY!!
Mickey

See more reactions here: What my ancestors would do? Your response.
https://blog.polishorigins.com/what-would-my-ancestors-do-your-response/

In addition to stories and reflections like these we got questions about how we are doing here now:

I'm concerned about how your staff is...I suspect that most of your guests now think of them as extended family. I'm guessing we would all like an update communication on how you all are and how you are getting through this...

I’m sure your business is similarly affected - how are you managing so far?

I hope you and your family and your team are all in good health. We are doing fine here. I hope your business can survive in these difficult times.

How is your family handling this situation? I hope everyone is healthy and making the best of it. My family is safe - anxious, but safe. My Mom has a staying home as she should, and she seems to be handling this well. My brother’s business business has taken a big hit unfortunately. Sure hope they can see this through. I’m sure your business is similarly affected - how are you managing so far?

First of all, I feel grateful that there are people, or actually as one of you aptly described, “our extended family” who are asking us about that.

Second, fortunately, healthwise the whole staff and our families are all in good health. Maybe only the fact that we need to stay at home and the uncertainty makes us more and more tired but this is what affects most of us in the world.

Third, as you can guess our tours were cut in one moment when Polish government introduced lockdown. Not only we have no revenue from our core service but some of our guests are either postponing their trips for more or less foreseeable future or canceling them. This means that we refund their deposits. We understand that. No one knows if it will be possible to travel in the next few weeks or even months.

We do whatever we can to survive this time. As you may remember from one of the previous newsletters, we accelerated the launch of our Genealogy Services https://polishorigins.com/genealogy-services/. We have first research orders placed and we are working hard to help you in uncovering your ancestry, finding living cousins or applying for Polish citizenship.

We are very happy that we can do that and at least to a minimal degree fill the gap of completely lost revenue. We will do whatever it takes to go through it together and find ourselves on the other side with the whole, intact team.

Have you noticed that among this information noise that Easter is just behind the corner ?! Even though it will be a very unusual Easter for many of us, most probably in smaller family circles, we wish you a blessed, peaceful time for you and your loved ones.

Wesołego Alleluja/Happy Easter from Poland!

Zenon Znamirowski and the whole PolishOrigins Team

Spam messages from Feb 25

Agnieszka Pawlus — Sun Mar 29, 2020 11:57 pm

Author: Agnieszka Pawlus

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 11:57 pm

Dear Users,

Las weekend there was a spammer sending private messages to many of you. We have already identified the sender (username: SarahWem), and blocked from the forum.

If your messages were sent from someone else, please let me know. Thank you for your messages and I am sorry for inconvenience.
Greetings,
Agnieszka Pawlus

Topic lengths

dnowicki — Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:47 am

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:47 am

Wally1049 wrote:

I tried to post a reply to an answered post.The but the message body kept crashing .Is there a limit on words when posting a reply

Hi Wally,

As far as I know there is no limit. Years ago I started to write what I wanted to post offline on a program like Word or LibreOffice and then copied it to the forum. That avoids the frustration of having something get lost. My good friend Elżbieta suggested that quite a while ago. It works well.

Dave

Searching for Skala Family in Rzeszow

dnowicki — Fri Nov 01, 2019 2:22 pm

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2019 2:22 pm

mcdonald0517 wrote:

So, based on Wojciech's (Adelbertus') 1876 birth record, you have 2 more generations:

his parents: Thomas Skala and Marianna Trzeciak or Frzeciak (spelling?)
his grandparents: Sebastian Skala and Rosalia Walat; Joseph Trzeciak/Frzeciak (spelling?) and Sophia Wruk (spelling?)

I will look and see if I can locate his brother's birth records.
Best,
Cynthia

Hi Helen & Cynthia,

Here is a brother Szymeon https://szukajwarchiwach.pl/59/1117/0/-/2/skan/full/Cc-9TDVroQ4M9I5ziBet-g
and the brother Piotr (Peter), who died in 1910 https://szukajwarchiwach.pl/59/1117/0/-/2/skan/full/Pbz5-cHU5JC5H0rQrJHRig

Later I’ll see what other records I can locate.

Wishing you success,

Dave

This is YOU who can create new topics

Zenon — Wed Sep 18, 2019 2:16 pm

Author: Zenon

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 2:16 pm

ssarcheck2@gmail.com wrote:

Not sure this is where to post this question. But can't figure out how to start a new discussion in the forum.

Welcome to the Forum ssarcheck2,

To create a new topic you need to find the icon "newtopic" and click on it. You need to be logged in.

I attached a print screen (look for black arrow).

I also moved your post as a new topic here: https://forum.polishorigins.com/viewtopic.php?t=11777

Scam via private messages from Aug 10

Zenon — Sat Aug 10, 2019 1:17 pm

Author: Zenon

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 1:17 pm

Last night (Polish time) a spammer started to use our forum to send scam messages to many of you, members of forum, trying to get personal information.

If you received such message PLEASE DON'T SHARE ANY INFORMATION to the scammer's email. If you respond to the scammer after this post via private message he/she will not have access to the message any longer.

The scammer has been banned and permanently removed from the Forum.

We monitor our forum on regular basis and remove dozens of this kind of users every week. But it is not always possible to prevent this immediately. Thank you all for letting us know about the situation.

We sincerely apologize for this situation.

skulsk luszewo relatives

kmallin — Mon May 20, 2019 7:50 pm

Author: kmallin

Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 7:50 pm

Hello, I am new to this forum, I hope this is appropriate to post. I have visited my Kedzierski relatives in Skulsk, I am trying to see if I can locate other relatives in the Skulsk Luszcewo area. My great Grandparents Leon Kedzierski and Wladyslawa Daderowic (Dunderowicz) were married in Skulsk in 1880. They migrated to Chicago in the early 1900s. There parents and grandparents were named Wilanowski, Zielinska, Kaminski, Szulgat, Bendkowska and Mosyz (spelling?)
I am mostly interested in finding any Daderowicz relatives as my Kedzierski relatives thought there were Daderowicz relatives living in the Luszsewo area. Thank you for your help. Kathy

photo guidelines

katarzyna_t — Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:24 am

Author: katarzyna_t

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:24 am

Hello Sharon,
feel free to upload a photo, here is a instruction how to do it: https://forum.polishorigins.com/viewtopic.php?p=373#373

Good luck in relatives search!
Katarzyna