Re: History of Parisville, the Oldest Polish Settlement in Mich.

Zenon — Tue Jul 16, 2019 12:40 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 12:40 am

For all interested in the subject of history of early emigration from Poland to the US, Charles contributed a few articles in this subject to our website a few years ago.

You can find them now illustrated with old photographs as well as statistics on our blog here: https://blog.polishorigins.com/category/genealogy-tours-gen-stories/charles-chase/

History of Parisville, the Oldest Polish Settlement in Mich.

Charles chase — Mon Jul 15, 2019 7:41 am

Author: Charles chase

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 7:41 am

As you know, many Poles have emigrated from Poland to the US. Most of these people settled in large cities such as New York, Chicago, Cleveland and many others. In these cities the Poles often were an important influence on the happenings of their city.

The farming Poles settled in small areas that could support farming. For many years, there was a debate as to which Polish settlement was the first in America. The two primary contenders were Panna Maria, Texas and Parisville, Michigan. My father was born in Parisville, Michigan in 1894, so I was hoping that Parisville would be the winner. Through my research of the last several years, I was able to prove that dates printed about land purchases in Michigan were in error, so Panna Maria turned out to be the winner.

Parisville was still very important, because it was the first Polish settlement in Michigan. I have recently published a book of 108 pages which looks back at how Parisville came to be. I start with the Partitions of 1772, 1793 and 1795, and gradually bring the reader to modern times. Parisville had many challenges, but the Poles persisted and survived. They had two of the largest forest fires in the US history destroy their homes, they had several killer epidemics, and their church burned down three times. Their Catholic faith guided them through the devastating time.

I have attached a flyer which shows the reader how a book can be ordered. All revenue from the sales goes directly to the Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan.

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Re: History of Parisville, the Oldest Polish Settlement in Mich.

History of Parisville, the Oldest Polish Settlement in Mich.