Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:33 am
Post subject: Thanks & results of my research trip to Poland
Thank you for all the advice I received from this site prior to my trip to Poland to research my wife's family.
We had a successful trip.
We first went to the Town Hall in Rydultowy where we found the mayors secretary spoke excellent English. Her grandfather was 92 and she spoke to him and he knew my father in law at school and was particularly friendly with one of my FIL's older brothers. He gave us names of two of my FIL's siblings. We were then told that one of my wife's cousins was the mayor of Rydultowy a few years before. We contacted his wife but unfortunately he was away on business and not returning until this week but his wife said he will email us on his return with details of his knowledge of the family.
We went to the registry Office in Rybnik to get a copy of my FIL's birth record / certificate. We found an assistant in the office who spoke English and got on fine and got a copy of the record for 5zt (if only UK copies were that cheap). I asked to look at the registers to try and find birth records of any of my FIL's siblings but was told that this was not permitted. The assistant offered to do the research for me and to email the results some time next week FREE of CHARGE even though I offered to pay. She seemed very interested in what we had found and we left her a copy of my wife's tree as far as we know it to work from.
We visited the 3 local churchyards and found a total of 4 graves containing probable family members.
All in all a very successful first visit to Poland and we are watching our emails with eager anticipation.
Thanks once again for the help on this forum.
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ZenonPolishOrigins Team Leader
Joined: 28 Apr 2007
Replies: 1515
Location: PolandBack to top |
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 5:16 am
Post subject:
Hello Colin again,
It seems that you had good luck and really successful trip 
Now it is easier to find English speaking people in Poland, especially in bigger cities and among youngers. What is also common impression and experience I hear often from researchers traveling with me (and what I observe by myself) is that Poles here are very kind and helpful for foreigners looking for their ancestors or relatives. This is not a rule but it often happens that people engage themselves if they only think they could be of help, like the to ladies you mention.
Thank you for sharing your experience Colin. For those who are interested our previous discussion click here: http://polishorigins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=291 .
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 6:33 am
Post subject:
One thing we did have a problem with was the location of where my father in law lived. The address we have for him in the 1930's was Saarland Strasse we were told that this was now Ul. Przerwy Tetmajera but when we went there we found that the houses were recently built and on talking to the local people (in German) that they had been built on fields.
Is there anywhere to find out the correct street name for Saarland Strasse now?
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 2:36 am
Post subject: Update on our trip to Poland
Following our trip to Rydultowy in September and the contacts we made we have been waiting for contact and were getting worried about the lack of response.
We finally got an email from the person who we thought was my wifes' first cousin but it turns out that he is in fact a second cousin. He did give us details of a lady who is in fact a first cousin of my wife. We got a long email from her yesterday and it turns out that my wife still has 10 cousins alive today in and around Rydultowy and the last of her 9 blood aunts and uncles only died earlier this year. We have been invited to return to Poland to meet all of her relatives who knew nothing of my wife or her brother until we made this contact. We will now start to plan a trip for next year.
Unfortunately we have never heard anything from Rybnik registry office even though we have emailed them twice after our visit. The information that we have from my wifes' cousin makes up for it though.
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JamesPolishOrigins Team
Joined: 06 Jul 2007
Replies: 226
Location: WEST VIRGINIA , USABack to top |
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:59 pm
Post subject: Rybnik registry
Hi Colin,
Congrats on what sounds like a wonderful trip to Poland. 
You hit the " Daily Double ", getting to visit Poland , and finding family !!
Don't get down about not hearing back from the Rybnik registry. 
It seems like every institute has its own rules, and regulations.
I've been contacting archives and registry offices in Poland for over 10 years, and every one is different. I've had responses as late as 8+ months and more, and as early as a week.
E-mail has helped alot, better than regular mail, but you are still at their mercy for how long it takes them to do the task .
Sometimes I've received replys stating they can do my search as soon as I deposit $ into a bank account, other times the reply is the actual information I was asking for, along with the standard info for cost.
I have wondered many times if they have even received my letter / email ?
Their timing can be very frustrating.
I was in Poland in 2006. My brother and I had gone to the city our great grandparents had lived in prior to immigrating to US. The city was the only info I had at the time., other than their names.
Two weeks after returning home, a package arrived at my house, from the archive in that city, and inside were copys of marriage,and birth certificates, along with much more info. If I had this info when in Poland , I could have seen more places related to my family, and done more research .
Hang in there,
James
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The fact that I went into the record office and spoke personally to the young lady who offered to do the research and she got the permission from the head of the office too just makes it more frustrating 
but I don't think that she would have been able to give us as much information as we have already received from my wife's cousin.
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