ShelliePO Top Contributor & Patron
Joined: 18 Feb 2009
Replies: 981
Location: Atlanta, GABack to top |
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:26 am
Post subject: Genealogy Coincidences - Serendipity or Intuition?
If you have a genealogy coincidence that left you wondering......are your Polish ancestors whispering in your ear? Share your story here.
I got serious about finding my Polish Roots in late 2007 and since then I’ve experienced some amazing coincidences that make me wonder if my Polish ancestors are nudging me along.
My most amazing find happened after I returned home from my 2009 Forefather’s Traces Tour with Zenon.
During my trip with Zenon to my ancestral village, I found records for many ancestors, but I couldn’t find my grandfather’s older brother and sister. A few days later as we were driving along the highway I was thinking about how many churches we saw.
Now if you have been to Poland, you understand: there are churches EVERYWHERE – along the road, in every village, in the distant hills……so many! As we drove along I saw a steeple in the distance, peeking out above the treetops. I don’t know why, but I wanted to see it and asked Zenon to turn off the highway and explore it with me.
The church was a very old wooden church – just wonderful inside an out. The priest came by and cheerfully opened the church to let me peek inside. After a few minutes we headed back to the car, and I found myself wishing that I could ask him to look in his record books. But I brushed it off as silly.
A few months after I returned from my trip, I was back to wondering about my grandfather’s siblings. I dragged out my files and looked at the ship manifest again and noticed that for my grandfather’s oldest brother and sister, their birthplace was illegible, but looked like Prodotz?
Well, I didn’t find it out for over a year - when I finally got my great-grandfather’s naturalization application. And there it was: my grandfather and his younger sister where born in Luslawice and his older brother and sister were born in Podol…..? I wasn’t sure, but with some help from other members here at Polish Origins, we decided it said Podole – but there were over 10 places named Podole!
The name Podole seem really familiar but I couldn’t remember why. Later I realized that the old wooden church was in a village called Podole! And the LDS had microfilmed the records for this church.
Once I got the microfilm I quickly found what I was searching for: My grandfather’s oldest brother and sister were baptized in that old wooden church. Wow! Were my ancestors nudging me along, pointing out the church steeple peeking above the trees? And were they nudging me again when I wanted to ask the priest about the church books?
You can read more about my discovery and see photos of the wooden church in this thread: http://forum.polishorigins.com/viewtopic.php?p=3966
Have you had a similar experience associated with your history? If so, I’d like to hear about it!
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