* * * * * * * * * G E N     D O B R Y ! * * * * * * * * *

Volume IV, No. 7. 31 July 2003.
Copyright (c) 2003, PolishRoots(R), Inc.
Editor: William F. Fred Hoffman, E-mail: <WFHoffman@prodigy.net>

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CONTENTS

   Welcome
   PAHA's Latest Journal a Must Resource For Polish Genealogists
   Letters to the Editor
   The Forgotten Holocaust
   IHRC Online Newsletter
   Parish Monographs
   Upcoming Events
   More Useful Web Addresses
   You May Reprint Articles...

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*** WELCOME! ***

to the latest issue of _Gen Dobry!_, the e-zine of PolishRoots(R). If you missed previous issues, you can find them at

   http://polishroots.org/gendobry/gendobry_index.htm.

Don't forget to visit PolishRoots.org, the sponsor of _Gen Dobry!_, and take advantage of the many resources offered there. Many people express an interest in learning more about Polish culture -- try looking at some of the links on this page:

   http://www.polishroots.org/culture_customs.htm

If you have suggestions of other links people might enjoy, don't hesitate to let Webmaster Don Szumowski know about them: <Webmaster@PolishRoots.org>.

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*** PAHA'S LATEST JOURNAL A MUST RESOURCE FOR POLISH GENEALOGISTS ***

by Paul S. Valasek, D.D.S. <paval56@aol.com>
Vice President, PolishRoots(R)

From the Website of the Polish American Historical Association, http://www.polishamericanstudies.org/

> Founded in 1942 as part of the Polish Institute of
> Arts and Sciences in America, PAHA became an
> autonomous scholarly society in 1948. As an affiliate
> of the American Historical Association, PAHA assists
> and cooperates with individuals and organizations
> interested in Polish American life and history.

PAHA is continually producing scholarly works for Polish historians and researchers. As the science of genealogy continues to expand, PAHA has recently dedicated an entire issue of its semi-annual Journal, _Polish American Studies_, to the identification of archives, collections and holdings both in the U.S. and Europe. These institutions hold irreplaceable materials for Polish and Polonian researchers.

As I am familiar with many of the writers as well as the institutions, I can strongly recommend obtaining a copy of this latest issue, which will open many doors for resource materials which we as genealogists need. Though I've personally visited a number of these archives, after briefly reading through these articles, I was quite surprised at the amount of archival material I was not aware of being preserved by these institutions.

Here is a list of articles in the Spring 2003 issue:

=====

+ The Future of Polonia's Past: An Introduction, by Anna D. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann and Joel Wurl

+ The Connecticut Polish American Archives, Central Connecticut State University, by Ewa Wolynska

+ The Hoover Institution Collections on Poles in the United States, by Maciej Siekierski

+ The Polish Museum of America, by Jan Lorys

+ Preserving American Polonia: Perspectives from the Immigration History Research Center, by Joel Wurl

+ From the Polish National Catholic Church: A Tale of Two Archives in One City, by Joseph W. Wieczerzak

+ The Polish Book Collection, Alumni Memorial Library, St. Mary's College, by Karen Majewski

+ The Archives, Libraries and Museums of Polonia at Orchard Lake, by Rev. Roman Nir

+ The Archives of the Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences of America, by Stanislaw Flis

+ A Brief History of the Mission and Collections of the Pilsudski Institute of America for Research in the Modern History of Poland, by Pawel Pietrzyk

+ Sources for the History of American Polonia in the Collection of the Archiwum Akt Nowych in Warsaw, by Edward Kolodziej

+ The Culture of Polish Emigration: The Archives of the Polish Emigration in Torun, by Miroslaw Adam Supruniuk

+ Polish Emigrant Periodicals in the Jan Jablonski Library of the Society of Christ in Poznan, by Fr. Jaroslaw Staszewski, SChr

+ The Archival Collections at the Center for the Documentation of Polish Emigration at Dom Polonia in Pultusk, by Danuta Szopa

=====

Membership in PAHA is $20.00 per year ($12.00 for seniors and students, $35.00 for institutions and families), which includes the newsletters and semi-annual Journal. PAHA also sponsors a yearly conference held annually in conjunction with the AHA conference. Copies of the latest issue of _Polish American Studies_ are available for $10 each, which includes the mailing cost. Checks should be made out to "PAHA" and sent to PAHA at this address:

   Karen Majewski, Executive Director
   Polish American Historical Association
   Orchard Lake Schools
   3535 Indian Trail
   Orchard Lake MI 48324

Send e-mails to <pahastm@aol.com>. Also, please note that Karen will be out of town for a few weeks, so she won't be able to do anything about any requests for copies of the latest _Polish American Studies_ until she gets back. So please be patient!Please mention you heard about this through PolishRoots, as we and PAHA have a working agreement to assist each other whenever and wherever possible.

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*** LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ***

Subject: DNA Testing

[Editor: _Gen Dobry!_ reader Stanley Klemanowicz has been looking into DNA testing in terms of genealogical research, and he knew I was interested in this subject. So he asked a representative of a testing company to send me some info. Thanks, Stan! Of course, as with any commercial service we mention, we're not endorsing this company. We're simply passing on info you may or may not care to evaluate. "Let the buyer beware."]

We are a DNA testing company that totally works with the genealogy community, worldwide. We have the world's largest database for Y-DNA comparisons and a matching system so when people match we can let each party know.

This is particularly important for surnames, of which we have over 500 surname projects that we aware working with currently.

Our web site is listed here:

   www.familytreedna.com

and we even have a 28-minute free video that explains Genealogy by Genetics through the eyes of our customers.

If I can give you a guided tour of the web site or answer any questions for you, please drip me a line.

E-mail any time.

Best Regards,

Bennett Greenspan
President, Family Tree DNA

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Subject: Where else to look?

I have a question. My grandfather and grandmother came to the U.S. from Poland. When I go into ellisislandrecords.org, I find about 5 Katarzyna Lizak's and two Walenty Lizak's, but they do not jive with the age and the time that they supposedly came to the U.S. I have the census of 1905 and they are on that with my aunt. My aunt was 6 when she came over. I found her but her age was wrong and Mary was spelled wrong. Could not find a Katarzyna that came with her, date was 1902.

Is there someplace else I could look? My grandfather is supposed to have come before 1902. I tried looking in other places but have had no luck, do you have any suggestions?

Cathy Duprey  <rcduprey@peganet.com>

   [Editor -- I'm sure there are other places to look, but I can't seem to come up with any productive ideas. So I offered to print this note here, and see if over 1,200 experienced researchers can come up with ideas I've overlooked. (If I were a betting man, I'd say "Sure they will!")]
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Subject: "The Pianist" and the Holocaust

   [Editor: We received several interesting reactions to Paul Valasek's review of "The Pianist" in the last issue. Most were too long to reprint here, but we thank everyone who wrote! I found this note of particular interest, and thought it worth passing on:]

As always, I enjoyed the recent issue of _Gen Dobry!_, particularly Paul Valasek's review of the motion picture "The Pianist." I wrote to Paul and told him of several scenes at the beginning of the movie that, in my opinion, were not truly reflective of what actually took place at that time. The point I am stressing is that the media seems to simply refuse to acknowledge the horror and atrocities Poles suffered under the monstrous German occupation of their homeland during the Second World War. Then the media compound this with reports that Poles were complicit with the Nazis in the extermination of the Jews.

I believe that Polonia's strongest voice in this matter is that of Professor Ewa Majewska Thompson at Rice University and publisher of the _Sarmatian Review_. Several years ago, Prof. Thompson wrote a paper "Reflections on Richard Lukas's _The Forgotten Holocaust_" that was published in the _ Sarmatian Review_ and presented at the Polish-Jewish Dialogue, Houston Holocaust Museum, March 1, 1998. I am truly impressed with Prof. Thompson's ability to succinctly clarify the issues and agree with her conclusion that this aspect of World War II is virtually unknown in the United States.

About a year ago, the _Polish American Journal_ was awash with letters and articles lamenting the disinformation about Poles during this period from the revisionist media. I wrote to the PAJ Editor and urged him to publish Prof. Thompson's paper. He replied it was too lengthy for his publication. So I wrote a condensed version, keeping it to a single page. I sent it to Prof. Thompson for her review and approval to forward it to the PAJ. She not only gave approval but made changes that strengthened the work. I again sent it to the PAJ, and although they gave an indication that it may be printed in a future issue, it never was.

I am attaching it to this E-mail. I'm not sure that _Gen Dobry!_, is the proper forum for this kind of material, I'll leave that decision to you. It is a clearly written and balanced piece that your readership may be interested in.

   Bill Rutkowski <ImogeneRut@aol.com>

   [Editor: This whole subject provokes intense emotions on all sides. Poles and Polish-Americans are upset that more people don't realize how much they suffered under the Nazis, and that all the Polish Jews who died were, after all, Poles. Jews can't help being outraged at any statement that might belittle or diminish what they suffered during the Holocaust; and since some anti-Semitic Poles, unfortunately, did collaborate with the Nazis, many Jews resolutely refuse to allow themselves to be called "Polish."
   [Personally, I can't comprehend the scope of this evil. If the murder of thousands September 11th stunned us, how can we possibly grasp what it means for millions to have been butchered systematically? I suspect that inability, rather than pure callousness, is why many folks have the attitude "Enough about the Holocaust already. Get over it!"
   [Still, this is not a subject we can afford to ignore -- a corollary of "Never again!" should be "Never ignore!" I agree that the edited version of Prof. Thompson's paper makes some good points, and I think she tried to be fair and objective. So we are reprinting it here, in hopes some readers may find it an interesting and valuable contribution to the discussion. It follows immediately after this note.]

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*** THE FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST ***

[The following was condensed from Ewa Majewska Thompson's paper, "Reflections on Richard Lukas's _The Forgotten Holocaust_," read at the Polish-Jewish dialogue, Houston Holocaust Museum, March 1, 1998. The original piece was published in the _Sarmatian Review_, Vol. XVIII, No. 2, April 1998, and is available online: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/498/thompson.html. If this condensed version interests you, be sure to read the original.]

_The Forgotten Holocaust_ tells the story of a nation that fought on the Allied side in World War II but emerged from the war a loser. It tells the story of a country that lost one-quarter of its population, it tells of millions of people murdered, sent to concentration camps, subjected to medical experiments and other barbaric acts. It tells of a people who lived through an era where terror was total, yet it had the most effective Resistance movement in Europe, and virtually no collaborators of any social stature. It tells of heroism, generosity and love of one's neighbor when assistance resulted in immediate death. It tells of a million people involved in sheltering Jews. It is the Polish story -- the story that had been silenced by fifty years of Soviet occupation.

To understand _The Forgotten Holocaust_, it is crucial to remember that in September 1939, both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia attacked Poland. It is crucial to recall that in 1939, in 1940, and in 1941, the Soviets were the sworn friends of the Nazis. In 1939 Hitler said the annihilation of living forces was the primary task in Poland. And the Nazis immediately set out on their murderous ways. Before Jews became the primary target, hundreds of thousands of Poles were being rounded up and shipped to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. While this was going on, in the Soviet-occupied eastern Poland, Polish intelligentsia perished in Katyn and in the Gulag. A million and a half Polish Christians went to the Siberian Gulag.

Lukas readily admits that the Jewish tragedy in World War II had no parallels. But he helps us comprehend that the Polish tragedy had no parallels either. While the Jewish Holocaust ended in 1945, terror in Poland lasted for forty-five more years. The grief of the Holocaust has obscured the tragedy of the Poles whose land was polluted by the Holocaust executives and, in 1945, faced a new reign of terror when the Soviet-controlled secret police began murdering and terrorizing people by the tens of thousands. At the end of the war, the Jewish remnants were allowed to depart for Israel, America and Western Europe. The Poles had no such right to seek sanctuary abroad. They stayed in Poland and suffered for another 45 years of Soviet brutalization. Who will pay them for their looted lives? Surely Poles also deserve a measure of sympathy and understanding. Lukas book strives to generate that ounce of understanding.

There is one more aspect of Lukas's book which needs to be mentioned.

To Polish Christians it has become increasingly clear that events of World War II need to be viewed not only in moral terms but also in terms of interest. While the interests of Polish Jews and Catholics were the same concerning the Nazis, they did not coincide regarding the Soviets. For the Jews, the Soviet Union was a possible refuge from the horrors of Nazi occupation. For many Jews, the Soviet Union was a land of promise. Throughout the war, and subsequently, when many Jews saved by the Soviets came back to Poland, a significant percentage of them sided with the Soviet occupier and not with the Poles. For Polish Christians, this was an act of treason. For the Jews themselves, it was a means of survival and ideological choice. The interests of both groups were dramatically different. This fact has to be recognized and accepted. But it is also time to move on and beyond World War II as the base for Polish-Jewish relations.

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*** IHRC ONLINE NEWSLETTER ***

   [Editor: Paul Valasek <Paval56@aol.com> sent in this note from the IHRC (Immigration History Research Centers) and said it would be worth mentioning. He asks only that you tell IHRC you saw it at PolishRoots.]

Dear friend of the IHRC,

The latest edition of the Immigration History Research Centers online newsletter has just been posted. We invite and encourage you to read it and tell others about it. Go to http://www.umn.edu/ihrc/news.htm.

With this issue, the newsletter becomes IHRC News Online, reflecting the fact that the online newsletter is the Center's premier way of distributing its news to the world (this is no longer just headline items). Twice yearly, a modified form of one of the monthly Web newsletters will become a printed newsletter as well, to be mailed to the IHRC's constituency. But look to the Web for ongoing reports. Welcome to IHRC News Online!

Feature story for July: IHRC celebrates the first anniversary of its COLLAGE database with two new search capabilities.

News Online is posted once a month, at mid-month. Please send any comments to Editor Judy Rosenblatt (rosen015@umn.edu).

=====

About the Immigration History Research Center

The IHRC, a unit of the University's College of Liberal Arts, promotes the study and appreciation of ethnic pluralism by sponsoring seminars, publications, conferences, and exhibits. One of this country's foremost repositories of immigration-related printed, manuscript, and audiovisual materials of national and local origin, the Center is open for research by scholars and the general public. 
     The papers and records the IHRC collects and preserves are largely the products of the immigrants, their descendants, and their organizations. A substantial body of materials also documents the activities of groups that provided services to immigrants, worked for policy reform, or educated Americans about immigrant needs and problems. 
     While it receives basic funding from CLA, the Center relies on supporters around the world to maintain its program. It is currently engaged in a campaign to raise an endowment that will provide a secure future for its collections and activities. Contributions made before July 31, 2005, will be matched 1:4 by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Center appreciates your support.

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*** PARISH MONOGRAPHS ***

   [Editor: Ceil Jensen <cjensen@mipolonia.net> got back from a trip to Poland not long ago, and she posted this note on the Poland-Roots mailing list. I thought it was worth repeating, as some of the ideas and sources she mentions might prove helpful to researchers. Thanks, Ceil!]

I have learned of a Polish publisher who puts out monographs on parishes. Some are on sale in the churches, and some are kept by the priests at the rectory. I also bought some at a religious bookstore in Mlawa. The publisher, the Bernardinum Publishing Co. of the Diocese of Pelplin, has a Website here:

   http://www.bernardinum.com.pl/

Krzysztof Kowalkowski has written many monographs on parishes in the Tczew area. See this page on my site:

   http://mipolonia.net/view/kowalkowski/index.htm

The Bernardinum has published several of Kowalkowski's books. You can search for them here:

   http://www.bernardinum.com.pl/?a=3

There is a little search box in the lower left corner to put in parish names ... but it is probably better to surf because of the way a name changes in the Polish language when it's used in varying contexts.

I have books for Milobadz, Lubiszewo, Pszczolki, Krag, Rytel, Lidzbark, Rogalinek ... maybe a few more. They are great because they usually have maps, old photos, new photos and lists of surnames.

Ceil <cjensen@mipolonia.net>
Michigan Polonia -- http://mipolonia.net
Helping researchers find their Michigan and Polish heritage.
Highlighting traditional and electronic research methods.

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*** UPCOMING EVENTS ***

Saturday, August 16, 2003

Polish Genealogical Society of California Summer Seminar

Torrance Masonic Center, 2326 Cabrillo Avenue, Torrance, California

Check-in: 8:30 a.m. -- Seminar: 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Guest Speaker: Stephen Barthel

For more details, see the Website -- http://www.pgsca.org/seminar.html

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August 23 - 24, 2003

26th Annual Slavic Village Harvest Festival

Cleveland, OH

A popular ethnic street fair, which attracts thousands of visitors each year to southeast Cleveland's historic "Warszawa" neighborhood, is will be held Saturday, August 23rd, (1:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.), and Sunday, August  24th (noon until 9:00 p.m.) on Fleet Avenue (Exit 159B off I-77). The Festival is held in the heart of one of the largest Polish-American communities in the nation, and sponsored by Slavic Village Development.

This year's event will draw visitors from throughout Northeast Ohio to celebrate the history, traditions, music and food of the Slavic Village/Broadway neighborhood. Festival visitors will enjoy dancing the polka, riding Lolly the Trolley for tours of the neighborhood, listening to music and eating delicious ethnic foods like pierogies, cabbage and noodles, and kielbasa!

For more information contact Slavic Village Development at (216) 429-1182 or visit our website at

   http://www.slavicvillage.org/

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September 3 - 6, 2003

Federation of Genealogical Societies 2003 Conference

Orlando, FL

For more information: http://www.fgs.org/2003conf/FGS-2003.htm

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September 5 - 6, 2003

St. Louis Polish Festival

Behind Falcon Hall - 20th and St. Louis Avenue

St. Louis, Missouri

Music, crafts, games and authentic Polish food and pastries.

For more information: 314-421-9614

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September 27, 2003

Polish Genealogical Society of California Meeting

9:30 - 11:30 a.m. research assistance
1 p.m. - Class
2:30 p.m. - general Meeting

LA-FHC, 10741 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, California

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September 28, 2003

Eastern European Festival

Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Routes 5 & 10, Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Annual festival features ethnic foods, a variety of ethnic music, speakers, local and regional vendors of crafts from or about Poland and Ukraine. PGS-Massachusetts will be on hand to answer questions about family history, and our collection of books and maps will be available for browsing.

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October 3 - 5, 2003

Polish Genealogical Society of America

* 25th Anniversary Fall Conference *

Ramada Hotel O'Hare, Rosemont, Illinois

For details check the PGSA Website at http://www.pgsa.org

Or contact the Conference Chairperson, Linda Ulanski: LUlanski@aol.com

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October 15 - 18, 2003

9th CGSI Genealogical Conference

Houston, Texas

The Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, together with the host organization, the Texas Czech Genealogical Society <http://www.txczgs.org/>, will hold the 9th CGSI Genealogical Conference at the Omni Houston Hotel Westside in Houston, Texas, October 15-18, 2003.

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October 23, 2003

Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts Meeting

6:30 p.m.

Details to be announced <www.rootsweb.com/~mapgsm/>

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October 25, 2003

Polish Genealogical Group of Arizona Meeting

For meeting location information contact Carole Buskin <cfbuskin@srpnet.com> or (480) 839-8215

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November 6 - 9, 2003

New England Regional Genealogical Conference

Sea Crest Resort, North Falmouth, Massachusetts

New England -- America's Melting Pot

For more details: http://www.rootsweb.com/~manergc 

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*** MORE USEFUL WEB ADDRESSES ***

http://genealog.home.pl
   On the Polish-Surnames list Jen Juzdowski <Palenque5@aol.com> mentioned this as a great tool to discover the nobility of some families. Of course, you have to recall that just because your name appears there does NOT mean your ancestors were noble; many surnames were used by nobles and commoners alike. You still have to do the research to establish a link between you and noble ancestors. But this sort of site might give you more to work with.
______________________________

http://www.genealogy.ro/dictionary/lat_eng_a.htm
   Joseph Martin <martinjo@lewisu.edu> gave this address on the Posen mailing list, saying that for those searching Catholic church records in Posen/Poznan, this online Latin word list might be helpful. "It appears to be quite thorough and possibly contains more genealogically specific words than a regular Latin dictionary."
______________________________

http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/Default.asp
   Also on the Posen list, administrator James Birkholz <j.birchwood@verizon.net> cited this as an interesting website where you can match yourself to others to help each other learn the other person's language through e-mail, typing-chat or voice-chat. "Most registrants are fairly young, but if you've learned enough of a language to stumble through it and wish to polish your Polish, or make your German more germane (sorry), this might be a good method."
______________________________

http://www.stevenmorse.org/jcal/map.html
   The latest issue of _Nu? What's New?_ praises Stephen P. Morse for having developed another useful portal for genealogy: it includes the ability to get a road map or aerial view of any place in the world. For more details, visit the page indicated on the Morse site. Or read the article in _Nu? What's New?_, Vol. 4, No. 12, July 13, 2003, available here:

    http://www.avotaynu.com/nu11.htm#v04n12
______________________________

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Holocaust/
   That same issue of _Nu_ mentions that the JewishGen Holocaust Database contains information from 53 databases and more than 400,000 entries about Holocaust victims and survivors. The URL given here will lead you to those databases.
______________________________

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
   On the newsgroup soc.genealogy.jewish, Michael Bernet answered a question about English equivalents of Jewish given names by pointing readers toward this site, a list of popular baby names, with a ranking of the 1,000 most popular names in each decade by gender. He'd seen this site mentioned in the _New York Times Magazine_ and realized it could help genealogists. Our immigrant ancestors, Jewish or Gentile, tended to drop their foreign-sounding names for ones their new neighbors were used to. They often chose popular American names with a similar sound, or at least starting with the same letter. Thus an Israel might choose to become Irving; a Stanislaw might become Stanley; a Mieczyslaw might become Michael; and so on. Referring to this list, therefore, tells you what names were most popular at the time. That might give you a clue as to what names your ancestors were especially likely to substitute for their "foreign" ones.
______________________________

http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/euro
   On the Poland-Roots mailing list, Henry Cranford <cranford@ecentral.com> gave this URL for a master list of telephone books in Europe. For those who want to use the Polish one, remember that _imie_ is the first name, _nazwisko_ the surname, and _miejscowosc_ the locality (i. e., village or town).
______________________________

http://www.ojcostwo.pl
   Garret S. Mierzejewski <gmpolam@att.net> was kind enough to bring this site to my attention. It's in Polish, and its not everybody's cup of tea, but it is interesting. It deals with DNA testing, especially in connection with criminal cases, and establishing paternity. The page on "Ojcostwo i pokrewienstwo" [Paternity and Kinship] would be the one most relevant to genealogical research. As I say, it's all in Polish, but there might be a few readers who'd want to look into it, maybe even use their services.
______________________________

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sgphtml/sashtml/sashome.html
   Ray Marshall <raymarsh@mninter.net> gave this link for a digitized version of the U. S. Army newspaper _Stars and Stripes_ for 1918-1919 that's been put online by the Library of Congress. Ray said, "If you have a relative who served in France in World War I, you might find some interesting information. Or you might not.  Be aware that that paper was run by the Army and as such was heavily censored and bad news was unlikely to appear in it."
______________________________

http://www.people.stevemorse.org/gayle.riley/
   This is Gayle Schlissel Riley's new Website, dealing with the magnate landowners of Eastern Europe and the towns they owned. She has documents from the Tarnowski archive for the town of Tarnobrzeg, Poland. She adds "This is work in progress. If you have some towns not listed and the magnate who owned the town, please let me know?? Also if you know of the _arendarz_ who managed the estate, I am interested in that too."

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YOU MAY REPRINT articles from _Gen Dobry!_, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice appears at the end of the article: Written by [authors name, e-mail address, and URL, if given]. Previously published by _Gen Dobry!_, Vol. IV, No. 7, 31 July 2003. PolishRoots(R): http://PolishRoots.org/.

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Copyright 2003, PolishRoots(R), Inc. All rights reserved.