Thanks, Dennis for all thew great info! --Karen On Aug 1, 2009, at 5:39 PM, Dennis Benarz wrote: > Hi Karen > > When I require some background information on a particular village, I > usually consult three resources. > > 1. "Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego" - the Geographic > Dictionary of > the Kingdom of Poland, Warsaw, 1881. This 19th Century work covers > just > about every village, creek, and mountain that had a place name. I > have a CD > copy of the 17-volume work digitized by Dr. Rafal Prinke but you can > also > access it online. Be forewarned, the work is written entirely in > Polish and > is heavily abbreviated. > > 2. A local township (gmina) website. Such township websites usually > contain > a brief history of the area and include noteworthy events. Okay, > they're > usually written entirely in Polish. What would you expect if you're > researching a village in rural Poland? > > 3. The local diocesan website. In the past, these have proven to be > extremely helpful because they often include the dates of the > founding of > the particular parish and the building/rebuilding dates of its > structures, a > list of its villages and territory, and a photo of the church. > Recently, > more and more diocese are limiting or abandoning their online > historical > notes. Alas, the Diocese of Rzeszow no longer includes any > historical parish > information on its recently revised website. Again, these sites are > typically written only in Polish. Big deal. Learn the keywords and > away > you'll go. > > 4. There was a fourth resource, an online searchable database of > Galician > villages, parishes, townships, and counties taken from the 1900 > Austrian > census, but that online database has been inoperable for more than six > months and I won't mention any names because I don't want to > embarrass the > folks at PolishRoots. > > Please, don't be afraid to try to tackle a foreign language. My Polish > language skills were non-existent just 8 years ago, but I craved > information > that was only available in Polish and so, over time, I taught myself > to read > the language. I admit that my language skills are quite shoddy but > they get > me what I want to know. Alas, I still cannot converse in Polish but > whenever > I am faced with a conversational situation, I simply look for a Pole > who > speaks German or English. It works for me. > > Cheers and good luck in your endeavor! > > Dennis > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Karen Preston" <vegaskaren@gmail.com> > To: <galicia@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 6:20 PM > Subject: Re: [GALICIA] REMAK SURNAME > > >> Dennis, >> >> The historical background on the villages is very interesting, and >> helps provide some context. I would like to know more about the >> villages/towns that relate to my reasearch. >> >> Is there a particular source that you go to for this info? Can you >> point us to where to find the info? >> >> I am researching my husband's family from the villages of Czermin >> (Mielec), Slupiec (Tarnow), and Jaslany, Josephsdorf, Schonanger & >> Tuszow (all Mielec). >> >> Many thanks, >> --Karen >> On Aug 1, 2009, at 1:37 AM, Dennis Benarz wrote: >> >>> Your grandmother came from the small city of Nowy Sacz. It is an old >>> settlement, found in old texts variously called "Sandechz" (1311), >>> "Kamenicia" (1312), "Kamenecia" (1317), and Sandecz (1318). The city >>> lies at >>> the confluence of two rivers (Dunajec and Kamienica) near the older >>> town of >>> Stary Sacz. Like all cities, Nowy Sacz has had it ups and downs. >>> Probably >>> the one single event that hampered its future growth was large-scale >>> destruction caused during the Swedish Deluge (1655-1660). In the >>> 19th >>> Century, Nowy Sacz had 11,185 residents. The ethnic breakdown: >>> 10,788 Poles, >>> 63 Russians, 123 Germanics, and 7 "others". The religious breakdown: >>> 5,144 >>> Roman Catholics, 560 Greek Catholics, 5,163 Jews, and 318 "others". >>> >>> Today, Nowy Sacz has about 85,000 residents. It is part of the >>> Diocese of >>> Tarnow and contains ten Roman Catholic parishes. During World War >>> II, about >>> 60% of the city was totally destroyed. Most of it's prewar Jewish >>> population >>> of 25,000 died during the war (many were sent to the Belzec >>> Extermination >>> Camp) and several hundred of its Christian residents were executed >>> for >>> aiding and sheltering Jews. It was a city with a conscience and was >>> recognized with an official honorarium after the war. >>> >>> For more information, visit its official website: http://www.nowysacz.pl/ >>> >>> Cheers and good luck in your endeavor! >>> >>> Dennis >> ********************************* >> Need to contact the list manager? 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