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? Write to Marie at > GALICIA-admin@rootsweb.com > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GALICIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >