Sounds like a fantastic idea Tom. We all have those albums or shoeboxes full of the unknown. I would be among probably quite a few to hear your process and how you are successfully achieving what seems to be the almost impossible before I am gone and my kids say "why in the world did she keep all of these pictures of people she didn't even know?". Also, Tom, I am still working on the problem you presented back a month or so ago. Each week I have been scanning newspapers trying to find a hint to giv eyou an answer but so far nothing. But, I have not given up. And on one more note, the weather has been beautiful and I have been out doing what I love best and taking pictures of headstones. One of my last quests was at the Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in the Krakow area. It is nearly complete on Find A Grave but am trying to fill in some of the missing and mistakes that I made because of the different spellings. I think I am glad that I am not from the Polish heritage. Wow, those names are impossible to pronounce much less spell. Bet there are all types of stories behind the different spellings or when the spellings were changed. Anyway, if you have family buried there, take a quick look and send a message through the "Edit" button if you see something....Shirley

Shirly - Thanks for remembering my questions. If you have time, fine, but don't worry about devoting your life to it. I wouldn't want to put anyone out. "I think I am glad that I am not from the Polish Heritage" - Well, you know that St. Peter is actually an extremely logical and rationale Saint, and as such, he simply sends the Poles through the gate without questioning them too much, obviously because he feels that the Polish People are probably the holiest of all that ask for entry, so he just doesn't want to waste time during the processing in period. If you find something in the newspapers, I may well make you an "Honorary Polish Person". When you "process through" - he'll just shoo you in along with the rest of us. You do super work on "Find a Grave" - I refer to it periodically to see what new info is up there. You've made your mark in this genealogy business for sure. If statistics are available, I think you will be pleasantly surprised to find the amount of people that refer to it and where they are located. I hear about your efforts constantly, all good. I agree, the Polish surnames seem unpronounceable, however, I have to say that it's really a simple matter to pronounce the names. Polish is a phonetic language. Words are pronounced, without error, the way they are spelled today. If one has a "cheat sheet", merely the Polish alphabet and pronunciation card, you'll go a long way towards "Honorable Polish Status". The name looks terrible in spelling, but if you go slowly and pronounce the letters and diacriticals s they're meant to be pronounced, you will get a pronounceable surname easily recognized by Poles. Works every time. Yes, surnames change in spelling over the eons and will constantly change in the future. Take mine for instance : LASSEK today, LASEK in Poland, Pospieszała to start with. Lot's of history. OK - I'm working with Sister Sally Smolen, the daughter of Sally Smolen who was married to John Smolen Sr., Cousin Dean and Ron Lassek and John Smolen, plus Paul Brundy. We're open to others as well. By inception, we were all to reduce our old photo's to digital and put them on a CD to send to everyone. This hasn't been fully applied yet, so I have volunteered to have the photo's sent to me and I digitalize them and make the CD's, then send the original's back if and when they want them. We've circulated 1 CD since the start of the project about a month ago, well over 100 photo's and they're steadily being identified. Of those in the project, they simply ID the photo by the number it is given automatically on the digital scan, by example "CVS 0001" then they send everyone an email with the proper identification of the photo. All then use the "rename" portion of our computer to change the "CVS 0001" to the actual person, by example "Clara Lassek, 1941, Columbus" then save it. From this point onward, the photo is ID's with the name and other specifics. The CD can then be reproduced and sent to others. Individual photo's can be attached to email or the CD taken to Walmart to have a "professional" photo made, any size. One can also simply print out a copy on printer friendly photo paper. I took the photo's to digital via my digital camera which allows me to transfer the likeness in high definition, so you can make paper photo's any size or blow it up to look closely at it for identification. The process is in it's infancy, but it works fine. I have volunteered to keep it moving by doing some of the things required to keep it progressing. I absorb postage costs and other costs that may be required. I consider genealogy a hobby and am glad to have some of this stuff identified and kept forever. Tom On Sep 10, 2011, at 2:59 PM, Shirley Martys wrote: > > Sounds like a fantastic idea Tom. We all have those albums or shoeboxes full of the unknown. I would be among probably quite a few to hear your process and how you are successfully achieving what seems to be the almost impossible before I am gone and my kids say "why in the world did she keep all of these pictures of people she didn't even know?". Also, Tom, I am still working on the problem you presented back a month or so ago. Each week I have been scanning newspapers trying to find a hint to giv eyou an answer but so far nothing. But, I have not given up. > > And on one more note, the weather has been beautiful and I have been out doing what I love best and taking pictures of headstones. One of my last quests was at the Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in the Krakow area. It is nearly complete on Find A Grave but am trying to fill in some of the missing and mistakes that I made because of the different spellings. I think I am glad that I am not from the Polish heritage. Wow, those names are impossible to pronounce much less spell. Bet there are all types of stories behind the different spellings or when the spellings were changed. Anyway, if you have family buried there, take a quick look and send a message through the "Edit" button if you see something....Shirley > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message