This post might be seen as off-topic – though it does have to do with Poland and Polish history. My son is at that age in which he is demonstrating a pretty good interest in his roots and his heritage. (He is ten years old and he lost his mother – my wife to leukemia in the past year. Because of the loss of his mom, he is really curious where he came from and his extended family.) He is now 4 generations removed from his great-great-grandparents who immigrated to the US from Poland. So his day-to-day understanding of his ancestors who came from Poland are limited. I am trying to help him learn more about his Polish heritage and the history of Poland. One of the things that he is really interested in is the postage stamps of Poland. He is a big stamp collector for a 10 year old. He really likes to look at the stamps and then try and find out what they are about. He says it is a great history lesson. (Umm… That’s probably just a con to get Dad to cough up the money to pay for his addiction – oh I mean hobby!) He wants to try and find someone in Poland who might be able to collect postage stamps for him and send them to him. He does this with people in other countries and he uses his allowance to reimburse them for the cost of sending the stamps to him. Does anybody on the list know of anyone in Poland who might be able to do this? (Here in the US he has even set up a deal with a couple of local charities that save their stamps for him and then he gives them a donation. He’d be willing to do that for a small business or charity in Poland.) Given this is kind of off-topic, if anyone has ideas for him could you reply to my e-mail? (I don't let him use e-mail yet!) Jerry Kromer e-mail: <mailto:jkromer@ix.netcom.com>jkromer@ix.netcom.com web site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/pattykromer

Jerry Kromer asked about educating his son about Polish History using Polish postage stamps. Jerry, I have this URL in "My Favorites": http://www.stampspoland.nl . I do not remember where I found this URL. I think someone may have posted it to the Poland-Roots message board a number of years ago. This is a website that shows the postage stamps of Poland with an explanation of what is depicted on the stamp etc. I do not know how current the information on this website is but you can take a look at the website to see if it would be of any use to you. The interesting thing about this website is that it is from the Netherlands (The URL ends in .nl for Netherlands) and it is not a Polish website. Another source for information on Polish stamps is the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue which is published each year by the Scott Publishing Company in Sidney, Ohio. Volume 5 of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue covers countries whose names begin with the letters P through SL. You should be able to find a copy of the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue at your local library. It is probably in the Reference Section of the library. Thomas Mackowiak MACKOWIAK/SERWATKIEWICZ/WANATOWICZ/JANUSZEWSKI/LESCZYNSKI/ORLIKOWSKI/MROZ/MU NO/HARNEY

For a 10 year old I would try and contact one of the schools in Poland and find a pen pal. Some schools in Poland do have this kind of exchange. Most Polish children would be happen to write to him. Jim On Nov 3, 2008, at 1:58 PM, G Kromer wrote: > This post might be seen as off-topic – though it > does have to do with Poland and Polish history. > > My son is at that age in which he is > demonstrating a pretty good interest in his roots > and his heritage. (He is ten years old and he > lost his mother – my wife to leukemia in the past > year. Because of the loss of his mom, he is > really curious where he came from and his > extended family.) He is now 4 generations > removed from his great-great-grandparents who > immigrated to the US from Poland. So his > day-to-day understanding of his ancestors who came from Poland are > limited. > > I am trying to help him learn more about his > Polish heritage and the history of Poland. One > of the things that he is really interested in is > the postage stamps of Poland. He is a big stamp > collector for a 10 year old. He really likes to > look at the stamps and then try and find out what > they are about. He says it is a great history > lesson. (Umm… That’s probably just a con to get > Dad to cough up the money to pay for his addiction – oh I mean hobby!) > > He wants to try and find someone in Poland who > might be able to collect postage stamps for him > and send them to him. He does this with people > in other countries and he uses his allowance to > reimburse them for the cost of sending the stamps > to him. Does anybody on the list know of anyone > in Poland who might be able to do this? (Here in > the US he has even set up a deal with a couple of > local charities that save their stamps for him > and then he gives them a donation. He’d be > willing to do that for a small business or > charity in Poland.) Given this is kind of > off-topic, if anyone has ideas for him could you > reply to my e-mail? (I don't let him use e-mail yet!) > > Jerry Kromer > e-mail: <mailto:jkromer@ix.netcom.com>jkromer@ix.netcom.com > web site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/pattykromer > > > > ********************************* > Need to contact the list manager? Write to Marie at Poland-Roots-admin@rootsweb.com > ---------------------------------- > Discussion of Polish food, culture, and customs are welcome on the > list as long as the discussion stays pertinent to the topic of this > list: researching our Polish roots. > ---------------------------------- > Browse the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=poland-roots > Search the list's archives here: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?aop=1 > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POLAND-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message jimpres1@mac.com

Geez...That's a good idea....Even I, would like to have a pen-pal in Poland. Someone to write to over there on a monthly basis, to discuss current events and world-wide topics, at the same time learning about their customs and, sharing mine, and learning about each others daily lives. KarenP Canada ----- Original Message ----- From: "JimPres" <jimpres1@mac.com> To: <poland-roots@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 4:14 PM Subject: Re: [POLAND] Educating My Son on Polish History For a 10 year old I would try and contact one of the schools in Poland and find a pen pal. Some schools in Poland do have this kind of exchange. Most Polish children would be happen to write to him. Jim

Karen, Send an email to this lady Stacy rkg@wp.pl she is a teacher at a high school in Rypin Poland. Tell her Kuba Przedzienkowski asked you to contact her. She knows me. Jim/Kuba On Nov 15, 2008, at 8:30 PM, Karen Prytula wrote: > Geez...That's a good idea....Even I, would like to have a pen-pal in > Poland. > Someone to write to over there on a monthly basis, to discuss > current events > and world-wide topics, at the same time learning about their customs > and, > sharing mine, and learning about each others daily lives. > > KarenP > Canada > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "JimPres" <jimpres1@mac.com> > To: <poland-roots@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 4:14 PM > Subject: Re: [POLAND] Educating My Son on Polish History > > > For a 10 year old I would try and contact one of the schools > in Poland and find a pen pal. Some schools in Poland do have this > kind of exchange. > Most Polish children would be happen to write to him. > > Jim > > jimpres1@mac.com

Jerry, If you know in which villages his ancestors were born you could contact the school(s) for that village. If you know the name of the village as well as its gmina, powiat or old wojewo~dztwo we can probably come up with the school's name and location. If not, I am friends with the principal and English teacher of a grammar school in Pobiedno, powiat Sanok, old woj. Krosno and I can put you in touch with them. Debbie G Kromer wrote: > This post might be seen as off-topic – though it > does have to do with Poland and Polish history. > > My son is at that age in which he is > demonstrating a pretty good interest in his roots > and his heritage. (He is ten years old and he > lost his mother – my wife to leukemia in the past > year. Because of the loss of his mom, he is > really curious where he came from and his > extended family.) He is now 4 generations > removed from his great-great-grandparents who > immigrated to the US from Poland. So his > day-to-day understanding of his ancestors who came from Poland are limited. > > I am trying to help him learn more about his > Polish heritage and the history of Poland. One > of the things that he is really interested in is > the postage stamps of Poland. He is a big stamp > collector for a 10 year old. He really likes to > look at the stamps and then try and find out what > they are about. He says it is a great history > lesson. (Umm… That’s probably just a con to get > Dad to cough up the money to pay for his addiction – oh I mean hobby!) > > He wants to try and find someone in Poland who > might be able to collect postage stamps for him > and send them to him. He does this with people > in other countries and he uses his allowance to > reimburse them for the cost of sending the stamps > to him. Does anybody on the list know of anyone > in Poland who might be able to do this? (Here in > the US he has even set up a deal with a couple of > local charities that save their stamps for him > and then he gives them a donation. He’d be > willing to do that for a small business or > charity in Poland.) Given this is kind of > off-topic, if anyone has ideas for him could you > reply to my e-mail? (I don't let him use e-mail yet!) > > Jerry Kromer > e-mail: <mailto:jkromer@ix.netcom.com>jkromer@ix.netcom.com > web site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/pattykromer >

Jerry, As the list has already posted some very direct and informative answers to you stamp question, I will add a few comments that are not as direct. My daughter now 18 was about 10 when her interest in genealogy was first piqued. My way of fueling that interest was to show her pictures of the areas her ancestors were from, introducing her to the foods traditional to her ancestors. (She makes killer homemade Kielbasa and Pirogi). I told her of the traditions and customs for the periods and locations. Etc. Not only is she not only interested in Genealogy, she knows more about history than most of her teachers. Cooks up a storm and we are pretty close as mother and daughter. (most of the time after all she is 18) Another Idea, About 6 months ago she and I found a website postcrossing.com It is a post card sharing list. Again something we do together. For every post card you send, You recieve one. Only today my daughter recieved a post card from Finland with a pretty cool stamp. What is Neat is that many of the post crossers will give a little information on the area they are from, this could advance his stamp collection as well as give him a little history of where his stamps come from. Just some thoughts, Marie On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 1:58 PM, G Kromer <jkromer@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > This post might be seen as off-topic – though it > does have to do with Poland and Polish history. > > My son is at that age in which he is > demonstrating a pretty good interest in his roots > and his heritage. (He is ten years old and he > lost his mother – my wife to leukemia in the past > year. Because of the loss of his mom, he is > really curious where he came from and his > extended family.) He is now 4 generations > removed from his great-great-grandparents who > immigrated to the US from Poland. So his > day-to-day understanding of his ancestors who came from Poland are limited. > > I am trying to help him learn more about his > Polish heritage and the history of Poland. One > of the things that he is really interested in is > the postage stamps of Poland. He is a big stamp > collector for a 10 year old. He really likes to > look at the stamps and then try and find out what > they are about. He says it is a great history > lesson. (Umm… That's probably just a con to get > Dad to cough up the money to pay for his addiction – oh I mean hobby!) >