bonnie.mcneill@comcast.net wrote: > Can someone suggest where to look in Poland for the ancestors > of these people? Lewandowski seems like a very popular name. Bonnie, Yes, Lewandowski is a very popular name. In 1990, there were over 89,000 individuals with that surname, and they lived all over the country. As for Bieniewicz, that seems much less common, but the 202 people with that last name were also spread all over Poland. As Ella already mentioned, you'll need to find the exact place of birth for your ancestors before you can begin looking for records in Poland. Pretty much like every other country, older records are filed at the state/diocesan level and "newer" records (under 100 years old) are held at the local level (parish/civil office). So, if you don't know where they were from, you won't know where to begin looking. If they were Christian, I'd recommend obtaining copies or transcripts of baptismal records (not certificates but info from the actual entry in the church books) for *all* of their children born in the USA. Sometimes, depending upon how thorough the priest wanted to be, the exact places of birth of the parents were recorded in the entry. Other times, it may just give just the country or the region or the name of the parish town. However, when all you have to go on is "Russian-Poland" *anything* more specific is a big help. Also, look for the church record of their marriage. Civil records were often less detailed than church records. You may also find their places of birth in the church records, as well as the names of their parents. Again, you don't want a certificate - you want a copy or transcript of the actual entry in the books. Certificates issued to verify baptism or marriage don't usually contain *all* of the info found in the record. -Marie