Congratulations on a successful trip.  I just wanted to comment that your experience is not the norm, and I don't think people should rush to Poland without much information already. It is still better to prepare as much as possible and know locations before going.  Find out where the parish churches are and the records, and find out which archives have any documents.  Find out their hours of operation, and try to set up a time with the church priest if possible.  Otherwise, you may find yourself walking up to a village church that is locked and have no idea where the priest is, quite disappointing. Do not expect your trip to be as easy and positive as the person's below, or you may be disappointed after your time and money are spent. ----- Original Message ---- From: "Annie & Wal - wlotocki@ozemail.com.au" <+rootswebblobcom+junkymail+9a837a30e3.wlotocki#ozemail.com.au@spamgourmet.com> To: poland-roots@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 1:14:52 AM Subject: Re: [POLAND] Surname Searching lobcom: message 4 of 20) Hi List, Having  returned from Poland I must say that finding church records was a lot easier, or I was lucky. E.g. My mother was born in Warsaw, lived near St Stanislawa church., grandmother buried in Powazki cemetery abt 1934, ggrandmother lived in Gniezno, mum went to church at St Michal when with ggm. This info I got from Mum before she died. In Warsaw visited St Stanislawa church -no records, all sent to the Catholic Seminary University in Dewajtis St. Took a taxi to Dewajtis St, with very limited Polish eventually found the building in the complex, managed to convey the year and church, bingo found gmothers death records, being brave I then asked for records of birth for mum's year, bingo, found mums birth, alas gmum and gdad never married. Mum registered under gmothers name, side note added five years later changes her name to gdads ,( presumably so that she could go to catholic school). This info unlocked the reason for the family fued. Found out that most Warsaw church records are held at Dewajtis St Next went to Powazki Cemetery, no records held prior to 1945,  all destroyed. Must say this is the most beautiful cemetery that I have ever seen. Went to Gniezno, to St Michal, saw a nun arranging flowers at the altar, church gates shut, called her over and said "sukam Babcha" she immediately took me over to the office, called another nun who searched the records, found gmothers birth.  Gave me a photocopy of the record. No charge, so I gave her  50zl  (abt 25$) All other records at Archives in Gniezno. Went to Archives, assistant can speak little English, full day search, found, ggmothers death , birth, marriage And a lot of related family. Paid her for another days search as we had to leave to go to Warsaw. All documentation is being posted to us. Cost of search was 30zl per hour, but well worth it. Some of the books were that old that only the researcher was allowed to touch them. Also the Archives is like Fort Knox, electronic doors, buzzers, and you get locked into a room. Moral of story is that if you can afford to take a trip to Poland do so, even armed with little information it is surprising how far you can go. -----Original Message----- From: poland-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:poland-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Lynnjoni@aol.com Sent: Thursday, 28 August 2008 8:52 AM To: poland-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: [POLAND] Surname Searching Hi Liz, The names my husband is searching for are Przybylski, Wasilewski, and Flott. Thanks for asking. Joni ********************************* 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

Hi list, Sorry I forgot to sign off as I pressed send button when my grandchildren interrupted me. My trip was a retirement trip and we went to England as well. My email was to give hope to people who come up against brickwalls like I did. I apologise if it read as a cavalier approach to genealogy. I have been researching my family for over ten years. I agree with what you say, however, I did have the locations, and I knew where all the churches were before I went. The easiness only occurred because I was there and able to look up dates either side of what I had and variations in spelling, which is a bit difficult to do from sitting at home in Australia, searching internet sources. My gggrandmothers name was spelt 2 different ways, Ruftagen and Roztogan due to the handwriting of the scribe at the time, the later was correct by confirming the death certificate. If I searched for my mother as BORN, would never have found it, it was Wolinski hence no marriage certificate. What I found is that the movement of documents ie from St Stanislawa occurred the week before I arrived, a notice was pinned to the glass door of the office, hence trip to Dewjatis street. In Gniezno a similar situation occurred, some church records had been moved, while some are retained, hence going from church to church. Also discovered that because of the many churches in close proximity to each other, the population will change their church for numerous reasons, >From The Archives I found that the old records were based on the street address where the person resides at the time of the event. This applied particularly to the cemeteries. All I say is that if I didn't go I would never have found these records. Surprisingly, the same occurred in London. Armed with all the different records offices, churches, with times of visitation on current brochures, we found that all records had been moved to Kew, even those from the National Library. This was only a recent occurrence. They changed the system. A prime source book was catalogued at the Library, but its home was in Liverpool. So even armed with all the information, don't be surprised if the location has changed. Regards Wal -----Original Message----- From: poland-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:poland-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of rootswebblobcom.10.junkymail@spamgourmet.com Sent: Thursday, 28 August 2008 8:14 PM To: poland-roots@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [POLAND] Surname Searching Congratulations on a successful trip.  I just wanted to comment that your experience is not the norm, and I don't think people should rush to Poland without much information already. It is still better to prepare as much as possible and know locations before going.  Find out where the parish churches are and the records, and find out which archives have any documents.  Find out their hours of operation, and try to set up a time with the church priest if possible.  Otherwise, you may find yourself walking up to a village church that is locked and have no idea where the priest is, quite disappointing. Do not expect your trip to be as easy and positive as the person's below, or you may be disappointed after your time and money are spent.