Genealogy

Flowers, Candles and Community: All Saints Day in Poland

Posted by Jenna on Nov 1, 2011 in Genealogy, Holidays, Poland | 1 comment

I stood motionless, my feet melting into the cobblestone walkway. I was transfixed. Dusk was descending and thousands of candles began to punctuate the darkening path, blinking quietly on the ground. The tiny flames illuminated rows of gravestones. I’d never before felt such a strong sensation of peace and calm in a cemetery.

9 Things I Noticed about Contemporary Rural Poland

Posted by Jenna on Oct 13, 2011 in Genealogy, Poland, Rural countryside | 0 comments

At the beginning of September, I began a journey. Though I didn’t have many tangible expectations for the outcome – I was more interested in the process of journeying itself – I did have one goal. To backpack across Poland and visit the towns where my great-grandparents came from. In the end, I returned to Wroclaw having reached five out of seven

Notes on searching for my great-grandfather’s old Polish farm

Posted by Jenna on Oct 10, 2011 in Genealogy, Poland, Rural countryside | 2 comments

Family stories have always suggested that my great-grandfather Makowski grew up on a farm, somewhere in central Poland. According to the stories, the farm was huge. According to the stories, the Makowskis had tons of children. According to the stories, there was tangible communication between my great-grandfather’s new family in America and his old

When the Connections You Find are Bigger than You’ll Ever Understand

Posted by Jenna on Sep 19, 2011 in Genealogy, Poland, Rural countryside | 1 comment

I’ve never been a big fan of cemeteries. But in Poland – small towns and big cities alike – cemeteries are part of the fabric of life, linking life to death through tangible markers. Physical representations of memory in stone, they are central to annual Catholic holidays and, for some, chances to heal through action, tending to the flowers and earth

The creek that flows through Głebokie

Posted by Jenna on Sep 12, 2011 in Genealogy, Poland, Rural countryside | 1 comment

There is a piece of lore floating in my family history that one of my great-great-grandfathers was connected to a family of royal nobility in Poland. Indeed, they share the same last name – Potocky. And one branch of the noble Potocky family owned a small town in southeast Poland called Rymanow – the same town listed as my great-great-grandfather’s

Finding connections to the past: Zamutov, Slovakia

Posted by Jenna on Sep 5, 2011 in Genealogy, Rural countryside, Slovakia | 0 comments

Genealogy research is all about connecting the past with the present. There are two main angles from which to seek this connection. The first is through oral history: family stories, folklore, legends, tidbits. All can lead insight into where ancestors came from and why.

The second is through written