« A Love Affair with Genealogy

A guilty conscience is never a good thing. For years now, I have been doing genealogical research on the "Italian" side of my family.  But as my Italian research has progressed, I have definitely felt some pressure to research and document the "Polish" side of my family as well.

But to be honest, the task has always felt very daunting to me.  First of all, I do not read Polish or Russian.  And even if I did, Polish vital records are nearly impossible to come by -- as opposed to Italian vital records which have been meticulously microfilmed and catalogued by the Morman Church.  This research likewise requires a keen sense of the history and the geography of Eastern Europe, which is extremely complex and at times very disturbing (i.e the Holocaust).

With that said and done, I feel an urgency to research, organize and disseminate this information before it is lost.  Luckily for me, I have relatives in the US and Europe who I can tap for valuable information.  I also have many relative documents and photos which I have gotten from my grandmother, Sophie, which I continue to process. And as time goes on, more and more information is available on the web.

So in honor of the new year and my new "can do" attitude, I am updating my web site to include my Polish Genealogical Research. (For those of you familiar with Abruzzo Journal, I have also updated the site design as well.) The Polish Annex has a link for a discussion thread as well as a "drop box" in which photos and documents can be down loaded. I have also posted "maps of interest" which you can refer to while reading future posts.  I will post a photo/document gallery, as well as family trees, in the near future. 

Happy New Year!  MAC