One of my hobbies is genealogy. On my mother’s side, it is Italian genealogy and the records go back to 1809, with sometimes a missing year here and there, but there are many, many records. On my father’s side, it is Polish genealogy and the situation is not as happy. For my Polish grandmother, there are some records, with some large gaps, so the research is not complete, but I was able to build a partial family tree going back several generations. Also, for this side of the family, I successfully found relatives in Poland who knew of the family in America. For my Polish grandfather, who is from the village of Gibałka in the area of Kadzidło, the research in impossible. Luckily, I have a birth certificate copy for my grandfather which he obtained in 1931 when he applied for American citizenship. Unfortunately, that is the only record I have. The church records before World War II are gone. There were no civil records at that time and any recreated civil records that do exist have yielded nothing for my research.
Most genealogists would have given up at this point. I could not give up. I was determined to find something, a document, a person, anything that mentioned my grandfather or his parents. I am still looking.
Many people from this area of Poland came to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, so I am not the only person unable to do genealogical research. The problem is on both sides of the Atlantic-genealogists in Poland researching in this area are also affected. In the absence of records, the only way to do any research at all is to interview people living in Poland and the United States. The genealogist must become the record keeper. The only research material we have is each other. That is why this website exists.
My hope is to provide a central location where we can share information. I hope you will join me in this endeavor. If you would like to share information concerning your family from this area, please contact me and I will put that information on this website on the “are you my cousin?” page.
Dorena Wasik