Show and Tell: A Bavarian Beer Stein

My original title for this post was “Nothing to Show; What Can I Say?” and began with a humorous lament over my family’s lack of family heirlooms.  However, I’ll save my attempt at humor for the Family Heirloom meme and instead focus on the one heirloom that I do have!  The theme of the 55th [...]

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Interview with William F. Hoffman: Part 4 – Latin and Other Languages

This week we’re interviewing author William F. Hoffman (see Part 1 for more info on his books).  In Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview, we discussed surnames. Yesterday, in Part 3 Fred discussed translating records.  Today we wrap up our conversation with more on translations.

WPiP: What’s the easiest language for non-linguists to [...]

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Interview with William F. Hoffman: Part 3 – Translating Records

This week we’re interviewing author William F. Hoffman.  In Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview, we discussed surnames.  But that’s only part of “Fred” Hoffman’s area of expertise – he’s also authored several books on how to translate genealogical records (see Part 1 for more info on his books).  Today, we’ll begin discussing [...]

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Interview with William F. Hoffman: Part 2 – More on Polish Surnames

In Part 1 of my interview with William “Fred” Hoffman, I introduced Fred as the author or co-author of several books about names, surnames, and translating genealogical documents.  Today, we continue our conversation about surnames.

WPiP: When they began using surnames in Poland, were they standardized – passing from father to son – or not?

Fred: [...]

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Interview with William F. Hoffman: Part 1 – Encountering Polish Names

This week, What’s Past is Prologue is delighted to host an interview with author William F. Hoffman.  Those readers with Polish heritage are probably thinking “Cool!” while those without may be asking “Who?”  William “Fred” Hoffman is the author or co-author of several key works that are highly useful to genealogists.  Two of his [...]

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And the Winner Is…

Today is the end of the Genea-Blogger Group Games!  The five competition categories involved citing sources, backing up data, organizing research, writing, and reaching out to help other genealogists.  I only had time to post one update during the games, but here is my final medal tally:
1. Go Back and Cite Your Sources!
I first didn’t [...]

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Joseph Zawodny

In 1880, Poland was a divided land.  Officially, the country of Poland no longer existed.  The former Polish Kingdom was partitioned in three stages among Prussia/Germany, Austria, and Russian from 1772-1795.  Poland, with its long national history and cultural heritage, became only an idea.  The area that was southern Poland now belonged to Austria, while [...]

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The Family History Project Revisited

Did everyone have a “Family History Project” in school?  I received my assignment in 8th grade, December, 1980.  Even though I was inspired by Alex Haley’s Roots three years earlier, I still knew very little of my family’s history except for my great-grandparents’ names.  Our assignment was to write an essay about one of our [...]

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My Musical Genealogy

Thanks, Tim, for reminding me what a freak of nature unique individual I am. You see, I’m probably one of the few people in the modern world that can’t name ten formative albums from my teen years.
After trying to participate in this meme, I finally have to admit what others have been telling me [...]

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Carnival of Genealogy, 54th Edition

Welcome to the 54th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy! I am delighted to host the COG for the very first time here at What’s Past is Prologue. This edition’s theme is The Family Language – and what a wonderful variety of languages we all have.  And I don’t mean the “usual” languages, but those [...]

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