
Daj mi buzi - give me a kiss!
Everyone can have fun celebrating Polish-American Heritage Month, as we proved yesterday. But if you have Polish ancestry, there are also some fun genealogical things you can do. Today I present:
Top Ten Genealogical Ways to Celebrate Polish-American Heritage Month
1. Listen to Polish pronunciation of names and places with Expressivo. I wrote about it here but the company has since changed the site so the links don’t play the recordings. However, it will take you to the new site, Ivona text to speech. You can still enter some words or phrases and choose the Polish voices to “speak” to you.
2. Learn to decipher a Polish record. These translation aids can help.
3. Learn all about Polish genealogical research. Start with Poland Gen Web or Polish Roots or Polish Origins. Or, read a book such as Going Home: A Guide to Polish-American Family History by Jonathan D. Shea or Sto Lat: A Modern Guide to Polish Genealogy by Ceil Wendt Jensen.
4. Explore the Polish records on Family Search. They don’t have much yet, but the good news is that there are some!
5. Explore Geneteka’s records. I wrote a primer here.
6. Virtually visit some of Poland’s Archives. Stanczyk presents a list here.
7. Join a Polish genealogical society. Perhaps PGSA or PGSCTNE? There are many!
8. Browse the Poland-related mailing lists at Rootsweb. Here’s a list of all, just look around for Polish-related lists.
9. See if there’s a website for your ancestor’s hometown. Try a Google search, or else try the town name in between “www” and “pl”.
10. Create a surname map for one of your Polish surnames. It’s both fun and educational!
So there you have it. How are you celebrating Polish-American Heritage Month?