Ancestral Tourism in Poland

23/12/2025

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Guests,

I wish you all the best for the upcoming Christmas and New Year 2026. Good health, good relationships, and the opportunity to fulfill your dreams.

As I reflect on the year 2025, I want to say that it was a very busy year. Besides completing many interesting archival research projects, I was a genealogical guide on 16 tours with some of you, and during some of them, we made many interesting discoveries together, including finding living relatives. I also added several new entries to the "Polesie" and "Emigration" databases on my website:

https://ancestral-tourism.com/polesye-polesie-database-s6113

https://ancestral-tourism.com/emigration-s6145

Besides of all of the above I also produced a new genvideo for one of you, and, very unusually, I transferred old letters received from one of you that were sent to the United States from old country before World War II to the State Archives in Pułtusk. I hope this will be a valuable archival resource that will help others in their genealogical research, especially in finding detailed information about life of their ancestors.

And finally, something historical and in reference to Christmas. A fragment of a Christmas Eve description, which took place before WWI in Kaunas district in the Pojoście manor from Father Walerian Meysztowicz's book "Gawędy o czasach i ludziach (Tales of Times and People)":

"Nineteen hundred and something. Just before the terrible year of 1914: In the evening snow, with the first star, the influx of people into the illuminated columned hall begins. Everyone comes, anyone who doesn't have their own household, their own "kutia" for themselves and their loved ones: old workers, gentlemen from the administration, girls from the laundry and bakery, farmhands, blacksmiths, carpenters. The owner of the manor and his wife welcome everyone in the hall, breaking the wafer and hugging; "Please continue" – to the dining hall.

And so, a boy, perhaps twelve years old, approaches her, making up for it with courage. Light hair slicked back with difficulty, a too-long coat with rolled-up sleeves. An orphan. Who knows how he's survived this far. With cattle. He breaks the wafer – kisses the white, beautiful hand. And the Lady takes him by the head in both hands, lifts his little face towards her, and kisses the little one on both cheeks. And she feels tears trickling down her cheeks; the little one's hands are around her neck. "Go on"—to the hall. Where will he go? What will he become? Maybe a Bolshevik, full of hatred, embellished with the adjective "class"? Maybe an uhlan, a comrade of the young noble men in the Vilnius regiment? Will he fall to a bullet near Radzymin during Polish-Bolshevik war, or starve to death in a labor camp on the Yenisei (Siberia)? Will he reach London via Tobruk, Monte Cassino, and die of a heart attack in a factory hall, among English workers? No one has yet dreamed of his fate.

The dining hall, illuminated by hanging lamps, gold portrait frames. Beneath them, tables crowded, hay under tablecloths. The Master and Lady seat six, seven dozen people at the tables. Vases of red borscht are steaming. Fish. And then kutia; indeed, kutia! Wheat and peas, overcooked with almonds and poppy seeds, in honey-sweetened water. A horror, yet pleasant for many. Conversations broke out. The Master and Lady quietly retreat to the other rooms – the dining room is getting increasingly noisy. Singing erupts, in Polish and Lithuanian.

Meanwhile, in the next room, in front of the fireplace, Christmas Eve is served to the gentlemen. Grandma, parents, children, Miss, teachers. Christmas wafer. The same dishes. Fortune-telling with stalks pulled from under the tablecloth. The end is imminent. They remove the table, and armchairs form a wide circle around the fireplace burning beneath a portrait. Every few moments, invited gentlemen enter from the crowded dining room table: the steward, the Master's right-hand man in the management of the estate, an agronomist from Riga Polytechnic University. The Master of the Hunt – also an academic, a forester, a writer, a bookkeeper, the chief caretaker of the dairy and several hundred Dutch cows, scattered across several farms. Finally – the apprentice, young, a relative of the family, laughing, making the delighted cousins laugh... More liqueurs, cookies. When will it end? Because the door to the large living room, where Christmas gifts await, is still closed. Finally, the door swings open – light bursts – in the center of the room, a ceiling-high "fir tree" burning with hundreds of candles, gleaming with the gold of chains and pendants. But who would look at it! A long table laden with gifts. For the boys, the ultimate dream, flowers (guns)! Real ones, shooting bullets. What are all the other gifts in comparison – a ring for Mom, lace for Grandma, toys, dolls! Don't even look at them. Flowers!

Singing around the "tree" the carrols.
Meanwhile, the dining room emptied. Apparently, the vicar is already in the chapel across the river – he's about to celebrate the Midnight Mass. So, warm clothes, before father makes sure all the candles are extinguished and all the doors are locked – and out into the snow, across the bridge to the chapel."

Emigration - Research in state, diocesan and parish archives. Online research. in the internet databases and libraries.Search of living members of your family. Arrangement of personal tours to historical places where your ancestors lived. Search of the documents for Polish citizenship procedures.

18/12/2025

I had already assumed that the genealogy tour in the Wigry parish would be the last of the year, but it turned out not to be. Earlier this week, I visited the Treblinka museum with an American descendant of Białystok Jews. We toured the site of the former death camp on a frosty, late autumn day. I heard from my guest that he had read many stories related to the Holocaust and Treblinka, and that the way history was commemorated there was truly worthy and thought-provoking. As we were concluding our tour, we heard the sounds of the shofar. It turned out that two people from Finland, members of the United Nations for Israel (if I remember the name of the organization right), had visited the Treblinka museum to commemorate those who perished.

11/12/2025

I recently conducted a search in the parish registers of the Roman Catholic parish in Kroki, Lithuania, and in 1878 I came across the baptismal certificate of an 18-year-old Jewish girl, Belka, who took the name Katarzyna Antonina, and was the daughter of Owsiej and Kejla Ram, and was born in the village of Nowajcie in the Rosień County.

10/12/2025

Look at this interesting item from East Flanders in Belgium that I managed to buy in an antique shop near Białystok.

Photo album from a wedding in Nieuwenhove, Belgium - During one of my New Year's walks in the snowy countryside near Białystok, Poland, I stumbled upon a country shop selling furniture and antiques imported from Belgium. The shop was full of interest...

05/12/2025

It looked like the genealogy tour season was over for this year, but it turned out not to be. Yesterday I was at the parish in Wigry. It seems that my guests and I found the gravestone of a close relative in the cemetery in Magdalenowo.

22/11/2025

A few nearly genealogical photos. Last week, I went to Łapsze Wyżne in southern Poland to conduct research in the parish archives. This is a parish where the vital records are kept only in the parish archives and are not available online. After finishing my work, I went for an hour-long walk in the hills. Take a look at the photographical results of my walk.

20/11/2025

I currently receive a large number of inquiries regarding the procedure for confirming Polish citizenship from descendants of people who emigrated from territory of Poland. One of the most important documents that helps confirm Polish citizenship is an ancestor's ID card. However, it's important to remember that before World War II, these documents were not mandatory, and secondly, for many regions, the archival collections that might contain these documents have not survived. Therefore, it amazes me when I accidentally stumble upon such a document in the archives where it shouldn't be. Recently, while browsing through the birth register, I found the ID card of Gołda Izraelita!

10/10/2025

The last genealogical trip first led to the parish of Ruże in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, specifically to the village of Rudusk, where Antoni Bolewski's family originated. The problem was that he emigrated in the early 20th century with all his children and wife, and his only sibling was a sister, about whom we know nothing. We were unable to locate living relatives. However, we had interesting conversations with the parish priest in Ruże and a resident of Rudusk. The second part, however, was much more interesting, leading to the parish of Inwałd, near Andrychów and Wadowice in southern Poland. We wanted to find information about the family of Stanisław Pietraszek, of whom we only knew that he was born in Inwałd in 1891 and that we knew his parents' names. The civil registry books from Inwałd are located in the Archives of the Kraków Curia, which are closed until further notice. However, it turned out they were also located in the parish archives in Inwałd, and thanks to the kindness of the parish priest, we had the opportunity to review them. We managed to find information about Stanisław's siblings, parents, and grandparents. The death certificate of Stanisław's father, Jan, stated that he died from a blow to the head with a rock. In the cemetery in Inwałd, we found the tombstones of Stanisław's parents and his sister. We also located a member of the extended family, who showed us the still-extant family home of Stanisław's mother, Katarzyna Mydlarz. He also told us that the family was involved in mining and selling a local limestone deposit. While digging for limestone, Jan was struck in the head by a shard of limestone, resulting in his death. We obtained confirmation of the fact found in the certificate from a relative! And Jan's death occurred in 1898!

30/09/2025

I've just returned from an eight-day genealogical trip. It all began with research in the archives. The first two were aimed at finding documents relating to grandfather of my guests, born in 1879, and the second was aimed at examining all possible more recent documents to identify grandfather's siblings who hadn't emigrated and their descendants, so as to facilitate the search for living relatives. The final, fourth research was aimed at identifying all the previous generations of the family. Thanks to these, we had arranged three meetings with our discovered relatives before the tour: in Białystok, Majewo, and Biskupiec in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. During the trip, we also found relatives from another line in the parish of Suchowola. The second part of the trip was devoted to sightseeing. We saw the largest private collection of cameras in Biskupiec, visited the Siberian Memorial Museum in Białystok, and the Village Museum in Osowicze near Białystok. We visited the monastery in Supraśl, the arboretum in Kopna Góra, and the sanctuary in Sokółka. We visited the mosque in Kruszyniany and the Orthodox church in Białowieża. We also took a three-hour walk through a remnant of the primeval forest in Białowieża National Park. Finally, we went to the Suwałki Landscape Park, and the tour concluded with a narrow-gauge railway ride along beautiful Lake Wigry

21/09/2025

This post is about never giving up hope that the genealogical information you're looking for will be found. I recently conducted research at the State Archives in Siedlce, examining the civil registry records of the Jewish community in Stoczek Węgrowski. In 1928, Bejla Nejmark, née Świeca, registered her marriage to Mordek Icek Najmark, which took place, mind you... in 1888!

13/09/2025

Here are photos from our recent genealogical trip to the parishes of Turowo, Gierzwałd (Evangelical), and Wąpierk in Warmia; Nowa Wieś Królewska, Linowo, and Radzyń Chełmiński in the Chełmno Land; and Wójcin and Kołdrąb in the Pałuki region. Our goal was to visit all the villages where my guests' ancestors lived, were baptized, and married, and to locate living relatives. We likely succeeded in this last (archival research should confirm this) in the parishes of Wąpiersk and Wójcin.

28/08/2025

Earlier this week, I had a guided walk around Białystok with the granddaughter of Józef Bloch from Białystok. I hadn't done any genealogical research before it, so beyond the information I'd been given beforehand, I knew practically nothing. Only that Józef Bloch had been a teacher at a Hebrew gymnasium and that his son, working for a Soviet company during the Soviet occupation of Białystok, had ended up in Crimea and lost contact with his parents and sister when the German occupation of Białystok began. He never returned to Białystok, never learning the fate of his family. This trip in 2025 was his the first visit of the family member to the city of ancestors after the war. While preparing for the trip, I found Józef Błoch among the teachers at the "Tachkemojny" Hebrew Gymnasium in 1932. The gymnasium was located at 3 Szlachecka Street, and Józef Błoch himself lived at 6 Stolarska Street. Neither street exists today. Before the war, the address 4 Szlachecka Street was the Druskin's Gymnasium, the famous building on which Natalia Rak painted the mural "Girl with a Watering Can." The "Tachkemojny" school must have stood somewhere nearby, probably on the other side of Szlachecka Street, perhaps where Piłsudskiego Street runs today. Stolarska Street ran from the Fish Market to Legionowa Street, meaning it was located where the post-war apartment blocks of the Piaski estate now stand. We went there. For me, someone who didn't see the construction of the Piaski estate, didn't see the demolition of the hall in the Fish Market, or its shortening after the war when Piwna Street was straightened, the estate plan is difficult to read, even with a pre-war map. But I decided to ask around. First, I apologized to the man, who looked older than me, carrying the carpet. He said he didn't know, hadn't heard anything about Stolarska Street, but he called one of the neighbors who had lived in the estate since 1945. The neighbor brought photos and information. He said that after the war, the street no longer existed. Thanks to him pointing out the course of Rybny Rynek, Sucha, and Skórzana Streets, we figured out where Stolarska Street might have been.Today, it's probably one of the residential streets, running alongside a four-story apartment buildings. After the war, it was an uninhabited street, full of the rubble of pre-war houses. The most interesting photos were the ones he took. One showed the southern frontage of Fish Market Street after the war, with the tenement houses that lined it. On the back was a recreated list, written in ballpoint pen, of people who lived on that street after the war. The same was true of the second photo, which showed a postwar view of Legionowa Street from the side of what is now the USK hospital. Aren't such encounters fascinating?

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Na początk tygodnia miałem spacer po Białymstoku z wnuczką Józefa Blocha z Białegostoku. Nie wykonywałem przed wycieczką badań genealogicznych, więc poza przekazanymi mi informacjami przed wycieczką praktycznie nic nie wiedziałem. Tylko to, że Józef Bloch był nauczycielem w gimnazjum hebrajskim i że jego syn podczas okupacji sowieckiej Białegostoku, pracując dla przedsiębiorstwa sowieckiego trafił na Krym i utracił kontakt z rodzicami i siostrą, gdyż zaczęła się okupacja niemiecka Białegostoku. Nigdy zresztą do Białegostoku więcej nie wrócił, nie dowiedział się, jaki los spotkał rodzinę, a ta wycieczka w roku 2025 była pierwszą wyprawą członka rodziny do miasta przodków po wojnie. Przygotowując się do wycieczki znalazłem Józefa Błocha wśród nauczycieli gimnazjum hebrajskiego "Tachkemojny" w roku 1932. Gimnazjum mieściło się przy ulicy Szlacheckiej 3, a sam Józef Błoch mieszkał przy ulicy Stolarskiej 6. Ani jedna, ani druga ulica dziś już nie istnieją. Adres Szlachecka 4 nosiło przed wojną gimnazjum Druskina, ten słynny budynek, na którym Natalia Rak stworzyła mural "Dziewczynka z konewką". Gimnazjum "Tachkemojny" musiało stać gdzieś po sąsiedzku, pewnie po drugiej stronie ulicy Szlachckiej, być może w miejscu, gdzie dziś przebiega ulica Piłsudskiego. Ulica Stolarska odchodziła od Rynku Rybnego do ulicy Legionowej, czyli znajdowała się w miejscu, gdzie dziś wznoszą się powojenne bloki mieszkalne osiedla Piaski. Pojechaliśmy tam. Dla mnie, człowieka, który nie widział, jak budowano osiedle Piaski, nie widział burzenia hali na Rynku Rybnym, ani jej skracania po wojnie, gdy prostowano ulicę Piwną, plan osiedla jest mało czytelny, nawet z przedwojenną mapą. Ale postanowiłem popytać. Najpierw przeprosiłem mężczyznę, na oko starszego ode mnie, niosącego dywan. On powiedział, że nie wie, nie słyszał nic o ulicy Stolarskiej, ale zadzwonił do jednego z sąsiadów, który mieszka na tym osiedlu od 1945 roku. Sąsiad przyniósł ze sobą zdjęcia i wiedzę. Powiedział, że po wojnie nie istniała już ulica Stolarska. Dzięki jednak temu, że wskazał jak biegła ulica Rybny Rynek, Sucha i Skórzana, doszliśmy, gdzie mniej więcej mogła znajdować się ulica Stolarska. To dziś prawdopodobnie jedna z uliczek osiedlowych biegnąca wzdłuż 4-piętrowych bloków. Po wojnie była to niezamieszkana ulica pełna gruzu po przedwojennych domach. Najciekawsze były zdjęcia. Jedno przedstawiało południową pierzeję ulicy Rybny Rynek już po wojnie z kamenicami, które przy niej stały. Na odwrocie zaś znajdowała się odtwarzana lista osób, zapisana długopisem, które przy tej ulicy mieszkały po wojnie. Podobnie było z drugim zdjęciem, które przedstawiało powojenny widok na ulicę Legionową od strony dziiejszego szpitala USK. Czy takie spotkania nie są fascynujące?