Knowledge Gained

Before I started interviewing relatives for stories, character information, and "life as they knew it" monolouges, I really wanted to see just how far back I could trace things on my own will all certainty. I didn't get far, but I did get somewhere. I spent about 3 hours at the library initially, but after that another 2 hours making up for the information my mom kindly left out (like my grandpa Leonard's real first name).

I now know my grandma White (hereafter "Busia") is 100% Polish, her parents both immigrants in the early 20th Century. From census records of my great-grandfather's early life, I found his parent's names and all his siblings, but I didn't have a clue where to get my great-grandmother's maiden name. However, when I entered my great-grandfather's name in Ancestry.com's family tree link, I found out I'm distantly related to "The Parkers" who kindly did some research for me. I'll have to check it all all out through Busia, but I'm hoping its all legit.

As for my Busia's ex-husband, my mother's father, I've come up with nothing helpful about even him, let alone his parents or grandparents. I've avoided interviewing Busia about her parents becuase I know I'll have to interview her about her ex as well. I could just call up my grandpa myself, which I'm sure I'll have to resort to soon, but since he has a terrible and annoying hearing problem, I've been avoiding it as well.

My father's father is 100% French, but beyond that, I havn't found much. My father's mother is 100% Canadian French, and her Grandmother lived with her until she died so I have Grandma's mom's maiden name and great-great grandma's name as well.

The catch for all of my findings is the lack of immigration papers. Either they all changed their names (or at least the spelling of their names), lied on the census, or were illegal immigrants, stoways, and/or spies. I like the last array of choices better, but in all probability they probably just changed the spelling of their names or what country they were from.

Since my mother's side is so stongly Polish, this is a huge possibility. I've been doing research on webpages like www.polishroots.org and poland.pl to learn about the country's history as a democratic nation, to learn from other geneologists' journeys in tracing their Polish roots, and to learn about the culture and religion of the country. I plan on doing more research of the same type for my father's ancestors as well.

This week I'll be interviewing Busia for more information on her parents and grandparents, and I'm hoping for something fun and exciting like pictures, legal documents, and secret recipies for perogi. I'll sit down my father for some one-on-one hardcore interviewing about his childlife, and I may email his older brothers for information, but I know the well will run shallow there; things are more difficult since both his parents are deceased and the possessions of grandma Leonard's house were randomly dispersed/thrown out when she died 5 years ago.