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Sunday, December 11, 2016

Wish List – Dear Genea Santa



Where to begin!??


I have two lists.  One is for things that are either said to be coming in the near future; or are at least within the realm of possibility.  The other list is for those things that are unlikely or would involve a miracle of some sort.

Fantasy:
All Polish archives to be online and searchable

Complete and error-free synchronization among all online family tree providers.

Every state in the US to have vital records online and searchable

Adequate budget to support every research trip I’d like to take and to purchase every publication I’d like to have, (And the room to store all the publications.)

Instant fluency in the Polish language.  This is where the miracle part comes in.

Reality: (Could happen)
Verify my g gfather Joseph Dachtera’s birth place.

Figure out which Solomon Rose is the one I’m looking for.  (There are too many men named Solomon Rose in the same time and region.)

Find the ancestral village in Bohemia of the Filek family I’m looking for.

The return of the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. The Newberry Library says this will happen in early 2017.

Better organizational skills. (Possible but not likely. Comes under the heading of “teaching an old dog new tricks”.


C’mon, Santa. Do your stuff!

15 comments:

  1. Mary, I really hope Santa grants your wish by going to Poland and scanning all the archives, translating and then indexing the documents for easy access. Merry Christmas!

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  2. I think that adequate budget is a great idea but let's think bigger - how about an unlimited budget for research? Might as well dream big while we are dreaming.

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  3. Love your lists!! I too wish for instant fluency in Polish (mine is minimal), all Polish records indexed, searchable and online as well as the ability to read Cyrillic. And, of course, better organization skills *g*...

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  4. I love your two lists. Although I have no Polish family, I have friends who do and would also love your first fantasy to be true. On your reality list, I would wish for discovering the ancestral village first. It took me years - decades - to find my paternal grandparents' village in Slovakia.

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    1. Thanks Linda - I was lucky that my mother knew where her father was born; and sort of knew where her mother was born. Took a long time and many searches and microfilm reels to get from "Grabowo" to Grabow nad Prosna.
      Still trying to narrow down my paternal grandparents villages for sure.

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    2. I'm still hoping that the records in Carlisle, UK, that were deliberately destroyed by the custodians will turn out to have survived. Specifically the 1783 marriage licence which managed to mangle my Scottish forebear's place of origin as Bogralin on a typed version. Congrats on id'ing one village and good luck on the rest.

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  5. I hear ya on "Instant fluency in the Polish language. This is where the miracle part comes in." I have friends who need this talent too!

    I also laughed out loud with this one "Better organizational skills. (Possible but not likely. Comes under the heading of “teaching an old dog new tricks”." I hear ya. My old dog need is a love for editing.

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    1. Thanks, Devon - I don't mind editing but I absolutely cannot successfully proofread my own stuff. I see what I expect to see instead of what's actually there.

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  6. Ah yes, Bohemia, my Grandfather came over from Czechoslovakia. But they interchange Poland, Czech, Austria, Slovakia, Bohemia, you know what I mean, borders were so fluid for so long. And many had reasons for changing the birth place which doesn't help us a but. So much in the region was lost. I wish you much help and success for your new year lists! May 2017 bring you much success!

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Donna. Since the immigrants claim Bohemia as their country of origin, I am looking at areas that were considered to be Bohemia at the time they were born and/or at the time they immigrated. I have the same issue with my Polish immigrants who definitely considered themselves as Poles even though the area they lived in was Prussia at the time. Both Polish and Czech history are fascinating.

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