Creative writing vs. Encyclopedic statements

Excerpt from “Writing Family Histories for the Nonwriter”

The new book will be available in June 2023 on Amazon.com

My strategy for writing my family history is initially to transcribe the information from documents to summaries for each ancestor. These entries can be bullet points. They can also be sentences, but they do not have to be. This method helps me start the process and should help most people overcome their fear and reluctance to start writing their family history.

I visualize my initial entries for an ancestor as just recording information. As a result, my first entries have an encyclopedic format and could be considered boring. Here is an example:

“The baptismal record for my grandmother, Anna Chmielewska, indicates she was born on June 26, 1899, in Pierzshaly, Poland, to Aleksander Chmielewski and Julianna Zaluska.”

This format is mechanical. After using it frequently, remembering specific words, phases, and the sentence structure for each type of record is easy. Each entry begins with the name of the record type, followed by a verb such as lists, indicates, or shows. Next, enter the person’s name and then list the information in the document. Using this method, you can record the information quickly and accurately in your summaries for each ancestor because the words should flow freely. In addition, frequent use will train your eyes where to look for the information in the document.

Using summaries as your primary research document, you should update them conscientiously with more details and facts. Having all the information for an individual in one place is another benefit because it helps find further info faster. Additionally, list the information in chronological order, which will slowly tell the stories. Finally, the latest info, details, and stories will help you expand the initial encyclopedic entry into an appealing narrative. For example, here is the current entry describing my grandmother’s birth after I added details I gleaned from pictures and other documents:

“Anna was born at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 26, 1899, to Aleksander Chmielewski and Julia Zaluska in a small cottage in the farming village Przezdziecko-Pierzchaly, Polish Russia.

“In Poland, fathers choose the names of their sons, and mothers select their daughters’ names. Additionally, Polish parents often give their children saint’s names, and usually, the name is associated with the saint for the day of the birth. However, the saint’s name for June 26 was not Anna, so I do not know why my grandmother received her name.

“On the day after Anna’s birth, Aleksander put Julia and the baby onto his horse cart and led them down the dirt road three miles to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Andrzejewo for Anna’s baptism. Walking behind their father were Anna’s four siblings – Marianna (age 17), Boleslaw (age 14), Stefania (age 12), and Hipolit (age 6).

“Also joining the procession were Grandfather Adam Chmielewski and the godparents Franciszek and Emilia Uscinski. Emilia was Julia’s first cousin, and, as godmother, she was responsible for dressing the infant for the christening.

“Another group accompanying the family to the church included Jozef Sutkowski, age 42, and Aleksander Sutkowski, age 40, who were needed as witnesses to the birth. They were farmers in Pierzchaly and brothers to Anna’s grandmother Teodora who had died four years prior.

“Grandmother Franciszka Zaluska and other family members met them in Andrzejewo because they lived near the church.”

You may think I am taking some liberties with the creative writing in the second example, but I did not make up the details. They came from the documents and photos:

  • Birth and baptismal dates – from Anna’s baptismal record
  • Birthplace and location of church – from Anna’s baptismal record
  • Size of the cottage – from vintage pictures of the village
  • Condition of roads – from vintage photos of the area
  • Origins of her name – from books on Polish customs
  • The list of people attending the baptism- from birth, marriage, and death records for the friends and family of the Chmielewski family and the village of Pierzchaly
  • Distance to the church – calculation from a map

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Celebrating Easter with Our Ancestors

I remember the Dominican Sisters at St Patrick’s Grade School teaching us the religious importance of celebrating Easter. My specific image is Sister Valentine marching us first-graders to a pew in the church on Ash Wednesday to receive the ashes on our foreheads. Over the next few years, religion classes taught us the symbolism of Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. However, I also realize Easter is a significant family celebration as a Polish descendant, with memories of attending these masses with my family, especially my Polish grandmother. Now I am writing down these memories to pass them along to my children, grandchildren, and their descendants.

Our focus during Easter should go beyond the merrymaking of Mardi Gras or Carnival. Or celebrating Fat Tuesday with abundant Paczki. Instead, reflect on the essential tenets of our faith during Lent and as we celebrate the masses. But also, it is crucial for us to consider our family memories before we lose them. Easter was an important celebration for our Polish ancestors, and I find it exciting when I feel I have found a way to connect with them.

I try to bring back memories by reflecting on how our family followed Lenten traditions. For example, did grandma change the menu for her family meals? What did you and your siblings give up for Lent? Of course, candy was always on my list and my fellow grade-schoolers, but I also added daily mass, the Stations of the Cross, and specific good deeds as I matured in high school.

My memories of Easter identify Lent as a private time. The general emphasis of Easter relating to my family memories starts with the end of Lent and the arrival of Palm Sunday. What traditions did your Polish immigrant ancestors follow after Palm Sunday? Did they use the palms they received from their local parish in America or sought out the willows they used in Poland? Did your grandparents hang the palms or willows in their homes and barns (if they lived on a farm)? This tradition was to encourage good health and the protection of the house.

The week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday is a flurry of memories of attending mass on Holy Thursday and Good Friday and watching the rituals associated with these days and evenings. Sometimes I am in a pew with my family, in the choir loft, or as one of the altar boys attending the priests. This week culminates with listening to the extended reading of the gospel on Easter.

The crucial time for our family history gathering is the family feast on Easter Sunday. Do you remember what was on the menu? Of course, you do. Were traditional Polish foods available? Are we saving grandma’s recipes? Today my favorites are Polish sausage and pierogis, but these were unavailable in central Illinois when I was young. My grandmother usually found a Polish ham instead. What is the schedule for the day? Who attended the feast? Who were the storytellers? This gathering is the best time to make new memories and the best source to collect the family stories that need to be saved.

Did you have an Easter egg hunt for the children? Did the eggs have traditional Polish designs or only solid colors? The egg symbolized fertility and played a critical role in many Polish celebrations. In the 1800s, the Poles gave elaborately decorated and ornamental Pisanki eggs as gifts.

How are you capturing your family stories? Taking notes or putting a recording device on the table destroys the moment’s atmosphere. Also, recording a family member without permission is a no-no. One method I use is to write down notes as soon as I get home. I write the narrative within a few days and then send a copy to the storyteller for corrections. Everyone knows I am writing the family history and seem to expect they will appear on its pages. Stories about the Easter celebrations of my Polish ancestors give me a different perspective of them, and my visions of them seem to come alive.

Always celebrate our Polish heritage on traditional holidays. Capture the stories and let our children and grandchildren learn about their ancestors.

Organizing your Family History

Researching family history generates a mountain of paper as you find records. However, these records are treasures because they are critical sources of data about your family. Furthermore, organizing these records and their information is crucial to the success of your work because your future research depends on retrieving their details quickly.

The first step in organing your work is setting up a system to label your folders. Your method should be logical, easy to file a document, quick to retrieve, and easy to remember.

Most genealogists use factors such as surname, given name, record type, date, place, and other details to sort their information. Which factors they use as their primary and secondary information depends on personal choice, but surname and record type seem to be the most popular choices. For example:

Using “surname” as your primary factor and the given name as the secondary will show “Smith, Joseph” on the folder tab. So all documents are sorted by a person’s name, and the folders are stored in name order.

Using the “record type” as the primary factor will show “Census, 1930” or “Census, Smith” on a folder tab.

Some documents, such as census and passenger records, pertain to multiple people. Instead of filing a copy for each individual, many researchers use a combination of the two systems. For example, they save census and passenger records by record type and surname to eliminate the need for multiple copies. Then, they file the other documents by surname and given name.

Genealogists use two systems to store paper documents: file folders and ring binders.

They need a filing cabinet or storage crates to place the folders. Color coding the folders will help them file new documents and retrieve them when needed. However, it is difficult to add more cabinets when the cabinet is full. Storage crates are easier to add, but ehrn multiple crates are stacked to save space, moving the containers to find a file is cumbersome. Folders are also challenging to carry and use on trips away from your work area.

Ring binders are another method of storing paper documents. They are easily retrieved from shelves, especially if the spine labels are color-coded. Start with small (1”) or medium (2”) binders and expand to the larger (3”) size as needed. The binder pages are easy to flip through to find information, especially if you place the documents behind the tabs in chronological order. The small and medium binders are easy to transport to libraries and archives in backpacks, but they can become heavy as you add records. Nevertheless, most researchers find adding ring binders and shelving space easier than finding room for another file cabinet.

Go Digital

Eliminating paper and digitally saving your documents may be the system of the future. Digital files eliminate the mountain of paper and significantly reduce the physical space needed. For example, my 20 years of genealogy files use 132 GB of digital storage. I use my laptop as my primary storage unit and a 1 TB external hard drive to back up my files. These two devices are significantly small than a file cabinet or the twenty-ring binders needed to store the paper equivalent of my digital files.

I label my digital files using the same factors as a paper system, using surnames and record type as my primary factors and adding 3-4 secondary factors to the file name.

Using “surname” as my primary factor, my label will be “smith-joseph-census-1930”.

Using the “record-type” as the primary factor will show ”census-1930-smith-joseph” as the record label.

Once I type my file name, select my folder, and hit “save,” my computer will automatically place my new file in the order my naming system dictates. So, remember, once you decide on your system, be consistent so your files appear in the folders where you expect them.

Visiting libraries and archives will become easier when you use digital files. You can copy your pertinent files to a thumb drive to reference them using a computer at the facility. You can use the same thumb drive to save digital copies of what you find and transfer them to your computer after your trip. Going digital minimizes your physical space, and transporting your files becomes less challenging.

The main drawback of going digital is a computer crash where you lose the information on your hard drive. Therefore, making a backup copy is critical, and experts recommend backing up your files monthly as a minimum.

I add an essential step to my digital system. As I find my documents, I save a copy to my computer but then compile the information I see in the record into a summary for the individual mentioned in the document. I carefully enter the information into the summary chronologically, which helps reveal their story. I also include a document copy at the end of the summary. Adding the copy may seem like overkill, but I use this step to add the source citation in the label above the document. I need to add that data immediately to ensure I  do not forget it. I usually do not review the copy on my computer again unless I suspect a problem with what I entered in the summary.

Benefits of my digital summary:

  • It s a quick reference of the facts by putting all the information for the individual in one place to speed up future research
  • Is flexible when adding facts, stories, and pictures
  • It is a narrative, and all family members can understand it
  • It can be easily shared with family members or other researchers through email.
  • It saves paper, but more importantly, it saves the information in the records

The critical step in being organized is to develop a system that fits your needs and skills, then consistently use it. Also, do not be afraid to change your system as your skills increase and technology changes.

New Book Announcement- Polish Genealogy: Finding the Polish Records

I have published a revision to my Polish Genealogy book. It has a new cover and title – Polish Genealogy: Finding the Polish Records. But more importantly, I hope I have updated the content to cover the changes in Polish research over the past ten years. 

The new book explains a six-step process to find your Polish records and includes many screen prints describing how to use the various online resources.

1. Identify their original Polish name

2. Find their approximate birth year

3. Find town names for clues

4. Find possible Polish locations on maps

5. Find the Polish records

6. Translate the Polish records

The print edition is available at Amazon.com, PGSA.org, and the Polish Art Center. The eBook version is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Google, Kobo, and most online stores.

Saving our Christmas Traditions

The Christmas season is approaching, and it is a vital time of celebration for my Polish family. Celebrating holidays and special events gave my ancestors an overall rhythm to their lives during the year, and most immigrants tried to continue this in their new homes. So Christmas was a special time for them, setting the tone for the start of the year.

It is a magical season and an excellent time for most families to get together. The season helps people forget the cold dark realities of winter. Many seem to transport their minds to a better place by enjoying the festive celebrations surrounding Christmas activities. It can also be an exciting time to add to Family History research. Memories of these traditions and celebrations can be vital to your family history.

Have you been saving memories of your Christmas gatherings? Now is a great time to start if you haven’t been writing them down and capturing them in photos. Remember, photos give us a visual perception, and words can highlight the details. So capture them now while your memories are still sharp. The details help bring your ancestors back to life.

As a start, here are some questions I ask: Did your grandparents describe their Christmas celebrations in Poland? Did your family gather on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? What dishes did they serve? What was the filling in your pierogi? Did you have a cucumber salad? What was the soup – mushroom or chicken? How did they prepare the potatoes? Was ham on your grandmother’s table, or did she serve the more traditional fish recipe? What were the desserts?

Did someone save the recipes? Are they still using them today?

I loved all the dishes my grandma served, but the sauerkraut pierogi and poppy seed cake were my favorites. Grandma’s pierogis were perfect. They were still hot when they got to the table, and I always started eating them first after daubing them with sour cream. All of the other food was delicious, but I was still careful to leave room for the poppy seed cake. Grandma’s cake was moist, sweet, and the perfect end to the feast.

Your Christmas memories are a magical portion of your family history. So keep honoring your Polish ancestors by celebrating their Christmas traditions, and remember to enjoy the spirit of Christmas every day. Their lives are major building blocks for our roots in America.

Capture them and share the pages and photos from past Christmas days with your brothers, sisters, and cousins, and more stories will flow. Save your memories in a written family history so your family can know their ancestors better. Those words will be an extraordinary gift to your grandchildren and great-grandchildren when they read your family history.

Wesołych Świąt

Merry Christmas

Considerations about buying a DNA test kit for Christmas?

Are you contemplating buying a DNA test kit for yourself or a family member as a Christmas gift? I believe many people may be weighing this option after seeing the holiday ads thinking it would be a unique gift. In addition, I think people may be asking if they should take advantage of the Christmas sales and buy a kit for themselves. However, before purchasing a test, it would help if they answered a few questions about how the results can be helpful and whether you are ready for the type and limitations of information it shows.

The test results give two types of information. The first set is a list and diagrams showing the possible areas their ancestors left, implying these are your Roots! The second data set is a list that matches your DNA to other submitted samples. This set gives a range of relationships, such as 2nd to 4th cousins, 3rd to 5th, and more.

Another thing to consider before purchasing is how you will use the results. Your answer may influence which company you should consider purchasing your kit. Some ads suggest that the test results magically produce a complete family tree and point to a location on a map. Unfortunately, this magic does not happen. The DNA test results will only give clues, not the solution to your questions. Detailed research and analysis are required to finish the job. 

So, should you buy a test kit, and if you do, what company? My recommendation depends on how you plan to use the results. If all you want is to see your ethnic origins take the test from any of the four major companies (Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage, and FamilyTree DNA) and review your results. However, this set of data may cause you confusion because your results may show origins in places, not in your family stories. Also, your results may not match samples submitted by a sibling or cousin. These two confusing situations happen because companies use different base data and label geographic areas differently. I have not found data that points to one company’s results being more accurate than the others.

On the positive side, companies regularly update their base data to improve their accuracy. Recent updates to my test results gave me clues that helped resolve some brick walls in my family research. With that said, the results I received did not point to any specific village where my ancestors were born, but they did help provide a general idea of where to look.

The last point to consider is how long you have researched your family history. If you are beginning your research on your family history, DNA testing should not be your first step. You must first collect family stories and documents and compile a family tree showing at least four generations before submitting a sample for DNA testing. This early research will help you better understand your test results. In addition, the DNA results will give clues to your roots and suggest how you relate to other people. It is a potent tool, but it is best to use it with other genealogical tools.

DNA testing is not magic. It is a science and a tool that may give you clues to your family history. Genealogy research also is not magic. It is detective work where you need to apply sound and detailed research to be successful. You will have to commit to many days and nights of work uncovering your family history.

Please don’t jump into DNA testing without knowing why you are doing it. It can lead to fantastic information, or it may be a waste of your money.

If you are ready to begin your journey, find the details, do the research, and have fun.

BOOK REVIEW OF GERMAN GENEALOGY: FINDING THE GERMAN RECORDS

Book Review for German Genealogy: Finding the German Records from the Quarterly Journal of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Vol 54, No 3, Fall 2022

Writing Family Histories for the Nonwriter

Genealogy research should go beyond finding documents and filling in names and dates on charts. After finding my first family documents, saving the information in a family history for my children and future generations became a priority. However, I was reluctant to write a family history because I was uncomfortable with the grammar rules and organizing my thoughts into clear statements. I also felt I could not give my research to another person to write the narrative because they could not feel my connection with my ancestors as a researcher and a family member. Fortunately, I developed a method that overcame my reluctance, and this process should also work for most nonwriters.

My strategy for writing my family history is to initially focus on transcribing the information into summaries for each ancestor. These entries can be bullet points; I use sentences, but they do not have to be. This method helps me start the process and should work for most people to overcome their fear and reluctance to start writing their family history.

I visualize my initial entries for an ancestor as just recording information. As a result, my first entries have an encyclopedic format and could be considered boring. Here is a sample:

“The baptismal record for my grandmother, Anna Chmielewska, indicates she was born on June 26, 1899, in Pierzshaly, Poland, to Aleksander Chmielewski and Julianna Zaluska.”

This format is mechanical. After using it frequently, remembering specific words, phases, and the sentence structure for each type of record is easy. Each entry begins with the name of the record type, followed by a verb such as lists, indicates, or shows. Next, enter the person’s name and then list the information in the document. Using this method, I can record the information quickly and accurately in my summaries for each ancestor because the words flow freely. In addition, frequent use has trained my eyes where to look for the information.

I use summaries as my primary research document and refer to them when needing facts to do more research. I also update them conscientiously when I find new information. Having all the information for an individual in one place is another benefit because it helps find new info faster. Additionally, I list the information in chronological order, which will slowly tell the stories. Finally, the latest info, details, and stories help me expand the initial encyclopedic entry into an appealing narrative. For example, here is the current narrative describing my grandmother’s birth and the walk to the church for her baptism.

“Anna was born at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 26, 1899, to Aleksander Chmielewski and Julia Zaluska in a small cottage in the farming village Przezdziecko-Pierzchaly, Polish Russia.

“In Poland, fathers choose the names of their sons, and mothers select their daughters’ names. Additionally, Polish parents often give their children saint’s names, and usually, the name is associated with the saint for the day of the birth. However, the saint’s name for June 26 was not Anna, so I do not know why my grandmother received her name.

On the day after Anna’s birth, Aleksander put Julia and the baby onto his horse cart and led them down the dirt road three miles to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Andrzejewo for Anna’s baptism. Walking behind their father were Anna’s four siblings – Marianna (age 17), Boleslaw (age 14), Stefania (age 12), and Hipolit (age 6).

“Also joining the procession were Grandfather Adam Chmielewski and the godparents Franciszek and Emilia Uscinski. Emilia was Julia’s first cousin, and, as godmother, she was responsible for dressing the infant for the christening.

“Another group accompanying the family to the church were Jozef Sutkowski, age forty-two, and Aleksander Sutkowski, age forty, who were needed as witnesses to the birth. They were farmers in Pierzchaly and brothers to Anna’s grandmother Teodora who had died four years prior.

“Grandmother Franciszka Zaluska and other family members met them in Andrzejewo because they lived near the church. Babka, who helped with Anna’s birth,  stayed behind in the village to organize the christening party.”

I may seem creative in my words in the second example, but I did not make up the details. They came from the documents and photos:

  • Birth and Baptismal Dates – from Anna’s baptismal record
  • Birthplace and location of church – from Anna’s baptismal record
  • Descendant from Nobility – from Anna’s baptismal record and the baptismal and marriage records of her parents
  • Size of the cottage – from vintage pictures of the village
  • Condition of roads – from vintage photos of the area
  • Origins of her name – from books on Polish customs
  • The list of people attending the baptism- from birth, marriage, and death records for the friends and family of the Chmielewski family and the village of Pierzchaly
  • Distance to the church – calculation from a map

Remember that sources of details and stories that go beyond the traditional documents are county histories, books on ethnic customs and traditions, maps, newspaper articles, and stories about daily life in the same area. Most of these sources do not mention your ancestors, but they give you insights into their lives.

Another essential resource is the older photos in family albums. Ask relatives to identify the event and the people. Also, review the images that show the inside of the homes. Also, there were clues and details related to my ancestors in the photos I saw in books and online collections – especially those depicting the neighborhood where they lived and worked. Additionally, the details sometimes may give clues to areas needing even more research.

Another source of clues is asking questions about the information you have found. The lack of an answer points to areas that need more research.

  • Where did they live? Find pictures of the home
  • Why did they move? Read the history of the area, focusing on what drew your ancestors to the area or drove them away
  • What was their occupation? Read accounts that describe the skills and effort they needed to do their jobs
  • What social history affected their lives? Only include events that directly affected them

The last essential part of my method is to write entries with an audience in mind. Picturing the audience helps to write for them in clear narratives. In my case, I try to envision my grandchildren or great-grandchildren reading my stories.

Whatever format the summary has, it serves two purposes: first, as research notes, so you can quickly research further, and second, as a readable document, you can easily share it with your family. In addition, the information is in a format your family does not have to know the genealogical jargon to understand what you share with them.

Points to Remember:

  • Be accurate in recording the data from documents
  • Add descriptive information to your statements found in other sources
  • Add first-person accounts when available
  • Use your voice, style, and vocabulary
  • Do not exaggerate
  • Omit needless words (keep it simple)
  • Focus on recording the information and saving stories, and your family history will appear

However, I must caution you that once you start, you may get addicted to this exciting journey along your family’s past. My research has brought many ancestors back to life. Sometimes, I can feel them looking over my shoulder as I enter their stories onto their pages. That feeling may seem crazy, but that’s the connection that may occur.

Saving Our Polish Heritage for Our Grandchildren

Now is a time for us to celebrate our Polish heritage, and the story of our immigrant ancestors is the foundation of that Heritage.

I spent much of my early life with my Polish grandparents, and my genealogy research began because I wanted to learn more about their lives in Poland. The success of my early research shifted my goal to saving my discoveries for my children and grandchildren. I decided that I could best do this by compiling a written Family History that is a narrative and contains stories, photos, maps, and documents. I envision my family histories as greatly enhanced scrapbooks focusing on the narratives that explain the images, maps, and documents. I also describe my family histories as collections of summaries of individual ancestors that I have organized into one large document.

I started my research by collecting family photos, family papers, and oral history and quickly moved on to census, naturalization, passenger, and marriage records. These records led me to identify their birthplace and more documents for my Polish ancestors.

I found accounts that described Polish life in the places where they lived. I also found vintage pictures of the town, church, and homes. Polish relatives also gave me copies of the family members who stayed. I included all of this information in my family histories as it was related to my ancestors.

As I compiled my family history, these steps started to bring my grandparents and their ancestors back to life. Note that this process did not happen quickly or with one significant revelation. Instead, the vision of my ancestors came together one piece at a time and over many years.

Capturing the immigration story is an essential step in honoring our Polish Heritage. Envisioning the challenges that our Polish immigrants faced on their journey to America is another critical aspect. Identify the port they left and the size of the ship. Review the passenger manifest. How was life on board the ship? What was their destination? Link the information in the documents and find the stories.

It was not easy to immigrate to America. Leaving home was a very emotional decision. Those who left saw immigration as their only chance to escape the poverty of their life in Poland. Not only were they leaving their family and friends, but the emigrants were leaving their beloved homeland. Some may have been excited about emigrating, but there was also fear of the unknown — most left home with tears in their eyes.

Try to describe their lives in America. Look through old pictures in family albums and also history books of the local area and neighborhoods. Pictures of their homes, neighborhood, and their church are vital. Next, identify where they worked because this would have been a significant part of their lives. Finally, look at their overall experience in America. How did they enjoy their new life? Did they do anything outside of work? Did they have a hobby? Were they active in a fraternal group? Did you find pictures of family gatherings? How was their life here better than what they would have had in Poland?

We will not find answers to most of these questions. However, asking the questions and doing the research will give us a perspective of what our ancestors may have experienced and better understand their character and our Polish Heritage.

Our immigrant ancestors were heroes, and they are the foundation of our roots in the United States. Do not underestimate their contributions. They may have left us some material wealth, but their most significant contribution is their role in the factories and farms of the United States. Their names will not appear in history books, but their efforts impacted American history, and without their sacrifices, our country would not have developed as it did. Their lives were the building blocks in the growth of their new country, and their immigration influenced the quality of our lives today in the United States. Remember that they made many sacrifices for you and helped build the United States.

Be patient. Keep asking questions and looking for records and stories. Then, write down the stories and organize them in family histories.

Save the stories for your future generations

Have fun, and enjoy your Polish Heritage.

The International Tracing Service (ITS): Find the stories for Post-WW II Displaced Persons

Did your parents or grandparents immigrate to the United States shortly after WW II? If so, they probably told you stories of staying in one or more of the refugee camps at the end of the war. The Allied forces established these camps to handle the masses of displaced persons coming from the German work camps or death camps, or post-war who fled their homes to escape communist rule.

Were your ancestors willing to tell you about their lives during and after the war, or did they avoid telling you these stories? The International Tracing Service may be able to help you find some of these details. They had the task of saving the refugees’ documents and giving us hope of completing their stories.

The work of tracing refugees began in 1943 when the Headquarters of the Allied Forces asked the British Red Cross to set up a registration and tracing service for missing persons. In 1944, The Red Cross gave the work to the newly created Central Tracing Bureau. The Bureau initially worked out of London but then moved to Versailles. Later it moved to Frankfort am Main and then to its current location in Bad Arolsen, Germany. Finally, in July 1947, the International Refugee Organization (ICRC) took over the Bureau’s administration and changed the Bureau’s name to International Tracing Service (ITS) in January 1948.

ITS collects and controls the documents, information, and research on Nazi persecution, forced labor, and displaced persons. The archive in Bad Arolsen contains about 30 million records from concentration camps, details of forced labor, and files on displaced persons. The archives have been accessible to researchers since 2007. Requests for information from individuals or descendants can be made by mail or on the ITS website (Home Page – https://arolsen-archives.org/en/). In 2015, ITS began adding records to an online database and today has over two million records in an online searchable collection of documents. Family historians should search the online archive at https://arolsen-archives.org/en/search-explore/ to confirm their ancestors are in the archive. The results will show one or two documents but not the complete file. Use the inquiry page (Arolsen-archives.org/en/search-explore/inquiries/) to request the entire file. Be patient because the average delivery time for the files is about four months and can take as long as eleven months.

The original goal of the authorities at the refugee camps was to repatriate the refugees to their countries of origin as quickly as possible. Authorities soon changed their strategy after reports of mistreatment of refugees who returned to communist countries, which caused a growing resistance of the refugees to return. Immigration to western countries became the new destination 

In late 1947, Belgium became the first country to adopt refugee immigration and accepted nearly 22,000 people. The United Kingdom accepted 86,000 refugees, in addition to 115,000 Polish army veterans who resettled in England and 12,000 former Ukrainian members of the German SS. By 1951, Canada had accepted 157,687 refugees, Australia took 182,159 refugees, and France accepted 38,157 displaced persons. In addition, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina accepted almost 80,000 refugees.

From the end of the war to 1948, nearly 50,000 refugees had entered Palestine (many illegally due to immigration restrictions).

The United States was late accepting displaced persons, and then only after considerable lobbying for a policy change. There was significant opposition in the U. S. Congress to taking Central and Eastern Europeans and Jews. Nevertheless, President Harry S. Truman signed the first act in June 1948, allowing entry for 200,000 refugees, followed by the second act in June 1950, allowing entry for another 200,000. The American program was the largest and most idealistic of the Allied programs but also the most bureaucratic, which required a sponsor and the promise of a job. Charitable organizations, such as the Lutheran World Federation and ethnic groups, undertook much of the humanitarian effort.

ITS has a wealth of information in the documents that could add to your family history. The information will identify the camps where your ancestors lived. It may list their occupations, residence before entering the camps, birthplaces, and jobs while in the camps. Research the history of the camps to add background information about where they lived.

Pay attention to the details which you may have to translate. The details will reveal the picture of your ancestors’ struggles to survive after the war and how they rebuilt their lives. The details will also give you insights into the character you see in them.

Save their stories and honor their memory.