New Portal for Polish Research

March 12, 2014 Leave a comment

PGSA.org has announced its new web page that lists 46 domestic and international web sites that are related to Polish Genealogy research.  Some you may already know and have tried some of these. However there are many that are new in the last few years and may help unlock the door to your Polish heritage. The most interesting new pages are sponsored by Polish Genealogical groups that have indexed many records and are committed to adding scanned images as soon as possible. Volunteers in Poland have been visiting archives and churches collecting images to be indexed and uploaded to their new sites.  The Polish groups also make this information for free. None of the sites require a subscription fee to gain access.

This is PGSA’s first step to increase awareness in the resources that are available in Polish Genealogical research.

Go to PGSA.org and click on the link under “Compendium of Polish Digital Web Sites.”  This is a great site to get started or to renew your efforts to find your Polish roots.

 

Filed under Genealogy Research, Polish genealogy

Beginning my research

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

I begin organizing my research by using standard genealogy charts to capture the relationships and the names of family members. I also quickly start writing a summary for each direct ancestor. In the summaries I include all the information that I find in the documents. Each document is a snap shot of the life of an ancestor and I try to capture each detail found in the document. This method helps me gather, correlate, and analyze my information.  I also make sure that my entries in the summaries identify where I found each fact. Including the sources and this step helps me draw better conclusions about the accuracy of my information and also helps me find clues that point to more sources.

One important benefit that I enjoy from my summaries is that they make my research efforts more efficient. Information that I needed to continue my research is more readily available and using summaries have reduced the time needed to find more documents.

Another very important benefit that my summaries offer is that they make exchanging information with family members easier. A ring binder with a titled cover invites family members to open and read. The summaries can be easily understood by family members and reading them sometimes brings out memories of family stories and offers to send copies of pictures and documents to me.

 

Filed under Genealogy Research