Polish Heritage?

Question

Can anyone help me with polish heritage?

My grandmother was the first generation born in America, as was her husband, I want to find out information about my ancestors and see if there is anything interesting they were a part of ECT.

Are there any good ways to find these things out?

Also, is there anywhere we can find a coat of arms that HAS BEEN USED previously by our family?

Answer 1

You can do quite a bit of research from this end of the pond by checking out the U.S. Census, Ship Manifests, Baptismal records, Vital Records, etc.

For information on how to do research in Poland itself and specific information on your ancestoral village/town, I suggest you subscribe to:

Polish_Genius Yahoo! Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/polish_gen...

It is free and there are over 600 members all researching Polish roots.

You didn't mention an area of Poland or a town, so, it would be more difficult to suggest other possible Yahoo! Groups.  Since my relatives came from Southeastern Poland, I am a member of ...

Galicia_Poland-Ukraine, as well... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Galicia_Po...

That group has over 1,000 researchers

You can go to Yahoo! Groups and search for some additional possibles that would fit your specific needs.

Happy hunting! :)

Answer 2

Coats of arms do not belong to surnames.

They were and are granted to individuals.

Actually, there might have been, for instance, 15 different individuals with the same surname each granted their own coat of arms, all different.

No one peddler that sell them on the internet, at shopping malls, at airports, in magazines, and solicit by mail will have all 15, no way.  They don't need to in order to sell to people.  The only time they will have more than one is if more than one person with the same surname from different national origins were granted one. Then they will have one of each when there might have been several of each.

People who display those little walnut plaques with a coat of arms and a family history on it, are just displaying one that was granted to someone with their surname and might not even be related.

The surname product business which includes coats of arms is one of the biggest scams around.  Don't be taken in by those merchants of deceit selling walnut plaques, keychains, coffee mugs, Tshirts etc.

In most countries they are inherited by the legitimate direct male line descendants.  Now, I have seen posted on this board that in Poland, all members of a dynastic house are entitled to use the coat of arms.  So, do you know if your family was a dynastic house?

See the link below from the most prestigious genealogical organization in the U.S., The National Genealogical Society.

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp...