After
talking about this for a long time (begging Amy to let me use our vacation on
this), in June, Amy and I finally took the leap and bought tickets for us to
travel to Poland and Lithuania this fall. This is not going to be like any
other vacation/sightseeing trip we've taken before. This trip is centered
around my ongoing genealogical research. We will be visiting villages where my
ancestors once lived, churches where they worshiped, and cemeteries where
generations of family members are buried. Of course we will do some site
seeing, but we'll also visit cold, dusty archives in order to research my
family history in centuries old books and visit with distant relatives who I
have connected with.
Unfortunately,
I think that buying the tickets will be the easiest part of this trip. I
quickly realized that I still have a lot of work to do when my first stab at
plotting our travels required approximately 40 hours in a car! Not including
travel days, we are only there for 8 full days. This equated to about 5 hours
in a car each day which hardly left me the time required to visit AND research
- back to the drawing board. I ended up on this preliminary itinerary:
Among others, our stops include the
following places to perform research:
Bolesław, Poland - Janik Family
Odrzykoń, Poland - Danek Family
Leżajsk, Poland - Ozga Family
Kopczany, Poland -
Guzewicz/Danilczyk Family
Vabaliai, Lithuania - Maslauskas
Family
Currently,
I'm discussing my itinerary (and budget) with local guides in both countries.
Because we will not be limiting our travels to big cities and tourist
attractions, we'll need to have a translator/guide with us during most of our
trip. I've been told that finding someone who speaks English in these small
villages is nearly impossible so having a translator at your disposal is like
gold. Plus, these guides have connections with priests, archive directors, and
locals which can always come in handy. Good thing the exchange rates are
favorable at the moment!
The preparation continues...
Sounds great Mike and Amy! I would make sure to include the Markiewicz Family in Kopczany and I could explore my distant cousin in Lithuania if he might be available. His first name is Arminas. Good luck, Joe
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