archives

Today was day 2 in the Bór Gradzki area, where my mother's maternal grandfather was from. Armed only with old family names from the late 1800's, we headed to the town archives to try our luck locating relatives still living in the area. Luckily the clerk was cooperative and bent some rules by showing us more recent birth, death & marriage records. After close to an hour of looking through brittle yellowed pages, we had our answer.

I already knew Dr. Krzysztof Struziak because 2 years ago I had Googled "Struziak Bor Gradzki" and his name came up with an email address. Using Google translate I contacted him asking if he might be related to our family. At the time he didn't know, but he was very friendly and we've exchanged occasional emails since then. Today's record search confirmed it: Krzysztof is a 4th cousin of my Mom! He welcomed us into his home and we spent over 3 hours talking and getting to know each other.

Although we will be in Poland until Monday, today was the last day of meeting family. We've been fortunate enough to find relatives from all 4 branches of Mom's family during our trip. It's truly been a once in a lifetime experience.