I woke up at 5:15 this morning to catch my flight to Chicago .\u00a0 Pretty much everything went smoothly – no traffic to the airport, the plane was on time .\u00a0 My plane was scheduled to arrive at 3 PM and the conference began at 4 PM, so I decided to carry my luggage on the plane so I could get to the conference as soon as possible .\u00a0 Unfortunately, security screening seized my toothpaste.<\/p>\n
Since this is a Polish Genealogy Conference,\u00a0while on the plane, I got myself in\u00c2\u00a0a Polish genealogical mood\u00c2\u00a0by reading The Peasants – Autumn<\/em> by W\u0142adys\u0142aw Reymont .\u00a0 This book is the first volume of a four volume historical novel on the peasants of Poland .\u00a0 Each volume relates the lives of the peasants in a Polish village through a different season .\u00a0 In 1924, Reymont won the Nobel Prize for Literature for this work.<\/p>\n A year ago at the PGSA Conference, Ceil Jensen presented a wonderful lecture on The Peasants<\/em><\/a>, and after I returned home, I spent some time trying to find copies of the books .\u00a0 The books are\u00c2\u00a0currently out of print, but I\u00c2\u00a0finally found a complete set of used copies and, after\u00c2\u00a0just the first two chapters, I\u00c2\u00a0found that I’m really interested in finding out what happens to these people!\u00c2\u00a0 Their lives were probably very similar to the lives of my father’s ancestors (now, my mother’s ancestors – that’s another story entirely!).<\/p>\n Now, admittedly, I’ve only read the first two chapters .\u00a0 I spent the rest of the time on the plane napping .\u00a0 The plane arrived at Midway Airport on time; I picked up the rental car, and then entered Chicago rush hour traffic .\u00a0 From the time the plane landed, it took me an hour and 45 minutes to reach the hotel .\u00a0 I checked into my room (the front desk clerk kindly provided me with toothpaste to replace the toothpaste seized at security in Oakland), checked into the conference, and found that I had missed most of the first lecture on The Importance of the National Archives<\/em>.<\/p>\n Ah, but not all was lost .\u00a0 Rather than worry about the lecture that was almost over, I simply took the opportunity to introduce myself to James Conroyd Martin<\/a>, the author of Push Not the River<\/em> and Against a Crimson Sky<\/em>, two Polish historical novels published by St. Martin’s Press .\u00a0 I purchased copies of both books on the spot and Mr. Martin kindly autographed them for me .\u00a0 About a month ago, Jasia reported on her blog that she\u00c2\u00a0attended one of Mr. Martin’s lectures<\/a> and book signings.<\/p>\n After meeting Mr. Martin, I explored the vendor area and picked up\u00c2\u00a0a copy of Following the Paper Trail: A Multilingual Translation Guide<\/em> by Jonathan D. Shea and William F. Hoffman .\u00a0 I thought this book was out of print, but I guess it’s back in print now, in a new hardcover edition.<\/p>\n Before the evening lectures, I made an appointment for\u00c2\u00a0translation assistance with Ola Heska, who provided 15 minutes of free Polish and Russian translation assistance .\u00a0 She helped me finish up the translation of the birth and baptismal record for Stanis\u0142aw Markiewicz, helped me a little with the birth and baptismal record for Stanis\u0142aw’s brother, Antoni, and got me started on the translation of what appears to be the record for Stanis\u0142aw’s father’s second marriage.<\/p>\n From there, I had a quick bite to eat and then attended the evening lectures .\u00a0 In the first lecture, Professor Mary Patrice Erdmans gave an informative and entertaining lecture on The Grasinski Girls: The Importance of Oral History<\/em> where she described how she recorded the oral history of her mother and aunts .\u00a0 I need to do the same with my living aunts and uncles.<\/p>\n The final presentation of the day was by Ceil Jensen who spoke on Mariana: Matka, \u017bona, C\u00f3rka, Siostra, Researching the Female Line – Mariana: Mother, Wife, Daughter, Sister<\/em> .\u00a0 In her lecture, Ceil mentioned the rule of thumb to look for a child every two years after a couple is married .\u00a0 If a child isn’t born approximately every two years, perhaps the father was away, or perhaps a child died young .\u00a0 That reminded me that my grandfather, Micha\u0142 Da\u0144ko, left Poland in 1905 and my grandmother didn’t immigrate to America until 1909 .\u00a0 Further, I know that one child died young and there was supposed to be a second\u00c2\u00a0child who died young .\u00a0 I should apply this two year rule and see how well it predicts the time my grandfather spent away from the family and the deaths of the two children.<\/p>\n Ceil also talked about alien registrations, searching collateral lines, midwives, education records, and sacramental records, and ended with a beta version of an audio-video presentation where\u00c2\u00a0Ceil’s mother talks about her own mother in Polish .\u00a0 Ceil’s presentations are always informative and entertaining, and this lecture was no exception .\u00a0 Ceil is presenting several more lectures on Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n It’s now almost 11 PM here in Chicago (OK, it’s Schaumburg) .\u00a0 I plan to read a bit more in The Peasants<\/em> and then get a good night’s rest before the lectures tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2006 by Stephen J. Danko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I woke up at 5:15 this morning to catch my flight to Chicago .\u00a0 Pretty much everything went smoothly – no traffic to the airport, the plane was on time .\u00a0 My plane was scheduled to arrive at 3 PM … Continue reading