“I think Babcia said she was from Warsaw, but I’m not sure, and now there’s no one left to ask.”

“I know dad’s side of the family was Polish, but we don’t know much about them. No one ever talked about the Old Country in those days.”

“Our family is growing! With a new grandbaby on the way, it would be great to learn more about our roots, but none of us speak Polish anymore.”

“Our Polish surname was changed, and we don’t know what it was originally.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

At PGSNYS, we hear these statements frequently, and we can help.

Since 1988, PGSNYS has been helping Polish Americans discover their family origins and connect with their heritage. We offer databases of indexed historical records for your Western New York Polish ancestors, educational presentations at our monthly meetings, a library of resources dedicated to Polish genealogy, our Searchers newsletter, where you can read about methods and resources that others are using to further their research, and even personal assistance from one of our experienced researchers, in person, by phone, or by Zoom.

But because we’re always striving to serve you better, we’re excited to offer our members only a series of webinars aimed at beginners. Each webinar will introduce you to proven methods and resources used by experienced genealogists as they discover their Polish roots. A syllabus will accompany each webinar, summarizing the key concepts and providing links to helpful websites for further exploration.

The first webinar in our beginners’ series, “Genealogy 101: The Basics of Family History Research” is now available here. If you’re not yet a PGSNYS member, join today, and gain access to the tools and guidance that will empower you to discover your Polish roots!