DNA Made My Day!

As I was sorting through my DNA matches I repeatedly found a match to my mom, her sister, me, my daughter, her 4 kids, and my second cousin.. so I thought I should check her pedigree names. I found a matching name. It was Gralla!

Years ago I researched this family name all over Poland and mine were from Silesia. There were groupings of the name south of Warsaw of three family groups of this name. A Catholic group, Lutheran group and Jewish group. We met a wonderful family there in Kadzidlo, Poland in 1992.  Below is a picture of them.

They were so wonderful. And my then 12 year old daughter connected to their daughter. We studied the records of their parish but found no connection. The records did not go too far back in time. We went home knowing we had made wonderful friends but would “never” find the records to connect. They shared the history of their family, that they were from Grale, Poland just a few miles away. The town was named after their ancestral family. They even explained all about the coming of the first "Gralla" to that place.  There were still 10 families with the name there in Grale. Today I found this DNA match with a family of the right name from the little town of Kadzidlo where this nice family lived. We are related!!! It wasn’t what I was looking for today but it was a super gift thanks to DNA!

 This is the family's father, who passed away not long after our visit.  He is showing my mother their green houses and vegetables.  They even gave us vegies to take along.

We walked into the village and they pointed out a house where long time ago lived a Jewish Gralla family.

 The kids connected, played games and had fun.

 Jamie showing her piano skills.

On the banks of the Narew River.  This part of Poland is not where my known ancestors were from, so it is so exciting that we found out that somehow back there in time, our ancestors were related.  DNA did it again!  There is really something to this!

Western European Family History Conference

The Family History Library and the research specialists of the European Reference team invite you to a free week-long conference focused exclusively on Western European research. The conference, which will be held May 15-19, 2017, is perfect for beginning and intermediate genealogists interested in learning about records of Western European localities, and Family History Library collections.

Come and spend a week at the world renowned Family History Library learning from our expert staff of genealogists as well as experienced guest genealogists. Learn how to effectively use historical records and how to do research in several European countries. 

Explore such topics as census, church, immigration, and vital records. Learn more about German, French, Swiss, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium research. Discover new techniques, strategies, and methodology to apply to your genealogical research problems.

All classes will be held in the main floor classrooms. 

Seating is limited, so be sure to register early to secure a spot. All classes will also be offered via webinar.     

Please use the following registration links.

Registration begins March 1, 2017 for in person guests:  

      http://bit.ly/2n6pdws*

             Registration begins March 1, 2017 for webinar guests:  

http://bit.ly/2m9m7Ye* 500 spots are available.
A syllabus will be provided that can be downloaded from the FamilySearch Wiki.  

Here is the Link:  http://bit.ly/2kNNMhd*

We hope this conference will not only be informative and instructive, but that it will also encourage and inspire you to continue your family history research. Perhaps this will be just what you need to break through that 20-year-old brick wall research problem. We look forward to seeing you!

*We will use Eventbrite to process your registration. Your information will be processed in accordance with their privacy policy located at http://www.eventbrite.com/privacypolicy.

© 2017 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. A service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

-end-

Media Contact

Paul Nauta

FamilySearch Public Affairs

1-801-240-6498

nautapg@familysearch.org

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Irish Civil Records FREE online!

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Irish Civil Records FREE online!: Irish Civil Records are now searchable online at Irish Genealogy. And they're free! The site explains that The Civil Records of Birt...

Smith Family Conch Shell Search (Shared by Nathan Smith)

So through a contact made through Ancestry.com an interesting story has come to light.  I have my tree posted which also shows my grandchildren's tree from which they descend as cousins to the LDS Prophet Joseph Smith through their paternal family lines, not mine. I received a message from Nathan Smith regarding a conch shell which he explains below and was passed down through the years:

The story goes that originally there were two shells that were connected together. Two brothers found the shells and sawed it in half, each brother taking one shell and passing it down through the generations. I descend from the family that has one shell, and John Lyman Smith's line had the other shell. I am looking for that shell to maybe get them both together again and take pictures. The last time the two shells were together was in the 1980's. 

If you would be able to ask around a bit through your family, I would be most grateful. It could be a pretty fun thing if we could track it down. Last note I have is that it was held in Oakley Idaho at the John Lyman Smith home. I believe this was back in the 1970's.

So then I am posting it to see if we can possibly locate this second shell.  It's a nice story and I hope someone reading this will have heard about it at some time or has some info on it's whereabouts.  If so, leave a comment and I will get you in touch with him.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

European Family History Conference 2016

The Family History Library and the research specialists of the European Reference team invite you to a free, never before offered, week-long conference focused exclusively on European research. The conference, which will be held September 12th-16th 2016, is perfect for beginning and intermediate genealogists interested in learning about records of European localities, and Family History Library collections.

Come and spend a week at the world renowned Family History Library learning from our expert staff of genealogists as well as experienced guest genealogists. Learn how to effectively use historical records and how to do research in several European countries. 

Explore such topics as census, church, immigration, and vital records. Learn more about German, Swiss, Russian, and Polish research. Discover new techniques, strategies, and methodology to apply to your genealogical research problems.

Most classes will be held at the Church History Museum Theater with the exception of the lab classes, which will be taught at the Family History Library in the B1 Lab. 

Seating in the Church History Museum Theater is limited to 190 participants, so be sure to register early to secure a spot. All classes will also be offered via webinar.     

Registration begins 1 Aug. 2016.To register for the free conference, visit the Eventbrite registration site at this link if you plan to personally attend in-house: http://bit.ly/29teGka.

For those attending by way of webinar, please use the following registration link. http://bit.ly/29vC93P. 500 spots are available.

26 seats will be available for in-person labs which will all be held in the Family History Library B1 LAB. 100 spots available for webinar labs.

A syllabus will be provided that can be downloaded from the FamilySearch Wiki.  Here is the Link: https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/2016_European_Family_History_Conference.                

We hope this conference will not only be informative and instructive, but that it will also encourage and inspire you to continue your family history research. Perhaps this will be just what you need to break through that 20-year-old brick wall research problem. We look forward to working with you!

We will use Eventbrite to process your registration.  Your information will be processed in accordance with their privacy policy located at http://www.eventbrite.com/privacypolicy 

© 2016 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. A service provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

-end-

Media Contact

Paul Nauta

FamilySearch Public Affairs

1-801-240-6498

nautapg@familysearch.org

Sharing a Link With You For Online German Addressbooks in Sachsen/Saxony

So if you like address books and research in Sachsen, click here to find a lot of address books some going back to the year 1702.

A New Useful Site Especially for Polish Research

I was excited to be told of a new website that has some very useful helps for Poland.  This site looks to be a new and upcoming one that can help the genealogical researcher very much.  There used to be a Polish site called Ksiegi Parafialne.  We were all saddened when it suddenly ceased to exist.  Well, here is another one that is a bit different but could prove very helpful.  This is the link.  It is not known to me yet who created this site but I think I could guess perhaps...hmmm is it a secret???

Well, on the Polish map you will see the region listed and then some numbers.  You will also see that there are websites below the map with the corresponding numbers.  There are getting to be several sites with Polish online records and it is not always clear to people which areas those sites might have images for.  So this Shoebox site makes a clarification.  Yeah, that is cool.

The Basia website that is mentioned here is also cool as if you click on it you will see the word "obszar".  Click there and then there is a list of all the places that have been indexed.  Yeah what a great help that is.  It's wonderful to see these wonderful advancements with Polish research.  

 Nogowczyce, Poland