The summer of 2009 my son and I traveled to Poland for the first time and visited my family ancestral towns on the last two days of our trip. We enjoyed the trip but found it difficult navigating the small towns since I do not speak the language. We searched cemeteries, local archive and town churches with no results because I was unprepared. I then realized a guide was a necessity on my next trip. The following year in June 2010 I again traveled to Poland, now with all three of my sons on a seven day guided tour and a second week devoted to genealogy research of my family. This time I found a professional company PolishOrigins who placed me with Zenon Znamirowski over the Internet. Zenon helped me plan and understand what had to be done to prepare for my trip. We communicated on a regular basis answering all my questions and exchanging information and plans. Prior to my arrival Zenon reviewed my families historical information so he could arrange a itinerary that could be highly productive. Each day Zenon drove us two hours east of Warsaw where we visited my family’s towns, cemeteries and local archives. It was special for me to attend mass with my sons on (Father’s Day) June 19th in the church my grandfather was baptized in 1891 and his future wife in 1867. Zenon provided us this opportunity.
At the end of our trip Zenon was able to find four of my grandfathers from documents found in the local archives going back to 1775 all living in the same general area, the eastern area of Ostrow Mazowiecka County. We never were able to find any relatives but that’s not from Zenon not trying; we stopped people on the streets, people visiting in the cemeteries and called people from the telephone books. Zenon was a professional, knowledgeable, educated and understanding guide. I would recommend his company’s services to anyone traveling to Poland to look for their past relatives. The journey to my ancestral towns was a trip of a lifetime gift to my sons and we want to thank Zenon for a job well done.
I am continuing to have Zenon translate documents and research for me. He will continue to be a friend of the Bogucki family.
Regards,
Frank, Stephen, Christopher and Jeremy Bogucki
