Hi Everyone,

I'm the second cousin of Lugene Suszko Daniels. Her grandparents/my
great-parents, a Suszko and a Giba, are from the Bukowsko region. I grew up in
Michigan, the hone to this family, but now live in Denver. I'm totally green to
genealogy and this group, so I ask for your patience. I'm passionate, though,
about my roots, Europe, and history.

In the recent digest, the discussion about the Archdiocese Archives caught my
eye. **Does someone have a personal connection that would help with their Church
officials? Be it through family or Catholic connections here or there? **A
personal introduction can make all the difference. I've seen this when I worked
for a while by Aachen, Germany and had in-laws in Zagreb, Croatia.

I know of a Ruthenian Byzantine parish here where the elderly deacon and his
wife have visited the Old Country, connecting with the Churches there. The
deacon was very sympathetic to their history of Communists trying to squelch the
Church. They bonded.

Thanks, Lynsey


--- In bukowsko_triangle@yahoogroups.com, Debbie Greenlee <daveg@...> wrote:
>
> Well, it appears that as of two years ago, nothing has changed at the
> Przemys~l Archdiocesan Archives where dr. ks. Borcz reigns.
> The following message was posted on another list.
> Debbie
>
> It looks like more and more Archdiocesan Archives in Poland have
> decided to bar the genealogists from doing the research in their
> archives. When I was in Przemysl 2 years ago, it was extremely
> difficult firstly to be even let inside (because we were told they let
> in ONLY the academics/government officials or historians doing the
> research for their thesis/books etc). Secondly, to access the
> registers. For the starters, there was NO catalog of holdings (at
> least this is what we were told - although I do not believe it to be
> true!), and the priest would not let us know what exactly they had for
> our town. We had to ask explicitly for every single book - one at a
> time. So it went like this - we: "do you have a birth register for
> town XXX?", priest: "I have to go and check", after which he would
> disappear somewhere for 5 minutes. Then he would come back with or
> without the book. This "game" went on for 2 hours. At the same time,
> he would rush us with comments like "are you done ye!
> t?" every 15-20 minutes. Till this day, I have no idea what exactly
> they have for my town in their archive, and if we were told of all of
> their holdings. That we did not see all the books - that I know for
> sure! And, did I mention that we were not allowed to photograph or
> scan (we had a laptop and scanner with us) the pages. We had to write
> down everything by hand on sheets of paper supplied by the priest -
> with our own materials, except pencils, being confiscated. So, thanks
> to THAT "FRIENDLINESS", I'm missing a lot of information which was in
> the books but which we were not able to decipher at the time (Latin,
> old German, difficult handwriting, pages in poor conditions, etc). I
> also have no idea nor I can check if the information we wrote down is
> correct or not.
>
> My advice to anybody who plans to visit Archdiocesan Archives in
> Poland - bear in mind though that the State (Goverment) Archives are
> OK with the researchers, it's only the Church that is so tough! - make
> sure and then double and triple sure before you buy your tickets that
> you will be allowed to access the archives and that you will be given
> as much time as you want for your research. Email them multiple times
> before you go to establish the raport. Schedule your visit ahead of
> time. Phone them a day before your scheduled visit and once more on
> the day of your visit to confirm that nothing has changed. Things DO
> change there from day to day and depending on a person you are talking
> to. NO RULES WHATSOEVER! So check and then re-check. And, as usual, it
> helps tremendously if you have a native speaker with you when you
> visit them. I couldn't have gotten anywhere - not even as far as this
> disastrous but somewhat beneficial visit to Przemysl - without my
> cousin who lives there and knows HOW to talk to them. And by HOW I do
> not mean the language itself - but rather how to approach them and
> what to say.
>
> Cheers,
>