Traveling in Poland:

Tips for Family History Travel

These slides at at

• www.remus.shidler.hawaii.edu

after September 1….

• Use a high speed internet connection because it is a big file.

Topics• Basic Preparations

• Package Tour or Independent Tour?

• Booking Air Travel

• Booking a Travel Guide

• Visiting Ancestral Villages

• Visiting Nearby Relevant Villages

• Visiting Museums and Other Sights

• Visiting Tourist Destinations

Basic Preparations

• Organize Your Family History Information

• Check Your Passports (no visa needed)

• Choose a Good Time of Year to Visit

• If working with a guide, provide them with details on your family (more on this later)

Package Tour or Independent Tour?

• The Pommeranian Society annually offers a tour running from Warsaw to Gdansk and across the north of Poland. With side trips available. Good guides in English.

• An Independent Tour misses some cultural spots and cultural background but you go just to relevant sites.

Travel Alternatives

• Fly directly on Polish Lot to Warsaw, then to Gdansk, Krakau, Poznan, or other city.

• Fly to London and then onward with Ryanair to Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakau, Poznan, or other city.

• Fly via Frankfurt.• Take a train via Berlin to Poznan or

onwards.

Areas of Travel in Poland

• Russian Poland

• Galicia

• Pommerania

• West Prussia

• East Prussia

• And more.

Fly directly on Polish Lot

• A Good Airline that goes direct from North American Cities to Warsaw and connects onward to other Polish Cities.

Fly to London and then onward with Ryanair to Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakau, Poznan, or other

city.

• The benefit in this option is enjoying England, especially London.

• Ryanair flights are cheap from London Stansted to Polish cities. Like Heathrow, Stansted is distant from central London.

• Ryanair flights are sold in one way segments so it is easy to enter through one city and exit through another.

Fly to Frankfurt

• And enjoy Germany before going onward to Warsaw and Poznan Poland.

Take a train via Berlin to Poznan or onwards.

• Rail travel in Europe is a very enjoyable experience. Buy either a German Railpass or Europe Railpass and travel widely. Then it is just a quick segment from Berlin to Poznan or other Polish cities.

Travel Problems

• English is not widely spoken at the moment

• Hotels are few and far between

• Roads are good but travel logistics can be difficult

• Restaurants are few

• You cannot expect to speak to village residents in other than Polish

Why a Travel Guide?

• The travel guide can do genealogical research prior to your arrival

• The travel guide can make all logistical arrangements and drive the car

• The travel guide can speak with the locals and perhaps find relatives

• The travel guide knows what to look for in villages

Booking a Travel Guide

Do Check References (usually by email)

Do book months ahead.

Do try to start at their base city.

Let them drive and book accommodations.

As a single person, I budget about $200 per day. Additional people are only the cost of additional food and accommodation.

Is more data available in Poland on my family? Yes ...

• Most FHC microfilms stop about 1880.

• Many records were not microfilmed.

• Many church books remain in the churches.

• However, your travel guide usually knows where they are and how to get access.

My Travel Guide: Kasia Grycza

Schwente (Swiete), Kreis Flatow, West Prussia

• This is my ancestral village and some of the sites there. To show you the value of a travel guide, I will illustrate what you can learn beyond a drive through the village by yourself.

• Do you recognize what is in this village?

What’s this?

• A Holy Hill (Swieta) dating back several thousand years.

What’s this?

• A German Cemetery with oak trees and lilies of the valley and perhaps lilacs. Few if any stones or markers remain.

• There is also a special cemetery in this village for cholera epidemic victims.

What’s this?

• Old style Prussian barn originally of wood beams and clay. Later as the clay eroded the clay was replaced with bricks. These can date back 200 or more years.

What’s this?

• An old style house dating back more than 200 years with the original internal layout.

What’s this?

An old style blacksmith shop with some modern updates inside. Still functions as a blacksmith shop.

What’s this?

A stall to put your horse in whenever his shoes need replacing.

What’s this?

• This is the general layout of Swieta and most old villages. Two rows of houses facing a common area. At the head of the village could be the manor house.

What’s this?

This is the base of a windmill from about 100 years ago. Now converted to housing.

And, of course, Village History

• Dates back about 700 years• Burned and two thirds of the population

exterminated by the Swedes (circa 1650 and 1710)

• Germans invited in after 1710 to repopulate the village.

• Martin Remus and David Wenske were village mayors circa 1750.

Visiting Nearby Relevant Villages

• Your ancestors generally went to market and church in villages other than the one in which they lived.

• They tended to marry within the village but sometimes to families in nearby villages.

• They lived on land owned by Polish nobility who often had estate houses (gut).

Flatow: Where Martin Remus’ children were baptized

Smiardowo: Where Martin’s son Caspar had his Krug

But the krug (inn housing travelers and serving beer and food), located where the village shrine is now located, burned in 1850. So you have to go to …..

Visiting Museums

• There are ethnographic museums in Poland that preserve the old buildings and churches

• There are county museums with local history exhibits (in Polish) and often old tools.

A 17th century Krug

Inside a Krug

Enjoying Special Sights

I like the many wooden churches in Poland. And with my guide I get to see them in and out – and find out some history for the local lady with the key to the church.

17th century Schwarngacz Church

Flatow Museum

This is a county (Kreis) museum with exhibits of old country life and folk art.

How about manor houses?

Or Mills?

Visiting Tourist Destinations

• Gdansk (Danzig)

• Torun (Thorn)

• Malbork (Marienberg)

• Gniesno (Gniesen)

Gdansk (Danzig)

Danzig was the major port of Poland. Wonderful old churches, grain exchanges, houses, and streets circa 1612. A great place to visit even if no direct connection.

Torun (Thorn)

Another wonderful old German city. An important walled city in middle Poland. Home of Copernicus.

Malbork (Marienberg)

This castle complex was the headquarters for the Teutonic Knights who brutally defeated the heathen Prussi as well as controlling East Prussia (and most of northern Poland).

Gniesno (Gniesen)

Gniesno is an old and important city for both Poles and Germans. It has a wonderful market plaza and a fine catholic cathedral. A good central location for day trips.

Exit Points

• Air Travel: Poznan, Gdansk, Bromberg, Warsaw, Krakow

• Rail Links to Germany