My genealogy research so far is all in English but one side of my husband’s ancestry is Polish. One day we received a package in the mail from his uncle. We’d asked a few times for any information he had but hadn’t received anything so it was a surprise to get it. Enclosed were his grandparents Polish passports, a copy of his baptismal record and another record written in Cyrillic Russian. We didn’t know what it Cyrillic Russian is entirely foreign to us.

His grandfather’s passport is a great source of information. We were able to figure out where he came from and his birth date.  Passports always have a picture so we knew what he looked like when he was young.

Passport photo of Alexander Szymanski

The baptism record is in Latin so it is fairly easy to figure out. The great thing about it is  it gives the names of his parents grandparents. What a genealogical find.

There is also a certificate excusing him from military service in Poland; written in Polish but once again my husband could figure it out with help from a Polish to English dictionary (google translate didn’t exist then).

So all we had to do now was decipher the Russian document. I believe we are blessed with what we need when we need it and sure enough when the documents arrived I was working with 2 Russian born people. Both of them looked at the document, frowned and said “I don’t read Cyrillic but let me try”. Each came back and said she couldn’t read it entirely but it looked like a a criminal record check. That made perfect sense. He was immigrating to Canada and needed proof he hadn’t committed any crimes.

The problem was solved because I wasn’t afraid to ask for help.  For years I sat in my office and hoarded my information. Now I share my information and ask for help when it’s needed. You can ask your local genealogy society, someone who might have knowledge of the area you are researching or you can even post your question on one of the many specialized Facebook groups. Let me know how it goes.