The story I have-keep in mind I was 6 when my dad passed so this is what I have learned from the remaining family-is my dad's parents-Stanley and Frances-were living in Omaha when in 1920 Grandma Frances died. Grandpa Stanley took all the kids and went back to Poland to live-not sure where in Poland. My dad, Alex, Ciocia Hashi and Ciocia Liz all came back here. Josephine stayed in Poland. I have a census sheet with the name "Valerie" on it too. Looks like she was born in 1919. Never heard of her before. I was always told my dad was the baby so I don't know if she died at an early age or what.
One of my nephews, Alex, spoke either to Ciocia Hashi or Ciocia Liz years ago and found out a bunch of history. He was doing a report for school on Genealogy. Of course since years have passed and he has moved several times it's tucked in a box somewhere.
When my dad died I remember a Janka being at the house. I want to say she was a step sister of my dads. I just remember she didn't look very happy-mean looking sort of. After dad died I never heard any more about that side of the family.I don't think I ever heard what town they came from. I was always just Polan. My mom died in 1977 when I was too young to worry about genealogy. Now when I'm trying to piece it all together for my kids I hit brick walls.
I too have several letters written in Polish. I usually sit online at a translator site to try to decipher some of it. Most of the replies from letters I sent to Poland trying to see if we were related to any of them came back in English thankfully. Polish isn't such a common language...lol.
When my mom passed my sister took the house and everything in it including all the pictures and what ever else information was in there. She keeps telling me she hasn't found anything but I don't think she can bring herself to part with any of it. If you want to send those pictures that would be awesome. My email address is
jmburbridge@msn.com.
Since I was off of Ancestry for so long when I hit a wall they deactivated my account. I wasn't going to reactivate it since I can't go any further with the names I have but I just traced my husband's family back to 1601. So I'll have to reactivate it now to see how many "green leaves" I have! I'm not sure if you can see any of the information I have entered or not. If not I'll have to make it so you can. I'll let you know when I reactivate.
Nice talking to you!