Tracing Family from the Pomerania Area

Speakers:
Kay Freund, PGS-MN Secretary
Chris DeWuske, Teacher, Graphic Designer and founder of My Pomerania

This is a joint meeting between the Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota and the Pommern Regional Group of Minnesota, which will be a longer meeting than usual (from morning into the afternoon). It will be held in person at the Minnesota Genealogy Center, 1385 Mendota Heights Road, Mississippi Room, Mendota Heights, Minnesota 55120 as well as virtually by Zoom. A zoom link will be sent to all PGS-MN members a few days before the program. Those attending by zoom do not need to register. For those attending in person, a box lunch will be available for purchase – more information will be available soon on how to register for the in-person attendees, as well as more specific times for the speaker presentations.

Kay Freund’s presentation will go through the process that the she undertook to find the ancestral village of her Korcal family ancestors (Zblewo/Hochstueblau in Starogard County, Pomerania Voivodeship). It includes almost five decades of research, understanding the history of Poland, discovering hidden family gems, help from others, and key take-aways for genealogy research.

Chris DeWuske found valuable resources to fill in the gaps of the origins of his unusual surname in Pomerania. He will explain documents he found that have typically been outside the purview of American audiences, but bear a tremendous significance for those who have run out of research options. His website shares over 1,300 digitized archival documents that are freely accessible to the public. His vision is to inspire other researchers to join our shared knowledge and rebuild our collective history.