Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota

Our Lady of Lourdes Church Bazaar - Little Falls
2024-07-28 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago)
Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Bazaar in Little Falls starts with indoor Mass celebrated at 10:30 a.m. with polka and gospel music by LaVerne & The Starlites. Event includes entertainment by LaVerne & The Starlites, food and beer stands, arts and crafts, games for all ages, live auction, silent auction, bingo, “Gone Bizarre” raffle and all-cash grand raffle drawing.
PGS-MN will have a table at this event – come join us in the fun! Contact us at pgsminnesota@gmail.com if your are interested in helping us at our display table.

PGS-MN - Central MN Networking Group
2024-05-20 19:00 - 20:30
The inaugural meeting of the Central Minnesota networking group went very well, with some great sharing of information. The next meeting of this group, for PGS-MN members only, will be held on Monday, May 20, 2024 at 7pm, by Zoom. A zoom invitation will be sent to all PGS-MN members in advance of the meeting. We welcome any other PGS-MN members to join us at this meeting as well as future meetings.
The intent is to provide opportunities to discuss your family genealogy with others whose ancestors emigrated from Poland and settled in the Central MN area. There is no need to register, you can just show up on the date/time scheduled. We welcome you to join us if your Polish ancestors settled in this area!

PGS-MN - SE Minnesota Networking Group
2024-05-13 19:00 - 20:30
The inaugural meeting of the SE Minnesota networking group (Winona, Pine Creek, WI) went very well, with some great sharing of information. The next meeting of this group, for PGS-MN members only, will be held on Monday, May 13, 2024 at 7pm, by Zoom. A zoom invitation will be sent to all PGS-MN members in advance of the meeting. We welcome any other PGS-MN members to join us at this meeting as well as future meetings.
The intent is to provide opportunities to discuss your family genealogy with others whose ancestors emigrated from Poland and settled in the Central MN area. There is no need to register, you can just show up on the date/time scheduled. We welcome you to join us if your Polish ancestors settled in this area!

Wieczorek Family Tree
2024-05-11 10:00 - 12:00
Speaker: Peggy Larson, PGS-MN Member
Peggy Larson will share the Wieczorek branch of her family tree. The presentation will focus on questions she encountered on her genealogical journey. She will explain how she answered some of those questions, and seek advice on solving some of the remaining unsolved mysteries.

This program is free to PGS-MN members, and members do not need to pre-register. The program will be held in person at the Minnesota Genealogy Center, 1385 Mendota Heights Road, Founders 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.

PGS-MN - NE Minneapolis Networking Group
2024-05-06 19:00 - 20:30
The inaugural meeting of the NE Minneapolis networking group went very well, with some great sharing of information. The next meeting of this group, for PGS-MN members only, will be held on Monday, May 6, 2024 at 7pm, by Zoom. A zoom invitation will be sent to all PGS-MN members in advance of the meeting. We welcome any other PGS-MN members to join us at this meeting as well as future meetings.
The intent is to provide opportunities to discuss your family genealogy with others whose ancestors emigrated from Poland and settled in the NE Metro area. There is no need to register, you can just show up on the date/time scheduled. We welcome you to join us if your Polish ancestors settled in this area!

Using Maps and Gazetteers for Polish Genealogy
2024-04-13 14:00 - 16:00
Speaker: Ryan Mattke, John R. Borchert Library
This will be a unique program, held at the John R. Borchert Map Library (in the lower level of the Wilson Library) on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota campus. Because of the location, there will be no Zoom component for this presentation. No registration is required – you can just show up if you are interested in attending. Note that the time is at 2 PM, which is different from our usual program time.
The speaker will demonstrate how to use print and online resources, in conjunction with maps, to locate historical place-names. The presentation will also highlight resources related to genealogy, as well as other historical cartographic materials, available at the John R. Borchert Map Library in Minneapolis. Feel free to bring place-names to search!

Poland resources:

Digitized maps from the Map Library Collection
Topographic map sets including Topographische Karte 1:25,000; Poland 1:100,000; Karte des Deutschen Reiches 1:100,000; and others.

For parking, here is a West Bank Campus Map — Wilson Library is right in the middle. The best place to park is the 21st Ave Ramp just south of Wilson Library (cost of ramp parking on Saturdays is $1/hour).

From Mieszko to Millennium: Tracing the Footprints of Religion in Polish History
2024-03-02 10:00 - 12:00
Speaker: Professor Gordon Pueschner – MFA
Century College, White Bear Lake, MN
The speaker will cover the following time periods:

Pre-Catholic Times to King Mieszko I Baptism
– A Brief history of the early ancient Slavic paganism to Poland’s early years as a Christian state.

The Warsaw Confederation of 1573
– Religious persecution inside Poland and the positive effects of the Warsaw Confederation.

Religion in Poland under Communism
– The importance of John Paul becoming Pope and the hardships of being Christian under Communism.

This program is free to PGS-MN members, and members do not need to pre-register. The program 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.

Posen: Hidden Sources
2024-02-22 20:00 - 21:30
Speaker: Gary Heyn, Germanic Genealogy Society Treasurer
This is a free program sponsored by the Germanic Genealogy Society, a branch of the Minnesota Genealogical Society. Since a number of the PGS-MN members have ancestors from Poznań, we thought this program might be of interest. While the focus will be concentrated on German Genealogy, it will include Polish information.
The speaker is the author of “Standing at the Grave: A Family’s Journey from the Grand Duchy of Posen to the Prairies of North Dakota.” He visited the Poznań area on a recent research trip. Here is the link to register or for more information: https://ggsmn.org/eventListings.php?nm=38#er220

In Search of Kashubia
2024-02-17 11:00 - 14:00
This is a six-hour Zoom event (split between two Saturdays) , sponsored by the Polish American Foundation of Connecticut. We are sharing it as they are offering PGS-MN members a discount for attending (full price is $25 – with PGS-MN discount, the cost is $20). To get the discount, use enter the code when registering (discount code is 2024MN).

2024 Program Meetings
2024-01-24 - 2024-12-24
Our Programs for 2024 are now finished. The topics of the programs for the year were:

March 2, 2024 – From Mieszko to Millennium: Tracing the Footprints of Religion in Polish History April 13, 2024 – Tour of Borchert Map Library at the University of Minnesota May 11, 2024 – Wieczorek Family Tree – Speaker: Peggy LarsonSeptember 7, 2024 – My Grandfather’s Story – Speaker: Marge Runnakko October 5, 2024 – Kashubian Poles in Minnesota – Speaker: Dr. Joseph HughesNovember 2, 2024 – Tracing Family from the Pomerania Area – Speakers: Kay Freund and Chris DeWuske

The programs were all recorded (except the Tour of the Borchert Map Library – slides are available for that one). The recording from the November program will be available soon.
We encourage you to sign into the Members Only Section of the PGS-MN website to view any of them in the Program Meeting Archives.
Enjoy the holidays and winter season ahead! We will post programs for 2025 (first program will be in March) as details get worked out.
