Archive for November, 2004

Slowly, but surely a new face of Slavic Village is born. All you have to do is look around. So many restored buildings, with the best example being the Polish American Cultural Center. It is so nice to look at it without shame, and hear someone say: “Unbelievable, such a nice place in the Warsaw district?” However, more beautiful does not necessarily mean safer, but …that will change too, just as the surroundings have changed. Not long ago an acquaintance told me that he is buying a house. His answer to the typical question “where?” was, “You will laugh, but in the Warsaw district.” Maybe this sounds strange, but “He’s not stupid – I thought – he has no children, the prices are lower here than anywhere else, taxes too, and the place is becoming more attractive, and everything is so close.” One can say that there are only positives here.

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Many in the Polish-American community of northeastern Ohio have started to learn more about Poland by first learning more about their own families. They have joined the Polish Genealogical Society of Greater Cleveland (PGSGC). Polish-Americans in the Cleveland area first came together to discuss genealogical research and Polish culture in the fall of 1991 at the initiative of Ed Mendyka. Mendyka started the group from a heritage room set up at the St. John Cantius Roman Catholic Church Polish Festival. The group now has over a hundred members throughout the area and the United States and is part of the Federation of East European Family History Societies (http://feefhs.org/), an organization formed in 1992 to promote research and organize the work of the many genealogical societies that had been established throughout the country. Interest in genealogy in the United States has grown over recent decades, as people increasingly look to discover more about their families in order to understand their background.

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