Pursuing the Impossible

 

As we move along the first branch of the twig which becomes our family tree, it is far easier to determine the right names, dates, and locations, than when that tree grows into the many gnarled branches of a well-researched, multi-generational project. Choosing my Twelve Most Wanted for the ancestors I planned on researching in the upcoming year made for easy pickings, years ago. Not so, now.

For this last month's goal of 2021, I was hoping to face the double challenge of researching a possible husband and wife team representing my second great-grandparents. While that may not sound like much of a challenge, this couple belongs on the paternal side of my pedigree—specifically, the paternal grandparents of my mystery grandfather, the one who refused to divulge his roots to even his own family.

The discoveries I've made so far on this family branch have come not from the usual resources—not at Ancestry.com, not at FamilySearch.org—but from websites across the pond, a leap made by me most tenuously. These I learned from those helpful others who believe firmly in "giving back" to help others new to that particular research task—and new I was to exploring the records of Poland, the secret homeland of my immigrant paternal grandfather.

From the resources of one particular Polish website, it seems my patriline makes its last stop on its trip back in history—so far—with the parents of Thomas Puchała. From research progress made last year, I discovered that Thomas was born about 1844. That was two years after his father, listed in church records under the very un-Polish name Johann, had married a woman by the name of Susanna Radomska.

The same couple—Johann and Susanna—were listed as parents of two more sons and one daughter, all who died within the year of their birth. The only other family member was a daughter named Marianna, for whom I can find no other mention in records—whether following suit of a premature death with the others, or somehow living to adulthood, but not much longer, like her brother Thomas.

All these events apparently took place in the village of Lubichowo, located to the north of Poland in what once was considered the region of Pomerania. To explore documentation, it takes a visit to yet another Polish website than the ones we've visited earlier this year, so to start the process on this last goal for my 2021 Twelve Most Wanted, tomorrow we'll review our research resources.