The Necessity of Multiple Resources

 

We may have become spoiled in the genealogy world, considering all the digitized records that can be accessed on websites like Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org. Finding so many records in one place gives the aura of one-stop shopping for family trees. When we step beyond our own country to explore our roots in those immigrant ancestors' place of origin, though, we shift to face new challenges.

No matter how much a website may promise an international purview, on a case-by-case basis, that promise may only be upheld to varying degrees. In the case of my paternal Polish ancestors, I've already learned I'll need to cobble together multiple resources to progress with my research plan.

Since this month's goal is to find more details—and documentation—for my second great-grandmother Susanna Radomska, I already know I will need to look for resources which specialize not only in the nation of Poland, but which look to the north and the region historically known as Pomerania.

Fortunately for me, there is a Polish website which focuses on vital records from this exact region in Poland. This volunteer-driven site, with a URL echoing the initials of its name in Polish—Pomorskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne—is known in English as the Pomeranian Genealogical Association.

The PTG database provides transcriptions of vital records for the region from the early 1800s through the earliest decades of the subsequent century. Each entry also indicates the resource from which the transcriptions were drawn, mostly local archival holdings, which are indicated by book and photo number for those wishing to obtain copies of the actual documents.

Granted, many of the ancestral collateral lines I've already researched were also available through records at the more familiar FamilySearch.org—but not all. I've had to bounce between PTG and FamilySearch to see which records were lacking at FamilySearch, then prepare a list to pursue through those archival avenues. And even if I can locate those birth, marriage, or death records online, I'll need to deal with reading the old German script in many cases, simply because Pomerania was, at the time of my ancestors, part of the Prussian domain.

That, alone, is a great illustration for why doing international family research demands access to multiple online resources. I've found myself bouncing back and forth between Google's Translate app and cheat sheets that provide listings of words genealogists are most likely to encounter, such as this old handy (though ad-ridden) treasure from the old RootsWeb days.

Now that I'm bouncing back and forth between several online resources, building out the Radomski family line, it's high time we give this month's featured ancestor from my Twelve Most Wanted an introduction. With that, tomorrow we'll officially meet Susanna Radomska and see how she ties into the family line.