As I have said before I started making a family tree in 1963. This started as a school project thanks to Mrs Weidemann at Clippert Elementary School.
By the end of 1963 I had talked to my three living grandparents (my grandfather Michał Kiełb died in 1943), as well as all of my aunts and uncles. But my obsessive bahavior took me to “interviewing” all of my parents cousins, aunts and uncle.
My fathers family was living for the most part in southern Michigan (or Poland) while my mothers family was in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Ontario and Quebec. At family gatherings I always carried a notebook and was introduced to the people I wanted to talk to. While this included many weddings, it also included funerals, which required greater sensitivity.
With my mothers family talking to her cousins, aunts and uncles required some travel, which we regularly did during the summer. We often visited St. Thomas, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. but also made trips to Philadelphia and Washington.
By the early 1970s I had personally spoken to most of the living members of my family. But my obsession needed to be fed.
My Aunt Jean and Uncle John Zielony, who lived down the street with my Grandmother in the house where my father was born told me about a cousin in Poland who they had written to. He could read English, but only reply in Polish, but would write back. What did I have to lose, an airmail stamp?
Much to the surprise of my father and me a letter arrived and our correspondence started.
While my father spoke Polish (his mother never learned to speak English), his ability to read Polish had waned since his school days. At the time I was taking Russian and while sounding similar to Polish, it was written with a different alphabet. Between the two of us and a Polish dictionary we managed to read the letter and write back. I cannot remember why I didn’t just walk down the street and talk to my Uncle (who lived in Poland until WWII).
At about the same time my Italian grandmother (Frances DeFrancis) who lived in the same house that we did, told me that she had an aunt (Domenica Pompetti) living in Teramo, Italy. With the help of my grandfather (Michele Bellotti) I was able to construct a letter and post it to Italy.
I was extremely excited when I got a letter back which included a lot about my grandmothers family in Italy. My aunt Domenica Pompetti was the sister of Irene Cordone and married Davide Di Francesco (my grandmothers parents). The correspondence started with her and continued with her granddaughter lasting for a few years until graduate school took over my life.
More on family and genealogy next week.
Michael's Place 