Polish genealogy expert to speak

Date: 3/20/2012

March 21, 2012

CHICOPEE — The spring meeting of the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts will be at the Polish Center, 33 South St., on March 29 at 6:30 p.m.

"The Genealogy Assistant" Tim Firkowski, will share his experiences as a professional genealogist sleuthing for ancestors in Polish archives. Firkowski's last appearance in the area was at the 2011 New England Regional Genealogical Conference in Springfield.

Firkowski's distinctive cape and deerstalker hat underscore his Sherlock Holmes-like approach to following clues in family history. His research trip to Poland last summer will be the focus of this talk, which is free and open to the public.

Valuable tips on how to find family records in Polish churches, diocese repositories, and government archives will be revealed. Some of the areas of his research include Tarnow and Rzeszow, and the villages of Stryszów, Pstràgowa, KroÊno, Niewodna and Frysztak.

After Firkowski's father came to this country as a child, he didn't know anyone with his last name. When Tim located someone named Lukasz Firkowski, the two worked together to assemble the puzzle of over 2,300 family members. The effort resulted in the first Firkowski family reunion in Poland in 2004 with 202 attendees from six countries.

For more information, visit Firkowski's website located at thegenealogyassistant.com.