Both my mother and my father's side of the family are 100% Polish. Now, it's not as if they were told to only date and marry Polish people, that's just how it turned out.
We're having difficulty tracing my father's family as they didn't really want to talk about Poland once they had emmigrated to the US. Even though our family name is a little bit uncommon, we can't seem to find our relatives past my great-great-grandfather in the mid 1800's. My father's family arrived in the US 1917.
On the other hand, my mother's family is from Aleksanderow Kujawski in the central-north area of Poland near Torun. I hope to travel to Poland this summer to meet my family for the first time. They arrived in the US about 1916 or so. My grandfather was born in Chicago and is a US citizen. Though, his mother missed Poland and they moved back when he was 5. He grew up in Poland and, in light of WWII, came back to the US when he was 19.
So....we're proud Americans, but have strong links with our Polish heritage.
.....Kelly
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