Our Research: This project necessitated almost a year's intensive research conducted by a team across four
countries; genealogists, researchers and historians in the UK, USA, Israel and Poland. We first spoke to as
many family members as possible, but the only clues we had were the phrase ‘we're miles from Plotsk’, a
mention that the family were from ‘Makov near Cracow’ or from ‘Vilnius in Lithuania’ and that many family
members remembered a connection to the legendary Warner Brothers.
Little by little, we built up a picture of family life in London and beyond - via censuses, birth, marriage and
death certificates, gravestones and army records, most of which merely pointed to a general birthplace of
‘Russia, Poland’. After weeks of research, a breakthrough finally came when we found relevant naturalisation
papers, which, in some cases, gave the name of a town in Poland.
Once armed with the names of the towns for 2 branches of the family tree, we embarked upon extensive
research in numerous archives in Poland, which gradually uncovered birth, marriage and death records
going back as far as 1774 and, in some cases, revealing the actual streets the family lived in. Our clients
were delighted to discover records dating back to the 1700s, as so many documents in Eastern Europe
have been destroyed. Constructing a huge family tree meant that when at the Jewish cemetery in Kalisz,
the family saw that a commemorative photo of an honoured doctor who shared the common family name
was indeed a great uncle.
Naturalisation papers for one branch of the family pointed in the direction of ‘Aleksandrowa’, Poland, but
there were 9 possible places it could be. We spent several weeks looking at all the possibilities and were
finally able to narrow it down to one place. Despite a comprehensive search in the local archives, all vital
records for this branch of our family had been destroyed, but persistent searching found pages devoted to
them in a Russian/Polish Book of Residents, with entries added to throughout the 1800s. This gave us
information about family members, birthplaces, occupations and dwellings. Our local genealogist even
uncovered a relative's application papers for his butcher's shop. A detailed marriage document from 1886
gave us a lot more information, including the regiment the reservist groom was serving in. This branch of
the family was typical of many Jewish families, in that we investigated about three differing versions of the
surname (which both serve to confuse and enlighten the ancestral trail), until we finally found the original one.
One branch of the family had no naturalisation records in the UK to give us any clue, other than the
familiar ‘Russia, Poland’, so we turned our focus to the USA, where family rumour had placed some of
their cousins and where one of the UK great uncles had indeed been born. US research built up a
meticulous picture of the entire family surname, where people with that name emigrated from and to,
and where they eventually settled in the USA, to see if we could identify our branch. This fascinating
trail led us to finally piece together the family via passports, passenger lists, US censuses, death
certificates, obituaries, cemetery records and public family trees and even more obscure documentation
such as baseball records. Rumours of baseball and Hollywood were indeed correct as one cousin was the
secretary of the legendary Chicago White Sox baseball team and his daughter a Hollywood actress called
June Travis, who acted alongside Bette Davis in ‘The Star’. Another ‘eureka’ moment came when we found
a lady from Indiana who was related to a branch which left Poland for Baltimore. She had valuable information
about a generation further back but she knew nothing about her ancestors' Polish roots.
Records in the US revealed that members of this branch of the family were born in ‘Warsaw’, but we knew
from experience that Warsaw could have been the closest big city to where they were born and not the city
specifically. A lengthy search of the Warsaw archives discounted that possibility as we uncovered nobody
from our family there. So we proceeded to re-study migration patterns and areas from where the surname
originated and felt strongly that they were from an area north of Warsaw. Genealogical research was extended
to look for the family in archives north west to north east of Warsaw but a breakthrough came via one of our
local historians. His research pointed to Makow Mazowiekci, where most vital records no longer survive, but
which tallied with where a relative had said the family were from - not the ‘Makov’ they had thought
was ‘near Cracow’ but the Makow north of Warsaw. The discovery of a birth certificate in the US also
confirmed that the family were from Lomza state which is where Makow is situated.
We were also interested in the fascinating rumour about the family being related to the legendary Warner
Brothers, but was there any basis in reality? We found that a cousin, the actress June Travis, had been
discovered by Warner Bros at a baseball training session and felt it was probable that they knew the family
from Poland which is why they had gone to a training session rather than a game. We forward traced the
Warner Brothers family tree to see if that would reveal any clues and found a direct descendant in Los Angeles.
She pointed us to Krasnolsielc in Poland, a village just north of Makow. We felt sure that because of the very close
proximity, our family did indeed have links with them before they migrated to the US.
The final rumour we investigated before we left for Poland was the saying ‘we're miles from Plotsk’, could ‘Plotsk’
have referred to the city of Plock which again is in the general area north of Warsaw? The Plock archives have
extensive records and although there was no trace of our family there, experience told us they were not actually
born there but had moved west for work from Makow in Lomza. We tracked down a passenger list, which had members
of our family leaving Plock for Baltimore in 1897 and confirming the family's original surname. Evidence that the family
saying ‘we're miles from Plotsk’ was indeed grounded in fact!
Places visited on the tour: Lodz, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Opoczno, Warsaw, Ostrow Mazowiecka,
Makow Mazowiecki, Plock, Torun, Aleksandrowa Kujawski, Sluwejo, Nieszawa, Wloclawek and Kalisz.
Luxury Hotels the party stayed at:
Andels Hotel in Lodz
Victoria Hotel in Warsaw
Hotel Bulwar in Torun
