Breaking Through a Polish Brick Wall

For years, I was stuck trying to trace my Kowalski ancestors beyond my great-grandfather's immigration to America. The breakthrough came when I discovered a marriage record from 1892 that listed not only my great-grandfather's parents but also his exact village of origin in Poland. The challenge had been that "Kowalski" is an extremely common Polish surname, and family stories only mentioned "near Warsaw" as the place of origin. The marriage record revealed they were actually from a small village in the Płock gubernia. Using this information, I was able to access church records from the parish and trace the family back to the 1780s. The records revealed that my ancestors were blacksmiths for generations – fitting, as "Kowalski" derives from the word for blacksmith. One of the most interesting discoveries was finding records of my ancestors' involvement in the 1863 January Uprising against Russian rule, adding a fascinating historical context to our family story.