There are how many verbs...?

I spent this weekend immersing myself further in the nuances of Polish grammar. Upon my first introduction to verbs earlier this summer, I was quite relieved to learn that there are only three verb tenses, compared to the myriad of simple, perfect, and what have you tenses that exist in English. Yet, I soon discovered that each verb falls into one of four classes, which determine conjugated forms, based on person and number. There’s no easy way to tell to which class a verb belongs, as in any language, there are always exceptions to the rules. Also, the infinitive, or root, of the verb can undergo changes that make it look like a completely different word. Okay, I accepted that and dealt with it.

Recently, I started noticing some “discrepancies” among the web resources that I’ve been using, such as two different verbs having the exact same meaning. I expressed my frustration to my co-worker (who by chance has a degree in the Russian language) and she proceeded to explain to me all about aspect in Slavic languages. So there are three verb tenses, right? Add to that imperfective and perfective aspect, which express actions in progress or with an unknown end and actions that have been or are scheduled to be completed, respectively. This means that there are actually two words for every verb, some of which don’t even resemble each other. And, verbs that indicate motion have two imperfective forms for on-going (determinate) and frequentative (indeterminate) action. At least these still have only one perfective verb.

As a result, I passed the weekend reading up on these topics and familiarizing myself with all of the possible forms of the verbs that I have learned thus far. The next challenge will be using them properly in sentences!

Ghost Town

Since my arrival, the hostel has been bustling with people, as groups of students unloaded each week to count singing male Aquatic Warblers throughout Biebrza National Park.  For the first two weeks, only a few were present, as the project was just beginning.  I enjoyed their presence, even though I took little initiative to strike up conversation.  Fortunately, some individuals did initiate conversation.  They never failed to impress me with their understanding of English, and put me to shame, as I was unable to hold a conversation in Polish. 

The dynamic of the hostel shifted with the daily arrival and departure of volunteers, tour groups, biologists, and other random guests.  Everyone seemed to immediately connect, conversing easily and unifying as a group, particularly at the nightly parties.  Yet, with the language barrier, I could not be sure how deeply these connections extended and how well everyone related to each other.  So I was left with the impression that they had become like family in this short period of time. 

Last Wednesday, about thirty students from Lublin arrived and that night commenced the wildest party I had yet witnessed at the hostel.  Some individuals even clambered up into the attic and insisted on peering down through our bathroom vent with their torch and conversed there throughout the night.

Needless to say, it was a sleepless night.

By the next day, the crowd had drastically dispersed, and now, there are two or three people left on the property with my co-workers and me.  It feels like a ghost town.  The quiet is at times refreshing, as when we spent a relaxing evening congregated around the fire pit.  We were only joined by the mosquitoes, whose company that we could have done without.  Yet, during the day, when all are off working and I am left to myself, the hostel seems like a ghost town and the silence feels somewhat unsettling. 

Polski List

I’ve spent the past several hours composing a letter to a relative in Poland, with whom I have recently connected.  I have learned a few words and phrases over the past couple of months through my inconsistent podcast usage and practice.  Yet, I know nothing of sentence structure and verb conjugation, my knowledge of assigning proper gender articles and endings to objects is minimal, and I generally spell Polish words phonetically in my podcast notes because it’s far too complicated otherwise.  Needless to say, these factors make for an interesting letter, and I imagine that she derives much amusement from my feeble attempts at writing in the Polish language. 

During my writing sessions, I am constantly revising sentences for the sake of simplicity.  Although, I find Polish to be a challenging language, it is really quite straight-forward and to the point, which is demonstrated by the significant lack of Polish equivalents to English articles and other filler words.  I also greatly mistrust the accuracy of online translation tools.  As a result, I translate the Polish word or phrase provided by the translator back into English, in order to see how jumbled my message became in a matter of seconds.  It reminds me of the telephone game, in which a sentence is whispered from one person to the next, all the way down the line, until the final player states aloud something entirely different from what the group began with.  When I am really struggling with the online translator to produce a translation with some resemblance to my original meaning, I pull out my hefty Polish-English dictionary to do it the old-fashioned way. 

But, finally, my letter is complete and ready to mail and, hopefully, does not contain too many awkward mistakes!

Uncovering the Past

My grandparents on their wedding day

Several years ago, I began to wonder about my heritage.  My father’s mother had already traced his family’s lineage back to the time of the Pilgrims, so that she could attain membership to the Daughters of the American Revolution organization.  I have bound copies of her findings, which I scanned through at that time, and found to be quite interesting. 

My mother’s family lineage is another story.  We know that her grandparents, my great-grandparents, immigrated to the United States from Poland.  Her parents, both of Polish descent, were born and married here.  As a result, she is a full-blooded Pole, and I am half-Polish.  Yet, in spite of this strong blood connection to the culture, we know little about it or, even our more recent ancestors, their lives and circumstances. To further complicate things, of my grandparents’ generation, there is only one survivor left, whose memory
                                                                  continues to fade with age. 

My great-grandparents (grandfather's parents) on their wedding day (left)

Still, I had this urge to know, to learn, from where I came.  I started my initial search by utilizing the free two week trial from Ancestry.com.  I found the sheer number of available documents and routes to take overwhelming, and this feeling was compounded by the fact that, with all of the similar names of Polish immigrants in Massachusetts and the likelihood of significant name changes, I could not be sure who was actually an ancestor of mine.  It also did not help in trying to differentiate among individuals, when neither I nor my mother knew the first name of her mother’s father or the maiden name of her father’s mother.  Birth dates and death dates were obscure, and much of this common, critical data, which we take for granted may have been incorrectly recorded, due to the language barrier, since, I believe, none of my great-grandparents spoke English, fibbing about their ages, or, perhaps, simply not knowing.  Thus, the two week trial period concluded my first attempt at genealogy research with little to show for my efforts.

Recently, I have returned to this question with renewed determination to uncover some answers into the past.  My thought the other day was to go back to the basics, mapping out all of the known individuals of my Polish family tree and noting any bits of information that might help me to discover links to more distant relatives.  I’ve figured that if information regarding my great-grandparents is too sparse or inconclusive to locate key documents or relations, then, perhaps, I may accomplish this in a more round-about way through my grandparents and their siblings, especially since my mother has a greater knowledge pertaining to them. 

I’ve also found other useful resources this time around, including the Bible, in which my mother, and presumably her mother, retained obituaries and memorial prayer cards of family and close friends.  It was in the pages of this book that I spotted the obituary my grandfather’s mother, containing her lost maiden name.  From these clippings, I recorded all the names, dates, ages, places of residence and birth, and children’s names of my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ generation that I could, even if I already had the information stashed in my binder.  I didn’t want to miss anything. 

In addition, through Family Search and Census Finder, I have found links, to U.S. Census records; however, these censuses are not free for public access online from 1930 and upwards.  I’m hoping that I may have better luck with accessing key documents at the Springfield Massachusetts Family History Center that I stumbled upon in Ludlow, of all places, about a twenty minute drive from home.  The hours are limited, as it is only open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Unfortunately, since I am working both of those days this week, I will have to wait until next week to explore the documents and services offered there.

For more specific information regarding Polish genealogy, the Polish Consulate in the U.S. doesn’t offer any kind of services or assistance with such research, but its website does provide links to other resources.  It is recommended to contact local historical societies, the U.S.National Archives and Records Service, and the genealogical division of the Library of Congress, the latter two being located in Washington, D.C.  The Polish Consulate also suggests sending a request for information directly to the Polish National Archives, but one must first determine, in which country their town of origin now resides, since the country has undergone so many divisions over the course of its troubled history.  Through the Consulate’s website, I also linked to a Polish digital Archival Internet Forum, which may be promising, but I have yet to explore it.