If you feel like your research has hit a dead end, or you’ve exhausted your personal connections, reach out to others in your community who may share a piece of your family history. In an effort to learn more about my Polish heritage, I did a little sleuthing online and discovered the Polish Home Association and the Seattle Polish Foundation. Turns out there’s a tight community of first-generation Poles in the Pacific Northwest, where I was living at the time. I emailed the head of the Polish Film Club, Aleksandra, who invited me to a screening of The Lost Requiem, a documentary depicting the fate of the Stalin’s Siberian exiles. Not only was the film extremely educational (my grandfather’s brother, Genek, survived a Siberian gulag), I had the privilege of meeting several living gulag survivors. You’d be amazed at how willing complete strangers are to share their experiences, if you ask nicely and explain why you’re interested.
Incidentally, Aleksandra later became a good friend, an advocate of my book, and an excellent translator (Polish and Russian!) when the need arose.
