_______________________________

TATRA AREA RESEARCH GROUP
_______________________________

© TARG All rights reserved.
Newsletter for December 2005
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vesele' Vianoce! (Merry Christmas in Slovak)
Wesol~ych S'wia,t! (Merry Christmas in Polish)
Szcze~s'liwego S'wie~ta Chanuka! (Happy Hanukkah in Polish)
Greetings to all TARG members far and wide as we end this year by
celebrating and enjoying family and friends around us. We have so many
blessings for which to be thankful, including the wonderful traditions
handed down to us by our ancestors.
May all of your moments with your family be memorable, all of your travels
safe, and may peace be with you into the coming year!
-- Paul K. Bingham
TARG Founder

WEBSITES____________
1. TARG's Holidays-updated website is at: http://mytarg.net or
www.mytarg.net.
2. TARG's new website for the New Year(!): http://www.e-TARG.org.
3. Holiday & e-card sites (Slovak): http://www.pohladnice.sk/,
http://uk.kpl.biz/index.php?picmore=true&pic_id=69 (English version),
http://sk.kpl.biz/index.php?picmore=true&pic_id=69&id= (Slovak version)
4. Holiday & e-card sites (Polish): http://www.kartki.bej.pl/?idd=1000,
http://www.galeria.com.pl/, http://www.ekartka.net/?page=step2&fid=2308
http://kartki.busko.com.pl/phpCardsChoose.php?CatID=6&CatName=Wielkanocne,
http://www.edycja.pl/index.php?mod=gratisy&menu=kartki&modkartki=gkartki&kartkat=23,
http://office.microsoft.com/pl-pl/templates/CT011211011045.aspx
5. Helene B. Cincebeaux's Treasure Tours website: www.Our-Slovakia.com

YOUR LETTERS_________
---Hello Paul, My grandfather was born in Felso Lipnica, Austria-Hungary
based on WWI records. After some research, I have been told that this is
now Lipnica Wielka in Poland. Is this true?? I have many other questions,
but this is a good place to start. -- Jim Bonk, San Diego, CA
***Hi Jim, Thank you for your note. Yes, the old town of Felso Lipnica was
the Hungarian form of Velka Lipnica (Slovak) which after 1920 became part of
Poland and Lipnica Wielka! If you go to the TARG website at www.mytarg.net
and click on "Village List" you will find Lipnica Wielka as one of the
villages. Click on it and
you will find there is a small page for this village on our site with some
info and a picture, too. We have a number of TARG members with family from
Lipnica Wielka. I have
also visited there twice to take video and do an inventory of surnames in
the cemetery. What are your family names from this village? Perhaps I can
find more info for you! - Paul
---Dear Mr. Bingham, I would be interested in going to Poland in the fall of
2006. My wife and I lived in Zakopane for five months in 1993-94 and I would
love to return. If you could put me in touch with a genealogist who
specializes in the Slovakian Tatrys I would be most appreciative. I found my
paternal grandfather's family (Bryjak) in a village near Zakopane, but have
had no luck in finding my grandmother's family (her name was Julia Novota).
My grandparents were married in Bitumen, PA, in the late 1890s. The only
thing I know for sure about Julia is that she was from what is now Slovakia
and probably from the Tatry region, although I can't say for certain. Thanks
for your help. Regards, George Bryjak
***Hi George. You are obviously responding to the little entry I included at
the bottom of the www.mytarg.net website's "Trips" page regarding a research
trip I am contemplating for next fall. Again, there is nothing planned at
this time, I'm just thinking about it. It would not be anything like a
tour -- the kind Helene B. Cincebeaux provides so wonderfully, especially
for first-timers to the old country. I will put your name on my list. So far
as Novota, this is a Slovak surname in our database. I will do some look-ups
and get back to you after Christmas with more. I will also send you some
information about Vlado Flak, a good Slovak genealogist. Actually we had
some discussion on him a couple of months back. You may want to read those
back issues on the www.mytarg.net website, too. - Paul
---Hello Paul, Thanks for your forwarded message. I'm going to contact Paul
Valasek today. I'm getting ahead pretty well in researching my paternal
ancestors, the Rol(l) and Bryjak families of Dlugopole, PL (Ludzimierz
parish), and the surrounding villages. I have the following family names
now: Bryjak, Rol(l), Kowalkowski, Jakubiec, Cholewa, Pawelcak, Babel,
Dlugopolski/Dlugopolska, Szczurek, and Karpiel. I'm also just about to put
together lists of emigrants from the different Podhale villages that came to
the US via Ellis Island. If, for example, a person has ancestors in a
certain village, one can look up then which other families emigrated to the
US from the same village, which turned out to be quite helpful in my own
research. I'll gladly share this information with other TARG members. Best
regards, Ute from Germany
***Hello Ute. Glad to help get people together. That is one of the major
purposes of TARG itself. Please do contribute your findings! This will add
to our growing database. The idea of searching on Ellis Island's site by
village is a good one. I have used this technique before to great advantage.
Some of the names in the database are from this source, though I have not
run all TARG villages to extract all the names yet. Any help is
appreciated! - Paul

SENDING E-CARDS TO POLAND, SLOVAKIA________
Those of us in North America are used to sending "e-cards" in just a few
seconds using our computers. They're perfect for birthdays, anniversaries
and especially the Holidays! Ever wish there was something like that for
your relatives and friends in Eastern Europe? Well, there is!
Below are just some of the many services now available. Some are only in
Polish or Slovak, others have an English section you can read through to
help you pick your cards and sentiments. Once familiar with the selections
you can go then back and pick and send them to your relatives in their
native language....all free, of course! (Please try some out and report back
to us on which ones were the best.)
1. A variety of holiday cards in Polish (over 60):
http://www.kartki.bej.pl/?idd=1000
http://www.galeria.com.pl/
2. Big Slovak Christmas e-card site (over 100 to chose from):
in English: http://uk.kpl.biz/index.php?picmore=true&pic_id=69
in Slovak: http://sk.kpl.biz/index.php?picmore=true&pic_id=69&id=
3. Christmas e-cards in Polish:
http://www.ekartka.net/?page=step2&fid=2308
http://kartki.busko.com.pl/phpCardsChoose.php?CatID=6&CatName=Wielkanocne
4. Religious Christmas e-cards in Polish:
http://www.edycja.pl/index.php?mod=gratisy&menu=kartki&modkartki=gkartki&kartkat=23
(Also of seasonal interest)
5. Christmas site (in Slovak only): http://www.pohladnice.sk/
6. A variety of holiday greeting cards (on paper) shown in Polish:
http://office.microsoft.com/pl-pl/templates/CT011211011045.aspx

A PEEK AT THE NEW YEAR___________
For a while I have talked about moving the TARG website to a different
host and a more reliable server. Actually, it's already been done! If you
don't believe me, just visit the new website for 2006 a little early. It is
at: www.e-TARG.org.
It looks very much like the www.mytarg.net site. But soon it will have a
new-and-improved guestbook for members to post their surname & village
information to share with others and make contacts. The www.mytarg.net site
will continue to work, too, and then one day in the future those who visit
that site will be automatically redirected to the new one. (They probably
won't even know it happened.) This will be a key feature so as not to lose
anyone. The new site has a lot more space and features we will make use of
in the future -- and a lot more reliability. Look for good things to come!

TATRA MOUNTAINS BOOK - PART 7__________
Beginning Chapter 3 "Take it Easy":
"The people of the Tatras, who live in the upland parts north of the
mountain chain known as the Rocky Highlands, speak a dialect of Polish
frequently difficult for a Pole from the plains to understand. The country
south of the mountains is inhabited by Slovaks, though no definite boundary
separates them from the Poles and both these closely related races merge
into one another imperceptibly. The Highlanders, or Gorale (plural form of
the singular Goral), as they are called, have quite a few words of their
own. Thus, instead of using the Polish word "ogien" (Latin: ignis, English:
ignite) for fire, they prefer an odd Sanskrit term "vatra", and there are
many other words in the dialect which are common to the mountain tribes of
both Europe and Asia.
"One would, however, look in vain for any traces of Marcomannic
influences, unless we chose to regard as such "swarc" (shvarts) used for
boot-polish or "fajerman", pronounced as the English word "fireman" and
having the same meaning. The obvious historical origin of these words hardly
needs stressing. Incidently, I have even met a Goral who used the words
"horse" and "spring" in their normal Anglo-Saxon meaning. But it transpired
that he had lived in America, where he had been working in the coal mines.
He said he had to leave there explaining that the water from those lakes did
not suit him. The Gorale or Highlanders are slow speakers, as becomes free
men, and there is a slow dignity in their behavior. They also have a keen
and steady sense of humor."
(Chapter 3 "Take it Easy" continues in next month's issue.)

CONTACTING TARG_____________________
To contact the TARG Editor, the new e-mail address is: TatraAreaResearchGroupgmail. Our "snail" mailing address is still TARG, P.O. Box 3533, Escondido, CA 92033. use it for sending in orders or photos and anything else you want to share with the group. (If for some reason you are unable to contact us at the new address above, go ahead and use the old address targ_nethotmail by clicking here.)
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
Back to E-Newsletter list, back to Main Page.