10 March, 2015 Meeting of the LPCIGS
At 7 pm Tuesday, March 10, nineteen members of the La Porte
County (IN) Genealogy Society met at the Headquarters building of the La Porte
City Parks and Recreation Department. President Dorothy Palmer led a business
portion of the meeting, with minutes and financial reports, committee reports,
and unfinished and new business. Genealogist-Historian Fern Eddy Schultz shared
news of activity in our County, neighboring areas, and even other states.
Program Committee chair Patricia Gruse Harris introduced our
program for the evening. “Polish Emigration from Prussia- How and Why” was
presented by Laura Shields, an active society member, former Curator of the
Lighthouse Museum in Michigan City, and a descendant of both Polish and German
immigrants to the United States.
As introduction, Laura related that she had little idea of
the origin of her Grandfather. She noted that many children of immigrants had
de-emphasized the foreign background of their families, in their concentration
upon American culture. She then presented an outline of some of the currents
and trends which had moulded the area south and around the Baltic Sea, from
prehistory up to the First and Second World Wars. Poland was a nation which was
pushed and pulled throughout the centuries. It changed, in physical area and
dimension, in cultural allegiances, and in its very existence.
Among the most significant periods of change was the
nineteenth century rise of its neighbor, Prussia. Eventually, the Polish people
were subjugated so intensely that many Poles saw no hope in staying in their
homeland. A chance for freedom across the Atlantic, in the United States,
seemed to beckon. Poles entered the United States, many drawn by promotional
literature prepared by American industrialists. Emigrants found ever-larger
vessels at the wharves in Europe. When they arrived in the American ports,
growing miles of railroads waited to carry them onward.
Laura recommended that anyone with ancestors from this
region search the internet book sites for histories. Sometimes you need an
understanding of the changing geography and politics to know what your
ancestors believed and claimed their nationality to be. Read and compare
various viewpoints, looking for that elusive “truth”.
