Discovering Your Polish Heritage

"Discovering your Polish heritage: a beginner's workshop"

Some 50,000 Polish refugees emigrated to Australia between 1947 and 1954 with the vast majority coming under the sponsorship of the International Refugee Organisation (IRO). According to the 2021 census some 210,000 Australians identified as having a Polish background, of which 5,000 were in Canberra-Queanbeyan.

Do you have Polish heritage? Want to research your family history but don’t know where to begin? This workshop is designed to help you get started.

The workshop will be presented in English by Tom Wodzinski. He has been researching his Polish ancestry for over 30 years and regularly travels to Poland to conduct further research.

Some of the topics covered will include:

• how to start your research
• researching the various migration paths to Australia
• how to research in neighbouring countries
• what records are freely available online (MANY !)
• reading records without knowing the language(s)
• navigating Polish bureaucracy.

Booking & details

• Cost: Members $40
• Where: In person — Cook Community Hub (41 Templeton Street, Cook) or online via Zoom
• Bring: any official documents or records you may already have. 
• Bring: iPad, tablet, laptop computer etc. WiFi will be available at the venue.
• Refreshments: light refreshments will be supplied, lunch will be byo or at a cafe at nearby Cook shops.
• Suitable for: anyone beginning Polish family history research
• Open to members, non-members and visitors from other societies

Family History ACT values the intellectual property of our speakers and the privacy of all meeting participants.
To protect these rights, the use of third-party AI note-taking or transcription tools,  including but not limited to Otter.ai, Read.ai, Fireflies, or similar services is not permitted during FHACT meetings, webinars or events.