by Denise M. Oliansky
for the Polish Genealogical Society of New York State
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and, in keeping with the season, I have been thinking about those things for which I am thankful. My family, friends, retirement, health, home, garden, my cat, life in general and, not surprisingly, genealogy.

Genealogical research has been a big part of my life. And I’m not alone. Genealogy has become an extremely popular hobby throughout the world, especially in the past few decades. Because of its global popularity, many individuals, organizations, institutions, and companies have made it their purpose to teach, assist, and make resources available to the masses of people who are researching their family histories. It is the combined efforts of so many that has made our own research efforts so much easier and rewarding in many ways. When it comes to genealogy, these are a few of the things for which I am thankful.
First off, I am thankful for my dad who got me interested in this hobby. I was visiting from Michigan one weekend and found him preparing letters to every person he could locate who had the same surname, just to find out if they were related in some way. He was hoping to find out his father’s birthplace in Poland. I helped him with that effort, which was to no avail at the time, but it instilled a curiosity in me about the origins of my adoptive family that hadn’t been there before. And shortly after, it got me thinking about trying to find…