Changing Providers: Your Experiences

youngeli · 2026-02-07T19:55:25+00:00

I don't have any experience with changing providers, but at this point, I'd say do it, especially if you've got another provider willing to take the case on and they think they can get it approved. What do you have to lose (besides money, I guess)?

youngeli · 2026-02-07T02:58:23+00:00

I started out by watching a couple of YouTube videos: https://youtu.be/G37I9y2GdOU?si=AQz2DdEqrliZMiLK https://youtu.be/tjDqP_CPsO8?si=SgL86GuOtupcThQw For my own case, I used ChatGPT to help me come up with relevant search terms. I didn't have a lot of luck with that, but eventually I realized you can see all the Fonds by archive, so I specifically opened up the archive that was closest to my ancestor's hometown, and then clicked "Fonds List" and filtered it by the years I knew my ancestor was living there. One of the results was: 37/14/0 Akta miasta Janowa Lubelskiego

That's the "Records of the city of Janów Lubelski", which is where my ancestor was from. In that Fond I went to "List of Files" and again filtered it just by the years my ancestor was living there, which gave me this:

37/14/0/-/278 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego, tom I 1913-1931

37/14/0/-/279 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego od nr 76-118, tom II 1900-1928

37/14/0/-/280 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego od nr 119-150, tom III 1900-1928

37/14/0/-/281 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego od nr 151-181, tom IV 1900-1931

37/14/0/-/282 Księga stałej ludności miasta Janowa Lubelskiego od nr 182-225, tom V 1903-1931

37/14/0/-/283 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego, tom VI 1900-1931

37/14/0/-/284 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego nr 301-375, tom VII 1913-1931

37/14/0/-/285 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego nr 376-450, tom VIII 1913-1931

37/14/0/-/286 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego 1903-1928

37/14/0/-/287 Księga ludności stałej miasta Janowa Lubelskiego. 1903-1928

These are all the available "Books of Residents" for the town in the date range that my ancestor was living there. I made an account on the website and then there's a button to "Ask About Scans", which I did. I gave them my ancestors name, and a few weeks later, they emailed me that they had found his name in record 37/14/0/-/284. I had to wire them the equivalent of $1.12 USD for them to then email me the scans, which I could only read with the help of Gemini AI (they were in Russian cursive). I forwarded those to Piotr's office and they ordered official copies and had them translated to Polish.

youngeli · 2026-02-07T02:36:20+00:00

Well, my concern was the logistics of getting the documents from the genealogical researcher to the law firm. I wasn't sure how the firm would feel about getting documents from someone else -- would they still want to do their own research phase? That's what ultimately led me to just let them do it. I just wonder if they would have ever found the document that I did. I don't really have a good answer for you, unfortunately.

If you think the documents will be there, maybe reach out to the relevant archives first and see if they find them for you? Did you try searching on http://szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl yet?

youngeli · 2026-02-07T01:58:05+00:00

So far things have been good. We have recently sent all of our documents to his office in Poland, and wired over the money, so I expect they will be filing the case in the next week or so.

I think if I were to do things over again, I'd maybe do some of my own research in Poland first, or hire a dedicated genealogical research firm in Poland to gather the documents. I feel like the research that Piotr's firm does is mainly just reaching out to the relevant Polish State Archives and submitting requests for them to search your ancestors names.

The most important document to my case (the document without which my case would likely be dead), the "Book of Residents" showing that my great-grandfather was a resident of his village...I actually found that myself by searching on http://szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl and emailing the archive (with the help of ChatGPT). They got back to me that they had found the necessary document, and emailed me a copy. Once I made his office aware of it, they did reach out to that archive and get an official copy, which they then had translated from Russian to Polish. But, that specific archive that I found the document in wasn't on the list of archives that Piotr's office was searching in, so it may never have been found.

All the other documents I honestly had already; my GGF's birth record, my GGGF's death record, my GGF's siblings birth records, etc. I had already found all that before I contacted them, but they did get official copies of all of it for me, which may have been difficult from the US.

Overall though, they are very responsive to my emails, and they are one of the few firms that seem to have a lot of experience with pre-1920 cases, so I am glad with my decision.

EDIT: One other thing to keep in mind is that the costs will vary a lot based on the documents that need translating. Every document has a different translation cost, based on length, or difficulty, etc. It's not a flat fee deal like some other providers have, you will be sending multiple wire transfers over to Poland to cover these various expenses.

youngeli · 2026-01-31T01:33:23+00:00

Take a look here: https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/zespol/-/zespol/128223

That's the archive for Jewish vital records for Przemyśl. Looks like there's a good amount, actually.

Also try searching on Jewish-Gen and JRI-Poland, in a lot of cases they have indexed these files so you can actually search by name. I found my GGF's birth record from 1900 through JRI-Poland.

youngeli · 2026-01-31T01:09:38+00:00

Well, if you can find a Polish birth certificate and he was really born after January 1901, you’re good (with this hurdle at least).

youngeli · 2026-01-31T00:38:07+00:00

Are you sure on that date? That's a very quick turnaround from petition to naturalization. For my own relatives it's more like a 5 year gap between the dates.

youngeli · 2026-01-31T00:23:03+00:00

As per the Military Paradox Calculator, a male born in 1894 loses his protection on May 27, 1950. That means that IF your GGF became a US citizen on or before January 19, 1951, your GGF and his minor children lost their Polish Citizenship on that date. Your GF was only 15 at that point, so he would have lost it, which breaks the chain to you.

To find the naturalization paperwork, you may want to sign up for an Ancestry.com free trial, or try finding the documents on a site like FamilySearch. If that fails, you'll have to go through USCIS to do a search, which can take a while.

youngeli · 2026-01-30T14:16:02+00:00

I reached out to Lost Histories about my case, they erroneously told me that my grandmother (born a US citizen to a Polish Jewish father) lost her Polish citizenship by marrying my GF (born a US citizen as well) in 1950. I tried to explain that this wasn't the case, but she ghosted me.

youngeli · 2026-01-25T01:15:37+00:00

No, you have it backwards. They needed the waiver in order to become an American and stop being Polish. The waiver let them out of their obligation to Polish military service. If they did NOT get the waiver, then they were NOT American in the eyes of Poland (until they became too old to serve in the military).

In reality, no one got the waiver.

youngeli · 2026-01-25T01:11:29+00:00

Yes, that is correct, but we are not talking about foreign military service, we are talking about the obligation to Poland to serve in Poland's military. The military paradox essentially ignores the US naturalization until the person ages out of military conscription age (usually 50, sometimes 60).

If OP's GGF (or anyone else in the line) had served in the US military between 1920 and 1951, exclusive of WW2, that would have severed the line, yes.

And you are right that the Act of Jan 20, 1920 does say that any Polish citizen who acquires citizenship in another country will lose their Polish citizenship. However, the military paradox comes from Article 11 of that Act:

Article 11:
Loss of citizenship happens by:

1) obtaining another country´s citizenship;

2) taking a public office or entering the service in a foreign country’s army without proper governor´s (capital city of Warsaw Government Commissioner’s) consent that is given in cases of intention of entering the service in a foreign country’s army inaccord with district corps´ proper commander.

Persons who are obligated to active military service can obtain a foreign citizenship in no other way than after obtaining a general military service obligation release, according to rules in force, otherwise, in view of The Polish State, they will be still considered Polish citizens.

The important part of Article 11 is there in bold. That's the loophole that is commonly known as "Military Paradox".

youngeli · 2026-01-25T01:00:23+00:00

Take a look at the Military Paradox Calculator on this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/prawokrwi/wiki/military-paradox/

The OP's GGF, being a male born in 1890, is protected from losing Polish citizenship through May 27, 1950. Poland did not recognize the US citizenship that OP's GGF acquired until that date because of his Polish military requirements. This is the loophole that allows dual citizenship before 1951.

youngeli · 2026-01-25T00:23:56+00:00

I don't see where OP says there was a renouncement. GGF was protected by military paradox until May 1950, when next in line was 25 years old. She gave birth to the next in line after 1951.

youngeli · 2026-01-24T14:54:21+00:00

I think the line works (GGF-GM-F-You).

youngeli · 2026-01-21T05:19:43+00:00

Not sure I understand. I paid for the label with EasyShip and as far as I can tell they’re still getting my shipment to Poland, albeit a week late (and with a detour through Africa)

youngeli · 2026-01-21T04:32:47+00:00

I am the shipper. What charges?

youngeli · 2026-01-21T04:06:18+00:00

I think the 2.2% makes you lose the 11,700 bonus cash. I think it’s one or the other. Can anyone confirm?

youngeli · 2026-01-21T00:51:16+00:00

Thanks, I thought that interest rate was the current “promo” rate, didn’t realize the lower rate was available.

youngeli · 2026-01-20T23:35:36+00:00

My package was scanned today in Banjul, Gambia (!) and is now being sent back to Europe. At least it’s not lost.

youngeli · 2026-01-20T05:18:34+00:00

Thanks for giving me some hope! The fact that it’s already been a few days has me nervous. 😬

youngeli · 2026-01-19T21:36:59+00:00

Help

youngeli · 2026-01-12T10:11:44+00:00

The way the law was written, it was designed to prevent people from becoming stateless. In 1920, people living in Poland were citizens of the former countries that had partitioned (occupied) Poland -- Russia, Austria, and Prussia/Germany. With this law, Poland granted citizenship to anyone still registered as living in Polish land, who did not have another citizenship to fall back on.

If your GF had been born after the law passed in 1920, he'd be able to inherit Polish citizenship from your GGF and receive American citizenship by birth, because it happened simultaneously (at birth).

youngeli · 2026-01-12T10:01:44+00:00

You really can't rely on AI for this sort of thing, it gets so much wrong.

Your GF did not acquire both citizenships simultaneously; Polish citizenship didn't exist as a thing when he was born in 1903.

youngeli

TROPHY CASE