March 10, 2015 Meeting of the LPCIGS

lcigs-logoNineteen members and guests were present for the regular monthly meeting of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society at the La Porte Parks Department Building at 250 Pine Lake Avenue in La Porte, Tuesday evening, March 10. President Dorothy Palmer called the meeting to order at 7:06 pm.

Following the business portion of the meeting, member Laura Shields spoke on a subject of “Polish Emigration from Prussia: How and Why?” Laura mentioned that she was slow to realize that her Mother’s family immigrated to the United States from Poland. In retrospect, there were clues. “My Mother loved to play Chopin, and she had no tolerance for ethnic jokes,” Laura told us. She thinks that many children of immigrants were pushed to assimilate in their parents’ new home, rather than schooled in the ways of the “old country”. She also detailed the strong influence regional history and international power struggles had on the very existence of the nation of Poland. These pressures also had a direct effect on the number of Poles who left their homeland.

The next meeting will be at 7 pm, Tuesday, April 14, at the Park Department Building. The program will be “Scrapbooks and Stained Glass Windows- Family History Clues in items left behind by our ancestors”, presented by Felicia Thomas. Guests are always welcome at the meetings.

More information about the society is available on our website, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm, and our blog, http://lpcgs-blogspot.com/.