Genealogical research is an extremely absorbing activity, it is countless hours spent browsing through archives available online. But not everything can be found in the available documents – sometimes it is necessary to take up the search in parishes or look for other sources. It is a little like carrying out archaeological excavations, where each detail is important, sometimes surprising, and it helps to piece our ancestors’ life history together. The first successes helped me discover incredible stories from my family’s past and bring together the facts from stories I had heard long ago. My father’s family, like many Polish families during World War II, was decimated. My grandma and grandpa found themselves in a German prison. My grandpa was never found. As a three year old child, my dad was taken deep into Russia alongside more distant relatives, to Russian labour camps in Siberia. He returned to Poland only when he was 10. Moreover, many years of communism after the end of World War II did not allow to bring many facts to light.