Mike & Connie Liszewski

In April of 2020, I sent “m liszewski” a message on Ancestry. This person was a DNA match with me and we both had the name “Kurkiewicz” in our trees. It turned out to be the tree of Mike Liszewski, managed by his wife Connie. She emailed me back about her husband’s connections to Grand Rapids and what she knew about Anna Kurkiewicz, Mike’s grandmother. At that point, I was already getting records translated from Poland so we worked on how there might be a connection and determined that Anna Kurkiewicz’s father Ignacy and my 2x great grandmother Paulina Kurkiewicz were siblings. So the connection between Mike and me was with the parents of Ignacy and Paulina -- Jozef Kurkiewicz & Ewa nee Wiśniewska. This made Michael my third cousin 1x removed. Shortly after that, Connie and I started working together building the family tree and getting translations. Help from Mike’s sisters has been very valuable. In February 2021, Connie and I started Polish class together. The class is online through the Brooklyn Public Library in New York. We are planning a trip to Poland next year. There are a few of us that plan to go but there is room for more if you want to go! Let me know and I will share what we are planning.