When, I was a child my maternal grandfather, my "Pop Pop", used to say that I was a Prince and that we were descendants from both Polish and Russian Aristocracies. He would never elaborate when I questioned him further. He would just say that  I was indeed a Prince and that he could prove it. I never persisted but always wondered why, if, I were a Prince of either of these two Royal Families, am I busting my hump as a teenager making minimum wage and not living on easy street. My Pop Pop said a lot of things. Like when his father came to the States it was aboard a "Polish Pickle Boat" that had "square portholes." (smile) His family was from Poland (So, he knew every Polish joke known to man) and told them with pride and reverence.

 

I also found out why the Polish people are stigmatized as being not smart or just plain stupid. He would tell me this story every time he told a Polish joke and I did not understand it as much when I was a child or in high school but I surely get it and understand it more each and every day. You see, in the 1930's with the vast illegal rearmament of Germany under way by the Nazi régime, there was really no Nation that was either willing or able to militarily challenge Nazi Germany to make them stop.  The Nazi machine got bigger and bigger and  their hunger for power greater and greater. Great Britain and France followed a policy of appeasement because they were not in a militarily viable position to oppose Hitler’s vast new army.

 

First, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland (which was illegal to do under the Treaty of Versailles) and the French and British Governments did nothing. Then Hitler annexed Austria in March of 1938 and the French and British governments still did nothing. Then Hitler demanded that he be given the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and the French and British governments this time quite literally gave it to him on a silver platter via the "Munich Agreement." By this time Hitler had the most advanced and sophisticated military that had ever walked the earth and with a secret nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union it made Poland ripe for the plunder. Now here’s where the Ironic part of the story comes into play. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain holding the Munich Agreement

                                      

 Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 with 2000 tanks and 1000 planes and the Polish People rather than submit surrender to this monster fought and fought bravely against Nazi Germany.  Literally throwing everything it had at the invading Nazi Army. There are even stories of Calvary Charges by the Pols against columns of Nazi Panzer tanks. Whatever the case maybe, Poland was severely outnumbered and fought with everything at its disposal and never, ever officially surrendered to the Nazi’s, but because they “The People of Poland” refused to capitulate and surrender to the enemy they are called stupid? If, this is the case that is to be made for why Polish people are stupid we need a lot more stupid people in the world, especially in this day in age..

 

That being said, it was after a party I had that I learned the truth behind this random story that my Pop Pop was telling. I had just come in from being outside getting some fresh air and found my friends in a semicircle sitting around my Pop Pop. He was telling them stories and went to tell them the story that I had recited to you above.  When he was finished, I said “Come on Pop Pop, you are not a Prince and I am not a Prince why do you keep continuing to tell this story?” He look up at me and said “You don’t believe me?” I said, “It’s not that Pop Pop but show me some proof” You see my grandfather was living with me and my family because he had Alzheimer's (Now, I know what you are thinking for I thought the same thing myself) but his particular Alzheimer's was unique. For his short-term memory was gone and so was about 30 some odd years but he thought of himself as his normal middle aged self in his forties and remembered everything down to the getting up in the morning to get a shower; because he still thought he was working at RCA Victor. So, when I asked him for some sort of proof to show me and my friends, I didn’t actually think he was going to be providing any that was for sure. But to my bewilderment and astonishment he said “In my papers in my safety deposit box, I have a deed to a castle.” He further went on to tell me and my friends that he would get this “Deed” out of the safety deposit box the next time he went to the bank.

 

Well, my friends all turned to look at me and my one friend in particular, Dagney said “He doesn’t still have a safety deposit box, does he?” I turned to her and gestured that we move from the living room to the kitchen and said “No, all his papers are here and I know just where they are come on” Within minutes we had located his treasured papers and started to go through them when to our astonishment we came across a large piece of aged parchment. You could immediately tell that this was the document that we had been searching for, we both were still breathing hard both from the haste to find the papers but also from the rush of adrenaline now coursing through our veins. As we opened the aged parchment, you could tell that it was not only a deed but also it was the "Real McCoy."  The words were written in Polish but there no mistaking their meaning. It was a dead alright, affixed with seals made of wax with a coats of arms, everything that you would expect a deed to a castle to look like and here it was in our very hands.

 

 Needless to say, my friends and I thought a bit differently about this tall tale now and it kind of put things in a new perspective for me but I don’t think I ever took it seriously. Not until, I started my work in genealogy did I find out not only was he right but I would find it from a place that I never thought to look. As for my Pop Pop and my Polish links to Royalty, they are yet to be discovered but I do hope that someday that I will get the chance to visit Poland and Russia to find out just how exactly my Pop Pop and his family fit into the equation but as for now let us look at both my Paternal and Maternal Grandmothers and see who they are directly related to….