Grażyna Rychlik
Genealogist based in Poland
I am a professional genealogy researcher with 20+ years of experience in research. I specialize in genealogy from the territory of Poland (historic and present time borders) with focus on genealogies of the immigrants from Poland to the U.S. and Canada.
Since 2009 I have been a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. You can visit my profile on the site of the association.
To check the list of services in genealogical research I offer check the page Services on this site. To read some Testimonials about me and my work scroll down this page.
To give you some idea about my work and experience I copied some of my answers to the questions the APG asked me in a series entitled “I am APG” which featured my professional genealogist profile in the APG Quarterly from September 2024:
I research complex family trees and answer research questions that include confirming oral histories or a relationship between two individuals or DNA matches. Occasionally I search for heirs or retrieve documents for legal purposes.
Sometimes I am asked to confirm where a client’s ancestral village is located so travelers planning to visit their ancestral area while on holiday in Poland know where to go. I love researching difficult research questions, analyzing the evidence, and writing up what has been found. This is, in other words, the detective part of the job.
I provide detailed research report in a separate document on the research I have completed. I don’t send multiple emails with lots of single pieces of information and attachments without names related to their content.
Part of building my experience and expertise is researching my own ancestors which I have been doing for many years. As a result, I have already published two books of genealogies of my ancestors and have written a number of articles tackling various problems and outcomes of my research. So this was my reply when I was asked by APG about my biggest or most surprising discovery about an ancestor or ancestors:
I have had several such discoveries. One big discovery was that my great-grandmother Antonina Skwarek, who had a colonial store in Zawiercie, and whose family was always associated with Zawiercie, was born 125 miles north of Zawiercie in the small village of Bielsk located twelve miles north of the larger and better known town of Płock. This discovery placed two female lines of my father’s and my mother’s ancestors respectively in relative proximity.
Another big discovery was locating, by chance, a notarized copy of my fifth great-grandmother’s 1801 will. In Poland at this relatively early period, this kind of document is rare. A more recent discovery was locating the camp where my grandfather’s brother was taken after he was caught in a street roundup in Radom under German occupation of Poland during World War II; he likely died in the camp. It was KL Neuengamme in Hamburg, Germany. This discovery was possible thanks to records in the Arolsen Archives.
However, the most fascinating discovery was that French-born Gabriel Antoni de Verny (a chamberlain of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski) spent the last years of his life in a village next to where my ancestors lived, and one of my relatives married his granddaughter. It was amazing to learn that people of such high standing were next door to my ancestors and relatives at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries and that I can find them in records next to the records of my family.
TESTIMONIALS
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I am very impressed with your work and what you were able to find. I am really looking forward to visiting the suggested areas […]. I have found your report very professional and thorough and will add the additional information to my Ancestry tree. I am very excited to visit Poland and learn more about my Polish heritage.
Thank you so much.
[2025]
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Really enjoyed working with you again. Your very quick response was well written, easy to follow, made total sense. It’s amazing that after all these years, your work in 2009 has stood the test of time as being rock solid for accuracy and completeness.
[2025]
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It’s sometime since we have been in touch. I have my Polish passport now. I think I told you. This was a great achievement and a result of your excellent initial work.
[2025]
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We were surprised (in a positive way) that you found so much on the […] side of the family. That is beyond amazing! We’re so delighted!
[2025]
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—– Original Message —–
From: Client
To: Grazyna Rychlik
Subject: RE: Family Research
Date: Wed, 13 May 2015 08:22:50 -0500
Grazyna,
You have done an outstanding job in fulfilling my original specification for determining which Dabrowka my family came from. Your research report is excellent with an unbiased view of your findings.
You then surprised me with lots of additional information about previous generations and some facts about who they were.
Even though you did not actually find the birth record for Wincenty, I am convinced that you have found my ancestral home. There are just too many facts that you uncovered that are coincident with what I had been able to find out about Wincenty and his family.
I am really pleased and will now be ready to plan that trip to Poland.
A job well done.
Thank you,
Matt
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—– Original Message —–
From: Client
To: Grazyna Rychlik
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 1:16 PM
Subject: Re: Just checking.
Hey Grazyna,
Yes, I did receive your report, and the updated one that you sent as well. Thank you very much. Your report is excellent! I have forwarded the corrected report and the records to my client. I will write again shortly about the next steps.
With Regards,
Glen
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—– Original Message —–
From: Client
To: Grazyna Rychlik
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 12:40 AM
Subject: Research Report
Dear Grazyna,
I am writing to let you know that I have now heard back from all the family members with whom I shared the information in your final report. The responses were very enthusiastic, and everyone was very surprised with the amount of data you were able to discover about the three families. Thanks again so much!
Best regards,
Katherine
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—– Original Message —–
From: Frank
To: GSP Grazyna Rychlik
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 2:34 AM
Subject: Re: Request for recommendation.
Hello Grazyna,
I couldn’t be more pleased with your work since we started the first of two phases of research last summer. The two reports submitted thus far have been on-time, the material was thoroughly researched with plenty of documented facts, images and relevant proxy evidence, the findings have been clearly articulated, and the result of all your effort has been to add an enormous amount of new information to our family history going back to the 18th century. For the amateur genealogist like me, who was stuck at a certain point in time, putting you on our team was the best decision ever as you have added another generation to our family tree and added color and depth to our understanding of the conditions that led to the my grandfathers emigration from Poland. Above all that, I am most pleased to say how much I’ve enjoyed your cheerful and caring approach to your work, and I have great admiration for the way you have stuck to the facts and the truth to explain our roots. On behalf of all in our family who have seen and were amazed by your output, let me say that we are grateful for all that you’ve done for us.
Best regards,
Frank
Brentwood, TN [U.S.]
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—– Original Message —–
From: Stan and Wendy
To: Grazyna Rychlik
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 3:44 PM
Subject: Testimonial
Hi Grazyna,
Just to let the world know that my Piekarski Family was found, thanks to you and your dedication, it is hard to believe you started the search with my fathers name, Adam Piekarski (deceased1972) and very little other info, after myself reaching the ripe age of 59 and believing all the PIEKARSKI family were killed during the war, one notary from the uk, and off you went, churches, archives, military, red cross, village elders, cemeteries, phone books, hours spent going through records, miles travelled, from village to village, letters sent, looking for anything linked to the Piekarski family, then i got the email saying Piekarski Family Found, god did i cry. anyway after three trips to Poland under your supervision and company we would not have had it any other way, you are now part of the Piekarski house hold, and will always hold a place in our hearts, so keep your mobile switched on as i might need a translation in a hurry ! I have read books on Poland but you most certainly cannot beat being there with a girl who puts her heart and sole into our welfare and enjoyment, the miles we travelled in your car, the things we learned, the sites we saw, all we can say is thanks so much, from all the Piekarski family including my new family in Brochow, and Warsaw.
WITH OUR KINDEST REGARDS STAN & WENDY [U.K.]
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—– Original Message —–
To: gsp@guidingpoland.pl ; fikus2s@poczta.onet.pl
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 8:21 PM
Subject: Report Arrived Here Quickly!!!
Hi Grazyna! I hope that this finds you well and very rested from your holiday!!!
I am thrilled to tell you that the big Report arrived to me here very quickly—it was here by Monday, August 13!!! Can you believe it! and I had been saying to John frequently, ” I hope the report from Grazyna comes soon! I can’t wait to see it!” and then it did come even sooner than we expected!
Since I knew that you were on holiday, I waited to read it over several times before I emailed you! John and I were so impressed with how beautifully you organized the information, Grazyna!!! I told John that when I look through it again and again, sometimes it seems like it can’t be real that you have found so much about my family, and these tiny villages, too! We were so thrilled to see all of the photos that you sent! You did such a great job of getting to so many villages in just one day! Our one comment right away as we looked at the photos was that the villages look even smaller and more rural that we had even imagined!!! with the exception of Rypin, which looks huge (HaHa!) in comparison. both of us loved the church photos! I felt like I was already there when I saw those! And that shrine on the road was so interesting looking to us! what a great idea you had to take the signs showing the names of the villages—that made me also feel like I was there already! I love maps so the maps you included were so great for me! I look at them over and over! And having the route also was so helpful and will be really soon when we are there in only 4 weeks now!
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warm wishes from Iowa and Wisconsin in the US!
Sue
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—– Original Message —–
To: fikus2s@poczta.onet.pl
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 6:35 PM
Hi Grazyna,
Your package arrived at my son’s house yesterday. You did an excellent job with the research and the presentation of the results. I read through it and am going to do so again more thoroughly – it is so exciting to have names, etc. of relatives and to actually see the area where my grandmother was born. It is so much more than I ever expected to have. I am thinking that what you have found will be enough for me as far as my grandmother’s history is concerned. I would be interested in learning more about my mother’s parents but I have so little information to go on-no towns of birth.
What would you need to know – I can let you know exactly what information I have.
Thanks again for doing such a great job.
Genevieve
Genealogy Research in Poland 