History and geography are inextricably linked, so genealogical research requires an ability to accurately identify and locate places mentioned in historical documents.  It is also important to understand the administrative hierarchy for the government of a place, since different types of records were created at different levels of government.  Julie will help us unravel this so we can understand our Polish family roots. 

 

Julie Roberts Szczepankiewicz is a genealogist, writer, and speaker with nearly 30 years of experience in researching her family's origins in Poland, Germany, the U.S. and Canada. She holds a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the State University of New York in Buffalo and a master's degree in endocrinology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her passion for genealogical research started when she was a graduate student, after she was given a copy of her great-grandparents' marriage record as a gift. After reading the names of a previously-unknown generation of ancestors on that document, she was hooked. She currently volunteers as administrator to several genealogy-related Facebook groups, and serves as President of the Polish Genealogical Society of New York State, Vice-President for the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium, Inc., and Secretary for the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts. Her articles have been published in the journals of the Polish Genealogical Society of America, the Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts, and the Western New York Genealogical Society, and she is the author of a genealogy blog, From Shepherds and Shoemakers.