Ancestry hunters

For some time you have often heard from us “We’re on the set” or “Today we have shots” or “At the moment, we’re going to the set” and we couldn’t say anything more. A secret, you know how it works. As some episodes could be seen on TV, we can finally say laud how important for us this project was and still is – made for Canal + Discovery Ancestry hunters“.

Thanks to the cooperation with the film agency from Warsaw – Blueberry media, we have created an eight-part documentary series.

fot. Karolina Myszkiewicz

What is Ancestry Hunters about?

The program shows the history of people with polish roots who decided to discover their family secrets and get to know their ancestors. The title hunters, are the founders of Your Roots in Poland – Kinga and Karolina. And, as you can see in the series, all of our team worked hard on the each of the film’s stories.

Why did we decide to make this program? We must admit that our work is unpredictable and its effects – full of emotions.

Each episode has its different hero. Among them are both people living in Poland and abroad. Their stories hides various (often shocking) secrets and always are a new genealogical challenge.

fot. Karolina Myszkiewicz

In each case, together with the team, we try to learn as much as possible about the client’s past. The valuable tracks are documents, souvenirs, memories, letters, photos or newspapers. In this work, even one word can help solve a puzzle or find a lost family.

The title hunters do research in online and field archives – both in Poland and abroad. We meet local historians and ordinary people. We get to know the stories of people who have lost contact with their loved ones and are searching for an answer to the question of who they are.

Our goal – every time – apart from finding out as much as possible about the history of heroes – is to find a living relative. More than once, this goal is achieved and often leads to a touching meeting of people in whose veins the same blood flows.

We wanted to inspire others to discover their family history – to show that such research is a fascinating adventure.

fot. Karolina Myszkiewicz

Ancestry hunters - episodes

Episode 1

Agnieszka and Ania, native Cracovians, decide to discover the story of their family. They found out about their Jewish origin by accident. No one ever talked about their roots in the family home. The family of twins hides many secrets and unexplained threads. After collecting all the documents, Kinga and Karolina begin the search. The story makes a lot of problems from the very beginning. When girls get more information about their ancestors, comes a fear that it may bring unflattering information about the twins family.

Episode 2

Jeanie and her husband Tom live in Toledo, USA. They are retired, they have a happy family. For some time, they began to be interested in their past.
Jeanie has Polish roots, she knows family stories from grandma’s stories.

Her dream is to visit places associated with the Polish family, the home where her grandmother was born and raised, and the meeting of living relatives. She knows that it is actually impossible.

Kinga and Karolina, together with their team, will try to find out who they were and what their ancestors Jeanie, who immigrated to the USA at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, dealt with. During the search, the huners will encounter several obstacles that will make it difficult to discover the past of the family. Until Jeanie and Tom arrive in Poland, the genealogy of the family will not be fully discovered.

Their visit in Poland will be very emotional. Jeanie does not know what surprise girls has prepared for her.

Episode 3

Atypical task for hunters. David, who wants to surprise his dad Mietek and build his family tree, appealed to them.

Kinga, Karolina and their team only have three weeks to do it. In the case of genealogical searches, there is very little time. For this David gave very little information.

During the search they will come across a noble trail. However, finding the right coat of arms is not an easy task – after all, they have to search for documents from the 17th century. In this episode we will learn more about polish noble families. The girls will set out in Poland in search of living relatives. They will have to deal with old documents and bad weather. During the search they will encounter an obstacle that will change the entire search process.

Episode 4

Is reincarnation possible? With this mysterious question, David has reported to Kinga and Karolina. The history of his family search began a few months ago. David, out of curiosity, entered his first and last name on the website of the Archive of the Auschwitz Museum. And so he came across a person with the same name, surname and the same date of birth as he. Found David was of Jewish origin and died in Auschwitz. Hunters will try to investigate whether it is possible that both men were related. They will check whether Jewish blood flows in the living David. They will use DNA testing for this. During the search, they will come across a trail of a family abroad, about whose existence David had no idea.

Episode 5

Sara -British with passion for photography. Sara’s father was of Polish descent, he died many years ago. Two years ago, Sara found a cardboard box with pictures. She managed to discover that they were made by her Dad during his stay in Poland. The photos were taken during family gatherings, they are full of joy and unknown faces. Sara tried to identify people from the photos – in Toruń she organized the exhibition “Is It You?”. Unfortunately, without major effects. Hunters will try to help her find people from photos. They will show how photography helps in genealogy. For Sara, the most important puzzle is a small boy on a bicycle – a character repeated in several pictures. The hunters will try to find him and the search results will go beyond their wildest expectations.

Episode 6 - Katarzyna Pakosińska

In this episode, hunters will try to help discover the family history of an extraordinary personality – Katarzyna Pakosińska – actress and cabaret artist.

Katarzyna Pakosińska is a person who knows her story well. Among the loved ones for years, there are legends that she would like to verify. One of them is about the arrival of a family to Poland during the Battle of Grunwald. Searching in such old times is almost impossible, however, hunters will try to meet the challenge. During the study of the story, they will come across a trail that will lead them to a small town. There, they will search for traces of the Pakosiński family, about which Kasia did not know before.

Episode 7 - Sonia Bohosiewicz

The Bohosiewicz family comes from Armenia – in this episode we will try to find out more about them.