Polish Ancestry Research Articles

Eva Underground (review)

Reviewed by: Eva Underground Loretta Gaffney Mackall, Dandi Daley Eva Underground. Harcourt, 2006 [256p] ISBN 0-15-205462-6$17.00 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-12 It is 1978, and seventeen-year-old Eva Lott is upset about moving from Chicago to Communist Poland. However, her professor father has been encouraged by his faith and a line of Polish ancestry to join the anti-Communist resistance, and he teaches a group of young writers and activists who are part of an underground free-press movement. Eva is initially appalled by the lack of amenities in the mountain village of Zakopane—a piece of bread coated in lard is considered a luxury—and she attempts to sneak away and fly home. Soon, though, she realizes that Poland has gotten into her blood—helped by the hunky good looks of Tomek, one of her father's students; she pledges to help the cause, only to be accused of betrayal after Tomek is arrested and beaten by soldiers. What is essentially a fairly unsurprising, solid depiction of a young adult dealing with her mother's death and her own first love is given fresh life through the unexpected and unusual setting of Poland under Communism—and yes, Karol Wojtyla (future Pope John Paul II) has a role to play in the story. More historical context would have been welcome—it's never explained how the free-press movement relates to Catholicism—and Eva's father's role in the movement (especially since he doesn't speak Polish) is contrived. Nevertheless, budding activists and historians and romance fans intrigued by the edgier setting may find a revolutionary flavor here. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

A Note on Appropriate Use of Statistical Tests of Mutation Rates from Ordered Groups

Recently it was found that the frequency of familial dysautonomia (FD) carriers in Ashkenazi Jews (AJ) was higher in AJ of Polish descent compared to AJ of non-Polish descent. The study population was classified into groups ranging from no to full Polish origin. The statistical procedure used to compare the frequencies of FD carriers did not incorporate this intrinsic ordering of individuals by degree of Polish ancestry. In this paper we describe a test designed to utilize this information and show that it is more powerful than the standard test of equality of proportions. In particular, the p value of the trend test on their data is noticeably lower (0.003) than 0.012 found by the standard test, providing stronger evidence for a relationship between allele frequency and Polish descent.

Ethnicities and social adjustment in Canadian adolescents

Canada is a complex plural society made of groups with multiple ethnic and linguistic origins. It is uncertain whether government support for multiculturalism is reflected in retention of ethnic identities in the majority of the population in the face of both acculturative social forces and publicly expressed political arguments against multiculturalism. The degree to which ethnic identity or identities are retained in young people is explored through secondary analysis of data gathered on some 2,100 Alberta adolescents, with analysis of various kinds of social adjustment that may be linked to expressed ethnic origins or ancestries. Nearly half of the adolescents retained a single ethnic allegiance, with the remainder expressing multiple ethnic identities. Many non-random patterns were found in terms of association of declared ethnic allegiance and variables such as home language; religious affiliation and observance; scholastic achievement; sexual behaviour; alcohol and drug use; family structure; and parental education family discord, and selfesteem. Three groups (South Asian, Chinese, and Spanish and Portuguese) emerged as having strong family systems, conservative social habits and high achievement aspirations. Correlation of variables across ethnic groupings indicated a coherent pattern, with students of German, Polish, and Italian ancestry forming a group; Dutch and Ukrainian-ancestry students another; French, Scots, and Irish-ancestry a further group; and Scandinavian and English-ancestry students another group. The results are promising enough for us to propose that further research on comlex ethnic identities and social behaviours in youth should be undertaken.

Polish Ancestry and Multiethnic Identity: A Case Study of Students in Wisconsin and Illinois

Polish Ancestry and Multiethnic Identity: A Case Study of Students in Wisconsin and Illinois

Are They Fellow Countrymen or Not? The Migration of Ethnic Poles from Kazakhstan to Poland

"This article presents the process of migration of Kazakhs of Polish ancestry from Kazakhstan to Poland which has been taking place since the early 1990s. Poles deported in the past to Kazakhstan were mostly inhabitants of territories which did not belong to Poland; neither were they citizens of Poland. Therefore, the process of adaptation and integration was rather painful. The article points to factors that may simplify and those that may impede integration. The other problem...concerns the piecemeal policy towards Kazakhstan Poles, adopted by the Polish government, which seems risky if not dangerous. The author explains why it may cause a huge wave of illegal immigration to Poland."

Neonatal screening for sickle cell disease in a metropolitan university hospital: efficacy and problems.

To determine the effectiveness of a screening programme to identify infants with sickle cell anaemia. A metropolitan university hospital. 4845 (73.3%) newborn cord blood samples from 6271 infants born in the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital over a two year period were tested for the presence of haemoglobinopathies. The patient group comprised approximately 44% white Americans and 51% African Americans. Diagnoses of haemoglobinopathies were established by cellulose acetate (pH 8.6) and citrate agar (pH 6.2) electrophoresis, and thin layer isoelectric focusing. 17 African American infants were suspected of having sickle cell anaemia and their families were notified and called for retesting to confirm the diagnosis. Fourteen of these families responded; retesting confirmed the diagnosis of sickle cell anaemia in 12 (86%), and the remaining two (14%) had sickle cell trait. The other three families never responded and all efforts to reach them were unsuccessful so the diagnosis could not be confirmed. The infants for whom the diagnosis of sickle cell anaemia was confirmed were treated prophylactically with penicillin and enrolled in sickle cell programmes. Of 398 infants with an abnormal haemoglobin (Hb), 170 (3.5% of all infants tested) showed sickle trait, 63 (1.3%) showed Hb C trait, and 165 samples (3.4%) showed Hb Bart's. Letters of notification were sent to those families whose infants had sickle trait or Hb C trait. Thirty three (16%) families responded and asked for additional information, counselling, or testing of other family members. Three of these families (about 0.1% of all white subjects tested) were white subjects of Italian, English, and Polish ancestry, and all of their infants had sickle trait. Additional testing on other family members showed that one black parent had Hb SC disease that had not previously been diagnosed as the subject was asymptomatic. A screening programme for newborns in a metropolitan hospital (a) was effective in identifying and treating infants with sickle cell anaemia with prophylactic penicillin, (b) was associated with difficulties in tracking infants and their families in about 30% of suspected cases of sickle cell disease, (c) found that sickle trait is not uncommon in white subjects, and (d) found that "silent" sickle cell disorders to occur among American black subjects.

Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky, 25 January 1900 - 18 December 1975

Professor TH. Dobzhansky was the most distinguished geneticist in the U.S.A. and one of the most distinguished in the world. He was well fitted to hold an outstanding position in America for, educated in Europe and being an exceptionally travelled man, he had an international outlook, while his ability to read a number of languages enabled him to keep abreast of the literature of his subject published outside North America. He had, moreover, an attribute of value in general intercourse; he was a man of wide culture and artistic perception, especially of painting and music. Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky, originally Dobrzhansky but ‘Doby’ to many of his friends, was born in the little town of Nemirov in the Ukraine. He was an only child and his father, Grigory Dobrzhansky, who taught mathematics, was of Polish ancestry. His mother is generally said to have been Russian; but her name, Sophia Voinarsky, suggests that her family also had a Polish origin, no doubt more remotely than that of her husband’s

The birthplaces of parents and grandparents of a series of patients with phenylketonuria in in south-east England.

SummaryA comparison has been made of the birthplaces of the parents and grandparents of a series of patients with phenylketonuria with those of the parents and grandparents of three control series of patients with Hirschsprung's disease, congenital dislocation of the hip and coeliac disease. The index patients in each series have been restricted to those referred to The Hospital for Sick Children from homes in south‐east Englànd.It was found that a high proportion of the parents and grandparents of the phenylketonuric patients were born in Ireland or west Scotland. The frequencies, relative to the control patients, of phenylketonurias with grandparents born in Ireland or west Scotland, suggest that the frequency of the gene for phenylketonuria is about four times as high in the population of these parts of the British Isles as in the population of south‐east England.It is also noteworthy that several phenylketonuria patients had Lithuanian or Polish ancestry, and one patient was of gypsy descent on both sides of the family.We wish to thank Prof. A. A. Moncrieff, Dr J. A. Fraser Roberts and Dr A. C. Stevenson for their encouragement during the investigation and their criticism of this paper, also Dr M. Fraccaro and Dr J. Stern for their help with the references, and Prof. H. Utena for his information about Japan. One of us is indebted to the Research Committee of The Hospital for Sick Children for financial support in the early part of this investigation.

Taste thresholds for phenylthiourea among Ashkenazic Jews.

Taste thresholds for phenylthiourea were measured for 244 Ashkenazic Jews. The frequency of nontasters was 27.86 percent. In the sample, 102 individuals were of pure Polish ancestry, and the frequency of nontasters among these was significantly different from the frequencies of nontasters among Europeans and Mongoloids.

REPORT OF A CASE OF NONPARASITIC CHYLURIA WITH CYSTOSCOPIC FINDINGS

Although a number of cases of nonparasitic chyluria have been reported within the last year or two, nearly all from European sources, it is still a condition rarely encountered, particularly in this country, and cystoscopic findings have been recorded in only a few instances. REPORT OF CASE History. —A woman, aged 23, single, born in Chicago of Polish ancestry, who had never resided elsewhere and whose family history was negative, noticed that, beginning at the age of 9, the urine had been of a milky color and consistency. This condition had been continuous except for a period of two weeks, about three years ago, during which time the urine was normal in appearance. When the milky urine first appeared, its onset was spontaneous and was not preceded by trauma, infection, or disturbance of any sort. Despite the peculiar appearance of the urine, the condition was practically symptomless. The patient had