My grandfather was always a puzzle to me......aloof.....stoic.....not an easy man.
He came to the United States around 1916 in the great immigration wave from Eastern Europe and shorty after arriving married my grandmother who was, supposedly, some distant cousin.
My grandparents never liked to talk about the "old country" a lot......and this was especially true of my grandfather. I didn't know if he had any brothers or sisters in this country. I wasn't sure what town he came from....I never heard any childhood stories about him or from him.
My grandfather received letters from Poland from his family and relatives....but my grandmother and my mother paid me 50 cents to intercept them....to beat my grandfather to the mailbox and secret them away. They always told me his relatives wanted money from him so they "screened" his mail. They said he received all of his screened mail after they read it. The answer seemed plausible when I was kid and two quarters could buy candy or a Good Humor Ice Cream bar from the truck so I wasn't going to complain about my little job.
Once or twice I caught my grandmother burning letters in a steel bowl in the backyard....but she told me she was burning her letters from her family....although in retrospect..... it was probably my grandfather's "screened" letters that were turned to ashes.
When my parents died...and I went through their papers and house, I expected to find something about my grandparents...and I actually hoped I would find something about my mysterious grandfather. But the steel box that kept my parents' important papers contained nothing about my grandparents or my grandfather. The only other boxes that contained papers...... were my mother's "tax boxes." I thought of throwing the tax boxes away but decided to bring them back home with me and go through them in case there was something I might need to settle their taxes or estate.
My mother was compulsive about keeping her receipts organized in the tax box.
Each box has a year scrawled on it....and each box contains every cancelled check my mother wrote for the year, every utility and phone bill, every bill.....and once charge cards became popular....my mother would staple every receipt to match the charges onto the bill...and then fold the bill in half and staple again...sort of like a little paper dumpling with bills inside.
If there was ever a question on a bill or she wanted to check something like a credit card receipt from 4 years ago....all she had to do was pull out the appropriate tax box and viola the original receipt and the charge statement would all be there.
I will not even discuss what I do in contrast....except to say it's more like "ha ha good luck" or something akin to the lottery.
Despite this uber organization......my mother and sometimes my father..... would throw something very personal in a tax box.....sometimes unrelated to the year of the box and the event.
For example, I looked through a 1995 box and discovered amid all the perfect stacks of rubber banded receipts....a lone 5x7 white envelope....I looked inside and there was my parent's wedding invitation...an invitation I have never seen.
Because of these odd strange personal items in the boxes.....I decided not to toss the tax year boxes away......and carted about 35 boxes home.....35 tax years. I've been trying to tackle one a week....just going through them.....placing some paper in recycling and the rest through the shredder.
Yesterday.....I opened a box from the 70's and right up on top was a very yellowed piece of paper. I held my breath.....it was in Polish......and had official stamps on it.
My grandfather's birth certificate. HOLY SHIT.
Finally....finally I was going to find out where he is from and at the very least who were his parents. I carefully ....oh so carefully opened....the fragile thin paper and then looked back into the box...something was missing.....a quarter of the paper.
I carefully laid the delicate paper out on my kitchen counter and realized someone had cut....a nice clean straight edge across the certificate....and removed my grandfather's father name and where he came from.
The upper corner lists my grandfather's province, municipality and parish (all government business in the 1800's was anchored by which parish served a community).
It appears his mother's name was listed....which may be Anita? The year he was born is clearly listed......but for some reason.....his father's name was removed.
My first cousin told me...... her parents, (my aunt and uncle) actually visited Poland and visited my grandfather's town. But they wouldn't talk about it, took no pictures and gave no records to her.
She told me....my grandfather was Jewish....or probably was Jewish....but it remains a mystery....he certainly married into a Catholic family.....and he avoided church like the plague.... but men from the old country especially..,,, older men...often didn't attend church....since religion was considered "women's business."
Last night I was thrilled....and spent a couple hours trying decipher the letters then put the words into an online translator.
Today....I am scratching my head....why did my mom want to hide this info? Why was my great grandfather's name such a secret?.....even if the man was a notorious horse thief or bank robber....looking at a birth certificate and seeing the name John Bar....k....isn't going to tell you much about his old country history when you're standing in America.
And if this was really such a big secret....why cut out a portion of the birth certificate ? Why not just throw it away?
With the municipality, parish, and local government listed on the document.... there is a reasonable chance I can get another copy or trace it.....I may not...but the three things you need to do a search of Polish records is the governmental logistics..... which is in the corner of the document.
What an interesting and strange little mystery this is......who was my great grandfather....who were my grandfather's relatives?.....and why would you want to cover the information up?
Guess I better get onto to one of those family ancestry websites......and find a Polish translator. This might be fun and interesting.........
I found at least 5 bottles of Bombay Sapphire Gin in my parents house.
This weekend.....I broke down and cried. 
Despite this uber organization......my mother and sometimes my father..... would throw something very personal in a tax box.....sometimes unrelated to the year of the box and the event. 
