Introduction

 My name is Brian Paul Kaess. I currently live in Durango, Mexico, but I hail from the 'Windy City' of Chicago. My Paternal Grandmother Dorothea 'Doris' Dorschke (1922-1951) was from Upper Silesia, notably the Prussian Partition. Her birth name was Dorothea Drozdzok. She later changed her surname to Dorschke, before marrying Paul Ernst Kaess in 1944 in Ratibor (now Raciborz, Poland) during wartime. I have been researching my Polish ancestors since about 2014. 

   While visiting my Family in Europe in 1990, I was told by my Grandpa Paul that his 1st wife Doris was Polish. Some of the Dorschke Family members were displaced persons from the East after WWII and fled to West Germany. These folks started to clue me in on the family. My Cousins Tatianna Christmann Poesler and Melanie Dorschke were helpful in that regard  From this, I was able to locate the Nov 10, 1914 Marriage record of my Gr. Grandpa Viktor Drosdzok and Marie Kokot, which occurred in in Markowitz. I learned the towns my ancestors were from were Hohenbirken (Brzezie) and Adamowitz.

   In 2022, my 3rd Cousin Johanna helped me make further progress when she handed me a stack of documents related to Dorothea's Mom Marie Kokot (1897-1948). Then I started adding many further surnames on her side of the family and the tree began to grow! I added another town Lukow in Rybnik Kreis.