Our Board

Jonathan Shea, a native of New Britain, Connecticut, is the founding president of PGSCTNE and is a professor of foreign languages in the Connecticut State University System. He is the author of Going Home: A Guide to Polish-American Family History Research and has co-authored a series of language guides with William F. Hoffman on translating documents of genealogical value from Polish, Russian, Latin and German. His family roots lie in the parishes of Przytuły, Poryte and Stawiski north of Łomża and Dąbrowa Białostocka as well as Counties Mayo (Meigh Eo) and Offaly (Uibh Fhaili) in Ireland.

Matthew Bielawa is the Assistant Registrar at Central Connecticut State University and creator of the halgal.com website dedicated to research in Galicia.

His maternal roots are from Usznia and Czeremosznia in the County of Złoczew, now in Ukraine. His paternal roots are from various locations in Prussian Poland.

Susan Grzyb has been a member of PGSCTNE since 2010 and is an active volunteer working on proofreading and obituary indexing. With ancestral roots in Galicia, she has conducted genealogy research close to home as well as in Polish archives in Przemyśl and Sanok.

Joanne Bałon Kennedy has been a member since 1988 and has served as Membership Director since 1989. She was recently elected to the Board of Directors.

She has been involved in family
research since the mid-1970s, enjoys helping others and sharing information. Joanne’s paternal ancestors are from the Masovian and Galicia regions of Poland.

Constance Malodziejko Ochnio is a retired office administrator for the Connecticut State Council of Machinists and a founding member of PGSCTNE where she served as Treasurer and Membership Chairperson for many years until relocating to Sebring, Florida. The origin of her family is in the parishes of Przytuły, Poryte and Stawiski north of Łomża and Dąbrowa Białostocka. She also researches her husband’s family whose origins lie in Siedlanów.

Henry is a longtime member of our society and has done extensive indexing and data entry for many of our archival collections, most notably for our obituary collection. He has been researching his own roots and those of his wife Joan (the Wasilewskis from Skierniewicze) for several decades.