Our Board
Jonathan Shea
President
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
Vice President
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.
Diane Bojniewicz Szepanski
Treasurer
Diane Bojniewicz Szepanski retired from Central Connecticut State University, Department of Communication, after many years of service. She has been a member of PGSCTNE since 1990, Treasurer and Conference/Events Coordinator since 2001.
Diane has been researching her Polish ancestors from the areas of Wąsosz (Łomźa), Poland; Czarnohubowo and Pukielewszczyzna in the former province of Minsk, now in Belarus and Radłow, Galicia.
Susan Grzyb
Secretary
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 Balon Kennedy
Board Member
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.
Henry Frohn
Board Member
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.
Linda Huck
Board Member
Linda Sakowicz Huck has been an active weekly volunteer working on indexing obituaries as well as participating at the Little Poland Festival and our conference. She retired from the New Britain School system as well as Sacred Heart Preschool.
Linda has been researching her Polish ancestors from the areas of Wilno and present-day Alytus, Lithuania along with the areas of Siekierki, Podlaskie, Leszcewski and Rudawki, Poland.
Kathie McKernan
Corresponding Secretary
Kathie McKernan is a retired banker and has been an active member and a weekly volunteer. She has worked many hours on scanning archival material and sorting information for indexing for the society. She is also active in the annual Little Poland festival in New Britain CT.
Kathie has researched her family history and found the birthplaces in Poland of her grandparents and great-grandparents.
Our Committees
Membership Director
Conference Chair
Diane Szepanski
Archivist
Jonathan Shea
Webmaster
Facebook Representative
Bernie Olender
Monthly Bulletin Editor
Assistant Editor
Donna Krise
