Here and at my sister blog I have decided to review books related to genealogy, history, and my ancestors. A couple months ago at my sister blog I reviewed a book on Ancestral Medicine. Today I would like to share a review of a book that is unlike any other genealogy book I have read. It has changed the way I looked at my Roma ancestors, my research, what I thought I understood about the Roma people, and how I refer to these branches of my tree. That DNA can tie my ancestors to a specific place in Northwestern India changes the way I look at the story of my ancestors. I am reviewing Gypsy Genealogy: Through Their Traditions by the late Paul Polansky. I will not tell you everything, as I believe everyone who has ever had an interest in Roma genealogy, believes they have Roma ancestry, or is just curious about their history should read this book.
Mr. Polansky was an American genealogist who, by researching his family history, found over 40,000 records in the Czech archives detailing the extermination of Roma during the Nazi occupation. Mr. Polansky eventually became an activist for the Roma of Eastern Europe and worked for the U.N.. and in 2004 won the Weimar Human Rights Award. He wrote many books, produced documentaries, and wrote poetry about the Roma.
Mr. Polansky did not intend to offend with the title of his book using the word “gypsy.” He stated that there were so many clans calling themselves different things, that “gypsy” was the best way he could put the Roma of Europe and Eurasia all under one umbrella. This book is a collection of his interviews, research, and experience in this field with an anthropological slant. What this book is not – it is not a book about the Travellers of the British Isles, simly because they are NOT Roma. As I have tried to get a grasp on Roma genealogy the past few years, I have come across numerous websites and forums lumping the Travellers with the Roma. Let me repeat – Travellers and Roma share no DNA and they do not intermarry.
This book concentrates on the peoples of mainland Europe, and South Asia whose DNA ties them to the untouchable castes of the Rajasthan region in India, and are now scattered all over the world. While his UN work involved Eastern European Roma, he conducted interviews with Roma in other parts of Europe, including Southern Italy, where mine lived. This little book includes over 4 decades of his experience, research, and his life with the Roma.
Through reading this book I have learned more about Indian castes than I ever knew and discovered that Roma today practice the same professions their untouchable ancestors performed while in India centuries ago. Because they were thought unclean, they performed the unclean jobs. I think of my trash collecting ancestor who used his two wheeled cart to haul trash to the dump and his family who eventually went on to make carts for a wealthy businessman. One subcaste were wedding musicians in India and are still such today. I have not found any of those in my tree.
But I did find the blacksmiths, which were another untouchable subcaste. Every Roma who is a blacksmith that he has interviewed in different parts of Europe, including where mine lived in Southern Italy, has the same story, according to Mr. Polansky, that all blacksmiths in the world descended from 9 brothers. He discovered this story existed in Rajasthan and was actually in the Hindu texts the Vedas. Mr. Polansky details the traditions common among all Roma clans in Europe.
While I am not intended to give it all away, I knew a little bit. A surname sometimes is given to a Roma clan that was the last place they came from. So I think of the Napolitano in my tree that lived in Nola, and the last place they likely came from then was Napoli.
There was something major I was mistaken about. I thought all Roma were nomadic. Not so. Read the book to find out why. Again, this misconception may come from the notion that the Travellers of the British Isles are Roma, and again, they are not. (I don’t pretend to know anything about Travellers.)
I have learned so much from this publication and Mr. Polansky had more to share with us. It is unfortunate he passed away before he could publish more books on the subject as it was one of his desires. He theorized Roma clans were not all pushed out of India at the same time, and left earlier than people think, maybe as early as the time of Alexander the Great.
Coincidentally, Mr. Polansky menioned them being in the Turkish census in the 1400s. How about that?
If you have Roma ancestry, suspect you have Roma ancestry, or are interested in history, as I believe most genealogists are, read this book!
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Cinziarosa's Descendants (c) 