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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Where was your family during WWII? [/quote]

The US.[/quote]

Can you give more background on when both sets of grandparents immigrated?

is it possible you were adopted?[/quote]

In the 30s, I think.  They went to Pittsburgh, where the neighborhoods were ethnically separated then, so they were living in communities of Czech and Polish people.

I really don't know.  No, I'm not adopted.  I have two siblings and we all look similar.  I have features from both parents.

[/quote]

OK. So here are some ideas.

You can probably find them in the 1940 Census.

Some men in the family might have draft cards for WWII.  Their birthplaces might be on those.

If they were not citizens or naturalized, they may have registered as "aliens" in the WWII time frame.  Lara Diamond's blog has an entry about this that's very recent.  You can search names for free and pay to order the full images of the forms from Nat'l Archives.

Social Security applications and marriage licenses for children sometimes give birthplaces.  Ancestry.com has some of that info.

Once you find their home villages, then you look for Jewish community records there.  There may even be censuses.  Possible online sources include FamilySearch, Ancestry, or MyHeritage.

If you know their Catholic parishes, there might possibly be records of when they first participated.  Things like baptisms and confirmations may be maintained records.  For that, you might need to contact the congregation or the diocese.

So then you work the gaps to see if you can figure out more about when they converted.

Knowing Pittsburgh (I grew up there), if they weren't in a Jewish neighborhood before WW2, it might have been a good idea to blend in a bit.  And a lot of community life there used to be highly organized around parishes. So if you wanted to hang out with people who shared your accent and approximate regional origin, it might have been fairly advisable to join the church to fit in.[/quote]

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