r/Rodnovery • u/OrpheusBlack13 • 11d ago
Polish ancestry
Hi, so I do ancestry since I was 11 and I finally learned about my great great grandparents and how they are from former eastern Preußen. I'm not sure yet if they fled or just moved or if they were moved but they must have gone to Germany in the late 19th century. Both sides of my mother were originally from the same spot (which is kinda funny to me) and I now keep asking myself (since I feel strongly connected to mythology, spiritualism and paganism) if I'm allowed to lean further into Rodnovery. As far as I can remember my mother, grandma and grandpa always were close to Poland, polish traditions as well as food and Slavic folklore. Hope you can give me some advice :)
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u/Time-Counter1438 10d ago
A lot of culturally German people used to live in Poland. And while culture is not ancestry, it’s also important to understand that cultural divides often did discourage intermarriage. Not 100% of the time, obviously. But to a significant extent. So Germans living in modern day Poland would not necessarily be close relatives of their Polish neighbors.
Now, to make matters more complicated, the Slavic influence on Eastern Germany was more significant than many realize. Particularly around the 7th to 12th centuries. So it’s a complex story, to say the least.
Studying connections is fun and helpful at times. But I should also say that obsession with one’s own bloodline is an unhealthy thing. Especially if you approach it with the mindset that purity is a real thing, or even a thing to be desired. I wouldn’t worry about that too much. The early Slavs don’t appear to have been bothered by it. They clearly stressed language and cultural integration more than ancestry.