Can you help me find my gypsy heritage?

Question:

Can you help me find my gypsy heritage?

My grandmother whom I have never met was part gypsy and apparently practiced the culture.She has passed a way and there is no one who can give me any information.I know she was a czech gypsy.I know it may seem weird but spiritually I feel there is something more.As a child I grew up around native americans and was introduced to their culture.I also have native american ancestory as well.I am just looking for any information.Thanks:)

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Oh now you are going to have MUCH problems.

Many Gypsies, especially of your grandmother's generation and older, were not birthed in hospitals (I am speaking of those living in Europe). Many Gypsies are not recorded anywhere, especially from her generation and older. Actually, I have never heard of a Gypsy of her generation being accurately recorded in Gadje (non-Gypsy) records... at all.

Try to find her Vitsa. If you cannot find her Vitsa ("Clan" sort of) you, really, are out of luck. If you have her Rromani name (Czech "Gypsy" is probably Rromani) you might have luck if you find her Vitsa... they are the only ones who might have record of her and, if they do, it is oral because only recently has the Rromani language even been written down. Most Rromani could not read and write the tongue of the country in which they resided back then. If there are any of your relatives left alive who know of her, try to find her full name, familiya, and Vitsa.

If you have all of this, then you have the pleasure of finding her Vitsa, if they still exist, and being able to communicate with them, if they do. In Czechoslovakia you can pretty much guess that a good number of the Rromani (possibly "most") do not have internet, telephone, and possibly not electricity. Rromani are NOT liked in that nation and are highly oppressed... most do not have the luxuries afforded the Gadje there. If you reach them... do you speak their langauge or know someone who does?

I have that problem myself. My mother was full blooded and was not born in a hospital. I do not have her full name and my father is long deceased and HIS records are lost (not born in a hospital... half-blooded Rromani). So far they cannot be traced. My only chance is to find HIS Vitsa. This is a huge problem for any Rromani from Eastern Europe (my parents were from Romania).

Baxtalo! ("good luck")