POLAND GENEALOGY : EVER BETTER RESOURCES #2

Those of you doing Polish / Poland genealogy research feel you're facing obstacles unknown in research for other parts of Europe. Political upheavels and war, the disappearance of a country called Poland for about 170 years, changes in borders between Poland and Russia, the creation of Galicia as part of the Austrian Empire, border changes with Slovakia, the partition called Prussia, changes of names of villages by spelling or languages, and changes in Diocese, can be confusing.

Don't despair! Remind yourself Poland fits in the state of Colorado and the population wasn't what it is today. You may hit into obstacles but you may be rewarded.

There is lots of information so easily and quickly available compared to the days when traveling to Poland or writing to archives was the only way to research.

While location of records has been confusing, you can find detailed information at AGAD (Run by the Central Archives of Historical Records) which is online, based in Warsaw. It includes information about Poland/ Ukraine. It can link you elsewhere.

Additionally, while multiple archives and resources hold originals, some were microfilmed, and some were scanned, digitalized, and some were uploaded to be searched on line, image by image.

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS, be patient.

First, be aware that sites accessed from the US in Poland may raise an alert on your phone or computer because they're not "secure" with an https. (I ignore the warning. I also clear my cookies, history, etc. frequently.) Or simply because Poland is not considered to be a country reliable for security and I've even found the whole country to be blocked on public computers!

Look in the PRADZIAD database. This is a regional archive locator. If you seek information more quickly after exhausting what is readily available on line, you can still do the time honored contact with an archive.

NAC is slowly replacing this site and I love it. I've found the best way to pull up the collection you may be seeking in it is to search by location - TOWN / settlement name. Yes, you will browse image by image because it's not indexed but hey I too prefer rolling microfilm. You can get to a date fairly quickly. I've used NAC extensively to take me to image collections when I know the TOWN/ settlement name. But you will face the fact that collections are missing years, especially the World War I era. Also Poland privacy laws are stricter than America but that doesn't account for year gaps.

Google translates Polish into English so titles of collection are easy.

You can also search a terrific database that is volunteer driven called GENETEKA hosted by the Polish Genealogy Society (of and in Poland) which is perhaps the best but not the only indexing project in Poland. It is being added to every week - I know this from trying it - you can volunteer to index or donate. Though I'm not big on posting to ask for information through sharing, you can - in Polish. I suggest you do this only when you've done everything possible and have hit into the brick wall and think only other people will have the documents you need or you want to network. Other aspects of the site can be turned to English or German.

Though far from complete, it is worth trying first and then going to the previously mentioned site(s) if they don't yet have what you want on line.

You can run surname searches in GENETEKA and some family groups emerge. However, I think marriages are also quite important. This is because you can get the ages, who is widowed, and the names of parents and grandparents on the marriage. For instance, Marianna, the widow of Jan Borek, the daughter of Walenty Sliwa and Marianna Baran, age 29, marrying the widower Wincenty Jacobowicz, age 51, tells you to expect a blended family, gives you a birth year, and allows you to confirm a birth date via parents.

You begin to imagine the world as it was not so long ago. Babies and children dying before adulthood pre vaccinations and antibiotics. Women giving birth at home with a family member or midwife there, not a hospital and a C-section. That women died and left children orphaned. That people remarried and family became blended due to death rather than divorce. Not many really old people. And, I know there were love stories and affairs but 19th century and past was a time when people were pragmatic about marriage and were matchmade - of all religions though rarely between Jews and Christians or Protestants and Catholics but up to 20 percent of Roman and Greek Catholic.

Sometimes families or a village all had a say and determined who would marry who because of who owned land which they wanted to keep in the family. A couple of old people might marry having experienced the loss of a few spouces. As a result of being cousins by blood or marriage with much of the village there could be a bit more of "it takes a village to raise a child" mentality. Yet, I also see that there are people who waited into their thirties to marry suggesting resistance, a wait to inherit a farm, or some other issue. (More on marriage records later!) Also, sad to say, the abandoned died of starvation.

Villages a few miles apart meant a potential groom could walk or ride a horse to go see a potential bride. After you read the records for an ancestral village you'll begin to see that you're probably genetically related to everyone there and begin to wonder how alike people looked and you'll wonder if this reinforced certain characteristics of physical and mental health. Undoubtedly!

Currently the database has very little marriage or death records indexed or linked. So what I've done because the marriage isn't indexed and scanned is find the marriage at another resource.

If they've indexed it at GENETEKA, you will go directly to the image scan of the page and can go forwards or backwards from there. So without leaving the site you can read an entire book of birth records by town. Otherwise it will take you to images to browse the collection at the archive where it's sourced and you can page through. (S is for Scan, I is for image.)

If this database does not go right to the information you want, you can check back in a week or month or try the previously mentioned archive site. Don't assume marriage, death, or records for settlements not listed do not exist.

Here is a research strategy for you to follow and some hints. I'll get more into it in future posts.

Most Americans who know little of their Polish/ Poland heritage find the name of a settlement - a village, town, or city, that the immigrant left through Naturalization papers or ship manifests or a death certificate (though the person providing information for this document may not know). Be careful with this. Asking where they left is not the same as asking where they were born. See my posts about Ellis Island from earlier in this year, even if you're sure they didn't come through Ellis.)

You want your timeline to begin at the ancestors birth and take them through the historical and archival changes. This can help you locate the right place and thus the archive storing documents.

Situate yourself by searching first by TOWN or settlement but don't be surprised if you find your ancestor gave the name of a county, a diocese, or the town where they went to church rather than the family home. This would be like if someone from Westwood near UCLA said they were from Los Angeles but their baptism took place in Santa Monica which is not far away but a separate city within Los Angeles County. Ask them where they're from.

Print out an all county map of present day Poland. Print out maps of the county you're focused on which show habitations today. Print out a map from the closest date in which your ancestor lived there. A good site is MAPIRE.

Take a good look at the names of habitations, how far they are from each other and present day borders. Encyclopedia can give you historical information. If you find yourself with a rather vague location such as Krosno, as there are a few, you can refer to these maps and circle each village you've seen the documents for, perhaps progressing in a circle out.

Also run searches of settlement names because there are many times multiple locations in various counties with the same or similar place names.

This research also helps understand historical changes such as German place names or because a settlement name changed spelling over time. A gazetteer may also show these town name changes.

A web site called Gesher Galicia proves to have the best free chart that's Galicia focused, giving the name of the settlement, and where both civil and religious records are kept for Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Jewish records. Even if you aren't doing Jewish research, Jewish sites have lots of information about places where Jewish people settled and Christians lived there too.

Some documents will be titled in Polish, some in Latin or German, but the TOWN name is the key which will lead you to what's available and you can use a translator from there.

Another resource is the Polish Genealogical Society of America, which has a web site, is based in Chicago and has a focus on Poles who settled in Chicago. You may find there are Polish genealogy or history special collections in American city libraries. Check WORLDCAT.

You may just find yourself looking into the Familysearch catalogue and database as well. However, due to national pride in the archives of Poland and database projects in that country, I do not think Familysearch will have a comprehensive Poland database any time soon, if ever.

C 2021 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot