Project: Poland/Resource Library

Categories: Poland | Poland Project


Poland Genealogy Resource Library
Part of the Poland Project

Please contact Skye or Tina for suggestions, improvements or additions.


Jewish Roots Project Galicja Project Germany Project Poland Project Russian Roots Project Slavic Roots Project Ukrainian Roots Project

Contents

How to Begin Your Research (Immigrant Ancestors)

  • If you know your ancestors were from Poland, but have yet to find the village where they were born, consider the following:
    • U.S. and Canadian Census records: give approximate date of immigration and usually give clues if they were Russian-Polish (Russian Empire), Austrian-Polish (Galicia) or German-Polish (Prussia). This attributes both their ethnicity and of their nationality. More examples would be Austrian-Ruthenian or Russian-Yiddish.
    • U.S. Immigration Records: many are recorded online in various websites, but if they cannot be found you can request a copy of the record through The National Archives and Records Administration.
    • Passenger Manifest: typically you can research through various genealogy websites to find the ship information when they emigrated from their country. Be aware there are usually two different documents: one from the port where they left Europe (typically always has the name of the village listed where the person lived) and the other from the port when they arrived to their destination (the ship names would be the same and close proximity in date.)
    • U.S. World War I or World War II Draft Registration Cards may also have the name of the village included. Please make sure you are looking at the original document and not a transcription.
  • You have the name of the village, but it is spelled incorrectly.
    • You may have a phonetic recording of your village. Depending on your ancestor's ethnicity, it is wise to study their mother tongue and how they pronounced words. Ask yourself what the transliteration of the village could be? (This goes for surnames as well.)
    • You may be able to narrow down the village by looking at lists from various regions.
    • If you have the passenger manifest, they may have been traveling with others from the same village.
    • A common error found in immigration transcriptions if your ancestors were Polish or Ukrainian: "L", "Z" and "S" (at the beginning of a name or village name) look very similar in cursive. Try all three variations. Also note the Polish letter "ł" simply became "l" (lower case L); although often it is transcribed to the letter "t".
  • You have the name of the village, but there are several other villages with the same name.
    • Did the census record or immigration record indicate if they were Russian, German/Prussian or Austrian/Galician? This fact will help you to narrow your search to the region of interest.
    • Again, find the passenger manifest and study the locations of those who were traveling at the same time, who may have been from nearby villages. You are essentially studying the location of all the other villages. Is there a region in common? This will help you to narrow down the powiat or district. Also, heck the Geneteka record index against the surname you are researching.
  • Be sure to include other language variations of your ancestor's first name during your search. For example: was his name John? He was not called John before he arrived: he was called Jan or Iwan.
  • It cannot be stressed enough, that just because you cannot find material on one website doesn't mean you cannot find it on another. Remember that different sites hold different material and different sites have different people transcribing documents. How one person reads a document could be entirely different than another person.
  • If you have exhausted all efforts and cannot find the village, your other option is to test or analyze your DNA. With genetic genealogy, you group your matches and find the common ancestor between them. You can also find an ethnicity in common. Inspect your match's trees from the appropriate lineage and you should be able to come up with some common villages, powiats or regions. Space:Poland,_Historical_Map_Overlay is a page with maps that you can save to your computer to begin charting locations.

General "How-To" sites with more detail:

FamilyTree Magazine
Poland Beginning Research
Poland Research Tips and Strategies
My Polish Ancestors
Polish Genealogical Society of America
Cyndi's List Poland
Facebook Polish Genealogy Group
Prussia-Poland Russia-Poland Austria-Poland Present Day Poland with Overlay
| | |
Prussia,
German Empire 		Congress Poland,
Russian Empire 		Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,
Austrian Empire, et.al.
Kartenmeister 1877 Gazetteer Vol1 Download
& 1877 Gazetteer Vol2 Download 		Gesher Galicia
Meyers Gazetteer 1827 Gazetteer FamilySearch Galicia Index
Historic Gazetteer Russian Gazetteer and Guide] Galizien Deutsche Index
Jewish Gen Gazetteer Jewish Gen Gazetteer Jewish Gen Gazetteer
SGGEE Gazetteer PDF SGGEE Gazetteer PDF SGGEE Gazetteer PDF
Former Eastern Territories Former Eastern Territories Former Eastern Territories

  • The links above provide various indices to villages. FamilySearch.org provides a nice long index of Poland Gazetteers.
  • If you have located the village of your ancestor, your next step is to determine their religion and then to find the nearest churches to that village (even if it has one.) Not all villages have a church and not all records will state the village of your ancestor. It is important to research not only the village name of your ancestor, but the nearby villages which also had a church of your ancestor's religion. Not only will the village church house records, but also the district archdioceses of Catholic religions.
    • Polish = Roman Catholic, but sometimes Greek Catholic.
    • Ruthenian/Ukrainian = Greek Catholic, but sometimes Roman Catholic
    • German = Lutheran, Evangelical, Mennonite, etc.

Comprehensive Research Sites / Kompleksowe miejsca badawcze

Researching by Voivodeship / Badania według województw

Military / Wojskowy

Holocaust / Zagłada

Pacification / Pacyfikacje (1939-1946)

The projected goal of pacification operations was to prevent and suppress the Polish resistance movement in World War II (by massacre). 1939-1946.

Volhynia Massacre / Zbrodnia Wołyńska (1943-1945)

"The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (Polish: rzeź wołyńska, lit. 'Volhynian slaughter'; Ukrainian: Волинська трагедія, romanized: Volynska trahediia, lit. 'Volyn tragedy') were carried out in German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) with the support of parts of the local Ukrainian population against the Polish minority in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, parts of Polesia and Lublin region from 1943 to 1945.[3] The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943. The massacres were exceptionally brutal and affected primarily women and children.[4][1] The UPA's actions resulted in about 50,000 to 100,000 deaths.[5][6][7] Other victims of the massacres included several hundred Jews, Russians, Czechs, Georgians, and Ukrainians who were part of Polish families or opposed the UPA and sabotaged the massacres by hiding Polish escapees." [1]

Operation Vistula / Akcja Wisła (1947)

Forced Ukrainian resettlement (typically Lemko) from southeast Poland to former occupied Prussian Provinces within Poland.

Immigration and Emigration / Imigracja i Emigracja

Poland and the United States / Polska i Stany Zjednoczone

Poland and Canada / Polska i Kanada

FamilySearch Polish Categories: Direct Links / FamilySearch Polish Kategorie: Linki bezpośrednie

Other / Inny

Geography and Maps of Poland / Geografia i mapy Polski

Polish Language Resources

Polish Naming Conventions




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