Polish Research. Part 1 Steps Common to All Genealogical Research

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1 Polish Research The first rule in genealogical research is to start with what you know and work backward. For many Americans of Polish descent, this is easier said than done. Making that leap back across the ocean requires information that is hard to come by. Surnames and birthplaces may have been anglicized, garbled, changed by choice or by chance, or simply misspelled. The focus of this session will be on how to get from here what you know about your Polish ancestors to there the records in Poland that will allow you to trace your ancestry. For this research: There are two absolutely essential pieces of information you will need about your Polish immigrant ancestor before you can do any actual research: his or her original Polish name and the place of birth in Poland. There are two more facts that you will need once you start your research: approximate year of birth and religion in the old country. And there are three more things that will make your research easier and more efficient: the year of arrival in the United States, the place(s) your ancestor(s) lived in the United States, and any other family members or siblings of the immigrant ancestor. Early steps in the research process are common to those of all genealogical researchers. After a brief review of those steps, the presentation will focus on aspects unique to Polish research. This syllabus includes an outline of the presentation together with resources and other information you will want to keep for reference. It is designed to minimize the need to take notes, as it contains most of the information you will want to refer to during your quest. Part 1 Steps Common to All Genealogical Research If you are just starting on your research, there are some things that you will do that are independent of your ancestry. These steps are included in this part of the syllabus and will be reviewed briefly in the session. More on these points can be found in many other genealogical sources. A. Start sourcing day one. Every bit of information has a source. For your sake and for the sake of future generations who will receive your treasured family story, always record the source of information. This could be as simple as your own recollections or a letter to your grandmother from her family still in Poland. For published sources, including those you find online, keep the entire sourcing information. Many online sites now provide a ready-made credit line

2 B. Write down what you know about your family. Do not rely on your memory for anything write it all down. Use available forms or create your own. Excellent software is available, but at the beginning I recommend old-fashioned paper and pencil, or simple computer files. Always include the source of your information (e.g., a conversation with your grandmother, a baptismal record, an obituary, a personal recollection) and the date you located it. Keep every scrap of information you can find; you never know which obscure factoid will be the key that unlocks an entire treasure chest. If people give you photographs, don t walk away without noting who is in the picture together with when and where it was taken, or as much of this information as you can get. C. Organize your data, beginning with yourself and working backward as far as you can. You will always start with vital statistics birth, marriage, and death records, including their dates and locations. But in addition, set up a filing system that works for you, and then file everything appropriately and immediately. You may wish to begin a research log to track what you have done and when, in case you need to return to something. Genealogy programs can be helpful, especially as your research expands. But I have seen many manual record-keeping systems that work well, too. D. Older photographs and records should be copied or scanned so that you can use them in your research. The original documents should be stored safely. Consider a safe deposit box, archival paper, and other protections. Any computer files should be backed up every single time you make a change. Be sure you store a backup copy in a different location. Online storage, the cloud and Dropbox for example, can be used provided there are sufficient privacy protections. Safeguard your data. Terrible things can and do happen. E. Start filling in what you can easily find. Some information is readily available. Other facts will require some work. Start with your family. The major online genealogy sites are useful here. If you are still living in the area where your ancestors settled or still have relatives there, local sources such as churches, county offices, and historical societies often have much information available for the asking or for a small fee or donation. Keep in mind that your goal is to identify the ancestors who emigrated from Poland and then to determine the location in Poland from which they came. Anything that will lead you in that direction is useful. If you have decided to keep a research log, this will help you keep track of the information you still need. Some family tree products have a task list that can be very useful. Here are some of the major genealogical websites. is an extremely valuable research resource. In addition to the actual records, with more being digitized every day, this site has the catalog to the filmed records and many research helps. The Wiki in particular is a great place to find basic guidance for your research

3 is excellent for information on the United States and a number of other countries, although holdings on Poland are quite limited. A subscription is needed but the Family History Center and the National Archives have subscriptions. is a free site with many resources for research specializes in Jewish materials and also has many items of interest to others researching in Poland has research helps and is also free includes many research helps and resources F. There is no substitute for original records. You can find a great deal of information, on the internet and elsewhere, information that someone else has located, transcribed, copied, and/or interpreted. While you are free to evaluate the relevance of this kind of data, and to incorporate it into your research if you wish, you cannot be certain of its accuracy unless you see the actual documentation. Better to use a secondhand source to help you find the original and then go to the actual record to verify the data. G. Online family trees have useful information and an intrinsic weakness. Family trees, wherever they may be posted, can help you make connections with people who may share your family roots and can also provide clues for your research someone else may have found a birthplace or a woman s maiden name for which you have searched in vain. On the other hand, these are not original sources and they are subject to many errors of fact and in recorded relationships. Part 2 Steps for Specifically Polish Research Once you have gathered as much information as you can on your Polish immigrant ancestors on the U.S. side, it s time to head back across the ocean. Here is where you will need those pieces of information for which you ve been searching: each immigrant s Polish name, birthplace in Poland, and approximate year of birth. Year of immigration is useful, as is any information on the parents, siblings, or other relatives of the immigrant. This section will provide tips and resources for finding this information and using it to pick up your search in Poland. A. You need to know the Polish names of your immigrant ancestors. Contrary to popular myth, most immigrants made it through Ellis Island with their names intact. Even if they were illiterate, they carried documents written by the priest, lawyer, or village scribe. It was not until they came up against employers, school registrars, bureaucrats, and census takers, that many names were changed. The names you have for your immigrant ancestors may be their real names, but if not, you will have to do some work to find out what they really were. Some tips and resources are listed below. a) Learn Polish pronunciation. For example, sz and ś in Polish are both pronounced like sh in English. So Kuraś often became Kurash, and Szmigiel turned into - 3 -

4 Shmigel. The Polish ą has a nasal ending and sounds like om before some consonants. So Dąbrowski may be spelled Dombrowski. If you know the pronunciation, you can often work backward to the original spelling. Here is a website that gives, in international symbols, the pronunciation of Polish letters: And here is one that has the pronunciation in plain English : b) Know the translations of Polish proper names. If you know that St. Wojciech is St. Adalbert, it s easy to see why so many Poles became known as Albert, the closest English equivalent. The Polish given names Władislaw, Włodzimierz, and Wacław don t have English equivalents, so many of them became Walter. Here is a website that lists Polish given names: And here is one that gives translations (note that the entire URL must be one line to use this address): freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jkmacmul/namemeaningscoatofarms/polishfirstnames.html c) Use various sources for finding the original spelling of your ancestors names. The best options I ve found: old photos with names written on the back old letters, especially envelopes with addresses and return addresses marriage and baptismal records from shortly after immigration, especially those from Polish churches; often the pastors were also Polish and spelled the names correctly birth/baptismal records from Poland which were required when people applied for Social Security Less useful are census records; government records such as Social Security applications, naturalization certificates, draft registrations; death certificates; and human memory. B. You need to know at least approximately when your ancestor was born. Primary records are of course most valuable. If you have a baptismal certificate, you are in business! Applicants for Social Security benefits also had to produce proof of age, so the Social Security Death Index dates are quite reliable. But you can find approximate birth dates on marriage records, passenger arrival records, death records, cemetery headstones, census records, and draft registrations, among others

5 Social Security Death Index information can be found through: (free) (subscription required) and other sources. The SSDI also has clues about where the person last resided and the state in which the Social Security card was issued. Social Security applications may have additional useful information, such as birthplace and mother s maiden name, but new privacy restrictions have limited access to these. C. Tracing ancestors prior to their arrival in the United States means that you have to know where in Poland their records might be. One part of this problem has to do with finding place names in Poland. Here is some information on this subject: a) Historically, Poland did not exist as a country between 1795 and The country was divided several times, and for most of that period existed as three partitions, one mostly in the west belonging to Prussia (now Germany); one, primarily in the northeast, to Russia; and one across the southern part of the country to Austria or to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The implications of the partitions are many: For most of our ancestors, the records of their arrival in the U.S. will not say that they came from Poland, but rather from Germany, Austria, Hungary, or Russia. During some periods of time, the record might identify the person as of the Polish race but not as being from Poland. Place names in the partitions may have changed during various periods and may be shown in German, Russian, and occasionally Hungarian on records and maps of the time. Records are also found in the various languages and in different formats, depending on the partition. Some areas that were once known as part of Poland are presently in other countries, particularly Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. b) There are many sources for finding actual place names in Poland, depending on how much you know. Our focus is on the late 19 th and early 20 th century, so although there are some current resources, I am emphasizing those in which you are most likely to find your ancestors cities, towns, or villages: The most valuable reference for place names is Słownik geograficzny królestwa polskiego i innych krajach słowiańskich, commonly called simply Słownik Geograficzny. This 15-volume work was first published in 1880 with subsequent updates in the 1890s. It is entirely in Polish and requires Polish characters in order to search, but its value is worth the trouble. It is online at: Gazetteers of the period have been filmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and are available at Family History Centers either as part of - 5 -

6 the permanent collection or on loan. The gazetteers include not only the name of the location but in many cases its administrative information, that is, the equivalent of the county, state, and region; the place where the post office was; the parish it belonged to; and similar information. Some gazetteers show the changes in place names before and after the partitions. An excellent resource for current place names is Spis miejscowości Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej, published in It has been filmed by the Mormon church and can be found on film # For the former Austrian region, Brian Lenius has published a detailed listing of villages and other places, with their related estates, jurisdictions, and parishes, called Genealogical Gazetteer of Galicia. This book can be ordered directly from Brian at: The Polish Genealogical Society of America has a set of 1907 maps which are available on its website and which it is presently indexing. When this project is completed, it will be an excellent resource, but it is useful even now if you already know the area from which your ancestors came. You can find these maps at: Present-day maps can be useful in orienting yourself to the area in which your ancestors lived and in finding the nearest parish church. You will need a road atlas at a fairly high resolution or the so-called tourist maps. These are easily available in Poland, but probably can be ordered from map stores or travel stores in the U.S. or from Amazon. There is a websites which allows you to search for place if you know the name but are not sure where it is. However, the searches are restricted to the name of the place or to the first letters of the name, so if you know only the last part of a place name, you won t be able to find it here. And the site is in Polish. If you have some idea of the place name, and if it still exists, you may find it here: D. Passenger arrival records can provide a link between your ancestor and his or her birthplace, particular for those who arrived after However, locating passenger records can be difficult. The Ellis Island site is comprehensive but some of the Polish names are incorrectly indexed and thus they are difficult if not impossible to find. The newly updated site is much more complicated to use but the information is worth it. A site developed by Steven Morse is a good supplement and has expanded search capabilities that can sometimes get around name and town issues (and it - 6 -

7 has many other capabilities for research, including census districts and language helps). For persons arriving before Ellis Island opened in 1892, Castle Garden was a common point of entry. Ancestry and Family Search also have records for arrivals not in the Ellis Island database. For finding problem passengers, the soundex cards which are on microfilm at the National Archives can be your best bet. E. In addition to being able to find specific place names in Poland, you also have to know in which of those places your ancestor was born and where the records might be. Here is some information on those issues. a) There are many sources of information on birthplaces, but often these records are inaccurate or incomplete. Beware sometimes people provided only Poland or the name of the parish or nearest town rather than their actual birthplace. Here are some of the best options marriage and baptismal records, especially from Polish churches death records, although dependent on the knowledge of the informant petition for naturalization (some later ones also have the spouse s birthplace) World War I draft registrations if the form used requested birthplace application for Social Security addresses from old letters passenger records (although placenames are often misspelled in indices) recollections, however fragmentary, of family members b) There may be many places in Poland with the same name, just as there are in the U.S. You may need to use other clues to determine which one is the actual birthplace you re seeking. One option is a feature on Moi Krewni, a Polish genealogical site. It allows you to use the 2002 Polish census to see the distribution of surnames in present-day Poland. If the surname you are researching is not too common, this might give an indication to the region of origin. c) After you ve found your location, you have to find the actual records. If your ancestors were church members, either Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Rite Catholic, or Evangelical, the primary place for their records will be the local church. In larger cities and towns, you must either know the parish or congregation, or you must go through many records to find your family. Many villages did not have churches but belonged to nearby parishes, so your records may be in a different location. In some Catholic dioceses, the records were kept - 7 -

8 centrally, while in others they were left in the churches. Fortunately, many of the church records in Poland, although not necessarily those in the eastern territories, have been filmed and are available through the Family History Center. If you do have to write for records, the Polish Genealogical Society of America has an excellent guide with sample letters: You can also find a letter-writing guide in the Wiki at Family Search: d) In some locations and during some periods, civil records were kept in addition to or instead of church records. Some of these have been filmed and can be requested through the Family History Center. In other cases, you may need to consult the civil authorities of the village, town, city, district, or region. e) The Polish system of archives is quite extensive, including both national and regional repositories. It is fairly easy to find out what the holdings are in each of the archives, and the staffs are generally helpful, but doing research at a distance is difficult. There is an option on the website for an English version. The translation isn t always the best, but it can be understood. The Polish Archives are in the process of digitizing records. Unfortunately, the priority is not records of genealogical interest but rather those of historical interest. However, some records are available, primarily from Lublin, Poznan, and Radom. The primary website for the National Archives of Poland is: The simple search is the most useful to find out if the archives has records for a place of interest (you do not have to use Polish characters): The site for searching records is: F. Once you ve found the records, reading them is another issue entirely. Here, unless you understand Polish, German, Russian, and/or Latin, you may want to consult publications on reading these records. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has many useful publications, as does the Polish Genealogical Society of America. G. Remember that a given locality may have several people of the same name born about the same time. Here is where you may need to dip into your files for clues as to which Jan Kowalski is your ancestor. H. Here are a few last words of miscellaneous advice and resources. Perhaps you will find something useful

9 a) It s probably worthwhile to install the Polish characters on your computer. Because there are so many types of computers, I m not including specific instructions here. Consult you help or online guides for your system. b) For searches, once you have the Polish characters set up, go Polish. Try: This is an excellent place to find current information on your ancestors birthplaces. Even very small villages may now have online information, as do many parishes. Often these include photos, maps, and historical information. c) Managed bulletin boards on genealogical sites can be helpful in contacting people who are also researching someone in your family, but beware of chat rooms, blogs, and other unstructured resources that may present security problems. d) There are many local Polish connections. You may wish to get involved in some of the local organizations and activities