[Research Guidance: Polish - Genealogical Word List] Research Guidance Version Of Data : 6/8/2001

Table of Contents
Language Characteristics
Additional Resources
Key Words
General Word List

This list contains Polish words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Polish-English dictionary. (See the "Additional Resources" section.)

Polish is a Slavic language related to Russian and Czech. It is used in genealogical sources throughout Poland. Before 1918, Polish-speaking territories were divided between Russia, Germany, and Austria. Records written before 1918 may be in German, Russian, Latin, or Polish.

In Russian Poland, Polish was the official language for vital records from 1808 to 1868. From 1868 to 1917, Russian was the official language.

In German Poland, most records were kept in German or Latin, though some were kept in Polish.

In Austrian Poland, most records were kept in Latin. Some records were kept in German and some in Polish.

Polish is also used in the records kept in some Polish communities in the United States.

Polish records often contain Latin and German words. See the German Genealogical Word List (34067) and the Latin Genealogical Word List (34077).

LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS

Polish words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Adjectives used to describe them must have the proper masculine, feminine, or neuter endings, for example:

stary maz old man

stara kobieta old woman

stare miasto old city

The endings of past tense verbs also change depending on the gender of the person or thing being described or performing the action. For example:

umarl he died

umarla she died

umarlo it [the child] died

Variant Forms of Words

In Polish, as in English, the forms of some words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who-whose-whom or marry-marries- married are examples of words in English with variant forms. In Polish any word may change, depending on usage. This word list gives the standard form of each Polish word. As you read Polish records, you will need to be aware that most words vary with usage.

The endings of words in a document will often differ from what you find in this list. For example, the document may use the word starego (old), but you will find it in this word list as stary (old).

Certain endings, called genitive, give the meaning "of" to a word. The following endings are typical:

Nouns Endings Adjectives

-a (masculine) -ego

-y or -i (feminine) -ej

-ów (plural) -ich or -ych

Thus, ojciec zmarlego means "father of the deceased."

Plural forms of Polish words usually change the singular word as follows:

Words ending in -a change to -y
Words ending in -o change to -a
A -y or -i is added to form the plural

The plural form may change the basic word, for example:

zona wife zony wives

miasto city miasta cities

powiat district powiaty districts

brat brother bracia brothers

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

This word list includes words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For further help, use a Polish-English dictionary. Several Polish-English dictionaries are available at the Family History Library Look this term up in the glossary. in the European collection. Their call numbers begin with 491.85321.

The following dictionary is available on microfilm for use in Family History Centers Look this term up in the glossary. :

Stanislawski, Jan. English-Polish and Polish-English Dictionary, Philadelphia: David McKay, 1946. (FHL film 1,045,473, item 1)

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the Family History Library Catalog Look this term up in the glossary. under POLISH LANGUAGE - DICTIONARIES. Other dictionaries and language helps, such as Polish grammar books, are listed in the Locality section under POLAND - LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES.

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KEY WORDS

To find and use specific types of Polish records, you will need to know some key words in Polish. This section gives key genealogical terms in English and the Polish words with the same or similar meanings.

For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Polish words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined, and other words used to indicate marriage.

English Polish

birth urodzin, urodzony, urodzil, sie, zrodzony

burial pochowanie, pogrzeb

Catholic rzymsko-katolicki

child dziecie, dziecko

christening chrzest, chrzciny, ochrzczone

death(s) zgon(ów), zejsc, umarl, zmarl, smierci

father ojciec

husband maz, malzonek

index indeks, skorowidz, register, spis

Jewish zydowski, starozakonny, izraelici, mojzeszowy

marriage malzenstw(o), slub(ów), zaslubionych

marriage banns zapowiedzi

mother matka

name, given imie, imion

name, surname nazwisko

parents rodzice

parish parafia

Protestant ewangelicki, reformowany, protestancki, luteranski

wife zona, malzonka, zamezna, kobieta

year rok, lat

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