Poland Genealogy

Guide to Poland ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Country Information
Poland is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. Polish is the official language.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Poland

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. Duplicates were sometimes sent to higher jurisdictions such as a diocese or voivodeship (province). Efforts to collect, preserve, and publish records online are generally carried out at a diocese or v level, ooivodeshipr by archive jurisdiction level.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article Poland Locating Town of Origin to search a variety of records that might provide that information.


 * Once you know the name of the town:
 * Use mapa.szukacz to find the province, area, commune, and postal code of the town. Enter the town name in the "place" field in the right sidebar and click "Show". All information will appear at the bottom of the right sidebar.
 * Use Kartenmeister to find the Polish and German province, county, Catholic parish, and Lutheran parish, if the town was in the area of Poland once controlled by Prussia
 * Use The Catholic Directory, Poland to find the parish and diocese.
 * Use Technika Platform of Civil Registry Services to find the civil registration office.
 * Use PRADZIAD to see which archive might have copies of the civil registers or parish registers.
 * Use the voivodeship link in the clickable map or list below to find online records and FamilySearch records.

Provinces (Voivodeships)
Poland is currently divided into 16 provinces known as voivodeships (Polish: województwa, singular województwo). Click on the link below for a Wiki article specific to the province.

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More Poland Research Strategies
Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy Wiki articles for the Poland.
 * [[Media:Finding_records_of_your_ancestors_Poland.pdf|Finding records of your ancestors, Poland 1808 to 1900]]
 * Handbooks and Guides for Poland Research
 * Reference Aids Overview at the Family History Library
 * Advancing Your Polish Research Using Polish Websites

More Poland Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in the Poland.
 * Civil Registration Office Finder
 * [[Media:Research_Outline_Poland.pdf|Family History Library Research Outline]] - Many links out-of-date
 * [[Media:Polish_Gazetteers_and_Maps_Online.pdf|Gazetteers and Maps Online]]
 * Poland Poznan Marriage Indexing Project
 * Poland Parish links
 * See More Research Tools

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map

Research Tutorials

 * Finding Online Records in Poland
 * Search page
 * Poland Historical Geography
 * Research in Prussian Poland
 * Research in Poland - Parts 1 and 2
 * Kartenmeister.com Finding Places in the Former German Area of Poland
 * Finding Places in the Former German Areas of Poland Using the Online Gazetteer Kartenmeister.com
 * Reading Polish Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: Polish Letters
 * Lesson 2: Polish Words and Dates
 * Lesson 3: Reading Polish Records
 * Polish Community Newspapers in North America and Poland
 * Poland and Galicia Jewish Research: A Template for East European Research - Parts 1 and 2