Poland Letter Writing Guide

Introduction
This guide is for researchers who do not speak Polish but must write to Poland for genealogical records. It includes some useful information and a list of sentences you would use in requesting genealogical records and Polish translations of these sentences.

The best sources of genealogical information in Poland are records of births, marriages, and deaths records kept by churches and civil registration offices. The Family History Library has microfilm copies of these records for many, but not all localities. Use the Family History Library Catalog to determine what records are available through the Library and the Family History Centers. If records are available from the Library, it is usually faster and more productive to search these records first. If the records you want are not available through the library, you can use this guide to help you write to Poland for information.

Before You Write
Before You write to Poland for family history records, you should do three things:


 * Determine exactly where your ancestor was born, was married, lived, or died. Because most genealogical sources were recorded locally, you will need to know the specific locality where your ancestor was born, married, lived or died.
 * Determine your ancestor's religion. Because most early records were kept by churches or synagogues rather than civil registraiton offices, you may need to write to the church your ancestor attended in his or her hometown. If you are not sure what your ancestor's religion was in Europe, determine what religion he or she practiced after immigrating. People usually did not change religions when they moved frm Europe to their new home.
 * Determine where records from your ancestor's home parish are stored today. When you have a locality name, use a gazetteer to determine which parish or civil jurisdiction served your ancestor's locality.

State Archives
The best and the quickest way to contact State Archives in Poland is e-mail. It shouldn’t be a problem when you write letter in English. Probably there is at least one archive worker who knows English enough to understand our inquiry. Of course all answers you will get in Polish. You should receive an answer in a month but sometimes it can takes up to 2 months to get results of research. It depends how many cases archive works on. There is also a possibility to sent regular letter but it will significantly increase the time to get information.

Here you can find a list of all State Archives in Poland with their e-mails.

Payments When writting a letter do not include any money in an envelope. The only acceptable form of payment is bank transfer. If research looks for time consuming one, you can be asked to pay an advance. If not, you will receive an invoice for archive services and after it is paid you will receive results of research.

Civil registration offices
In civil registration offices are kept documents younger than 100 years (with some exceptions). Older records should be transferred to an archive. If you would like to know if records are already in archive, you can check it in Pradziad database.

A letter to civil registration office should be written in Polish. You should include as much information as you know concerning record you are interested in: eg. full name, exact or estimated date of event and denomination. Civil registration officer is not obligated to perform research if you can’t specify what are you looking for.

To receive a record you need to be straight descendant of person you are interested in. For example: you will get death certificate of your great grandfather but it can be a problem to get record of your grandmothers sister second husband. You can ask, but it depends on the officer.

Payments

Since 2007 the only form of payment is bank transfer. Payment should be done before sending request. Otherwise you will get a response to complete your application within 14 days. If you have a friend or family member in Poland you can ask him to make bank transfer for you (which is cheap and quick) and send you confirmation of payment.

Copy of cetrificate (without legal force) - 5 zl (ca 1,5 USD) Shortended transcript of certificate - 22 zl (ca 7 USD) Full transcript of certificate - 33 zl (ca 10 USD)

There is also an option that records can be send to the nearest Polish consulate in your country and you will be notified to make payment in your local currency. This way is more expensive.

Parishes
The results of writing to parishes can vary greatly. You may get a great deal of information, or you may get no answer at all. Some clergy are willing and able to provide considerable information, while others are not.

What To Expect
It may take six months or longer for you to receive a reply to your request for information. Airmail improves the response time. The results of writing to parishes or civil registration offices can vary greatly. You may get a great deal of information, or you may get no answer at all. Some clergy and civil registrars are willing and able to provide considerable information, while others are not.

When you receive a reply, send the requested payment and a note of thanks or acknowledgement. If you need to request further information, refer to your earlier letters and their return letters by date. You may want to include photocopies of any previous correspondence. If the archive assigned you a reference number, include that number as well.

Use Polish-English dictionaries to help you understand the reply. Sometimes you can hire accredited genealogists to translate for you. The Family History Library also has published a Genealogical Word List in Polish (34098), which may be helpful.

If you do not receive an answer, write again, sending a copy of your first letter. Do not send more money unless you verify that your first letter did not arrive.

How To Write a Letter in Polish
Your letter should include:


 * The date (at the top)
 * The name and address of the addressee
 * A greeting
 * A brief introduction
 * Biographical information about your ancestor
 * A short, specific genealogical request
 * Referral request(s)
 * A comment about payment
 * Closing remarks
 * Your signature
 * Your return address (including your country)
 * Be brief and to the point. Do not ask for too much at one time.

The English-to-Polish translations found below will help you compose your letter. Read the sentences in English and choose those that best express what you want to say. Be sure to arrange your sentences logically. You may want to use the following English sentences to write your letter and then replace the sentences with their Polish translations. However you proceed, make sure you type or neatly print your letter and, when necessary, add any diacritical marks and special characters (such as ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, and ż) with a pen.

Do not use this guide as the letter itself! That might insult the recipient and lessen the chance of a reply.

Writing Dates
Write dates in the European style: day-month-year. Write the full name of the month. Write the year in full (1845, not '45). For example, April 7, 1890 should be written as 7 kwietnia 1890.

The following names of the months are shown in their possessive form, which is used in writing dates:

You can also use numbers to specify months, eg. 04 - for April (07.04.1890).

Greetings
Depending on whom your letter is addressed to, you will choose one of the following greetings. This will also affect some of your later sentences. The following sentences were written in the format of the first greeting. When addressing a priest or pastor, use the appropriate word indicated in parentheses.

Biographical Information
Give as much pertinent information as possible. Use only those items below for which you can give accurate information that is relevant to your request. Do not give information about events that occurred after the ancestor left Poland.

Follow-up
Use these sentences in follow-up letters as needed.

Other Forms and French Translation
Other letter writing forms that may meet your needs are available from the Polish Genealogical Society of America website. For the French translation of the Polish Letter Writing Guide click here.