Poland Letter Writing Guide

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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 FamilySearch 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 following 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 Poland, determine what religion he or she practiced after immigrating. People usually did not change religions when they moved frm Europe to their new home. Remember that main religion in Poland was and still is Roman Catholic. There were also following minority religions: Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Protestant (Lutheran) and Jewish.
 * 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.
 * Check if records are available on-line. Great amount of records is available online. You can find those records on following pages: FamilySearch - Catholic records from 4 dioceses (Częstochowa, Gliwice, Lublin, Radom and Tarnow) Szukaj w Archiwach- instructions here Metryki

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 good enough to understand your inquiry. Of course all answers you will get in Polish. You should receive an answer in a month but sometimes it takes up to 2 months to get results of research. 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 archives in Poland (with e-mails).

Payments If writting regular 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.

Each archive has own fees for services. In most cases prices are following: copy A4: 2-3 zl (1 USD) copy A3: 4-6 zl (2 USD) research: 40-90 zl (13-30 USD)/hour

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 the 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 apply for that, but the result is determined of officer goodwill.

Here you can find an universal form that you can use to apply for full or shortened transcript of civil registration record.

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 cheaper and quicker) and send confirmation of payment. Prices are following:

Copy of certificate (without legal validity) - 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, but 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. You can include some small note (eg. 10-20 USD) in the envelope. It can increase a chance to get response, but remember - no warranty.

Here you can find address of Roman-catholic parish. (Note: you need to use Polish letters to get results).

Remember that in some cities is more that one parish. Usually you need to determine the oldest one, where interesting records are probably kept.

Church archives
First of all: great part of records kept in cathilic church archives in Poland is microfilmed and records can be ordered to your nearest Family History Center. Before you write to church archive please try to define if records are kept in other places.

Each church archive has its own rules:


 * Some provides research and some not.
 * In some dioceses records are kept in parishes and archive possess only microfilms.
 * Some church archives do not use computers and e-mails.

Please don't include any money in the envelope, especially if you are not sure if archive provide research services.

How To Address the Envelope
For a Roman Catholic Parish Parafia Rzymsko-Katolicka (street name and number) (postal code) (name of locality) POLAND

For a Protestant Parish Parafia Ewangelicka (street name and number) (postal code) (name of locality) POLAND

In Poland exist ca 134 protestant parishes. Some records formerly found in such parishes may be housed in local Catholic parishes. For a list of the Protestant parishes in Poland and their addresses you can visit the following website www.luteranie.pl for a listing of Lutheran parishes which are in existence today.

For an Orthodox Parish  Parafia Prawoslawna (street name and number) (postal code) (name of locality) POLAND

For a Civil Registration Office Urząd Stanu Cywilnego (street name and number) (postal code) (name of locality) POLAND Civil Registration address finder

For State Archive Urząd Stanu Cywilnego (street name and number) (postal code) (name of locality) 

How To Write a Letter in Polish

 * If you need help with composing letter in Polish you can ask for help on Genealodzy.pl forum. First category on this forum is General discussion and you can use English there.
 * You can also ask some professional genealogist from Poland. You can ask how much this person would charge for translating a letter.
 * Of course you can prepare your letter by yourself using following tips, but before sending it is advisable to make review by someone who knows 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.

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). You can also use numbers (01-12) to specify months. For example, April 7, 1890 should be written as 7 kwietnia 1890 or 07.04.1890.

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

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.