Poland Genealogy



For a Polish language version of this page see also Polska.

Getting started with Poland research


Welcome to the Poland page! FamilySearch Wiki is a community website dedicated to helping people throughout the world learn how to find their ancestors. Through the Poland page you can learn how to find, use, and analyze Polish records of genealogical value. The content is variously targeted to beginners, intermediate, and expert researchers. The Poland Page is a work in progress, your contributions and feedback are essential!

Research Tools



 * Beginning Polish Research
 * Civil Registration Office Finder
 * Finding records of your ancestors, Poland 1808 to 1900
 * Join the Facebook or Skype Poland Genealogy Research Community
 * Gazetteers and Maps Online
 * Holdings of the Polish State Archives
 * Kartenmeister - German/Polish Place Name Conversion
 * Letter Writing Guide
 * Online Tutorials
 * Postal Codes Finder
 * Parish Finder Use correct Polish diacritical marks.
 * Reference Aids Overview at the Family History Library
 * Research Outline
 * Websites
 * Word List
 * Source for latest digitized parish registers This is a great source for finding those online records!

Online Databases and Digitized Records

 * AGAD Digitized records from the Eastern areas of Poland now in Ukraine. Click here for instructions.
 * Church Registers Indexing - Lublin region
 * GenBaza Digitized records from the various archives in Poland. Click here for instructions.
 * Geneteka database Church Registers Indexing Project.
 * Polish State Archives Digitized records from the Polish State Archives. Click here for instructions.
 * Pomeranian Genealogical Association Pomeranian church books
 * Pomeranian Genealogical Association Pomeranian cemeteries
 * Poznan Marriage Indexing Project
 * Roman Catholic Church Registers Online
 * State Archive in Olsztyn Digitized records for an area in West Prussia.
 * Szczecin State Archives online records in Pommerania, civil and church records included
 * Links to online records for Wroclaw/Breslau Standesamt 1
 * Links to online records for Wroclaw/Breslau Standesamt 1 (Another jumping off point)
 * Link to Breslau Standesamt II This is from 1889-1910. It covers the time period which was not microfilmed.
 * Link to Breslau Standesamt III This covers 1891-1911. This Standesamt (civil registration office) existed from 1891-1945.
 * A new addition to the Matricula site for the Breslau archives which is starting to digitize.

For a list of additional online databases and digitized records click here.

Wiki articles describing some online collections at FamilySearch can be found at:


 * Poland, Gliwice Roman Catholic Church Books (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Poland, Tarnow Roman Catholic Diocese Church Books (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Featured Content


Polish vital records are becoming available online. However, there is no central online repository for these records. Use Księgi parafialne (Polish for “Church Books”) Portal to check availability of Polish records online. This Polish site lists, by province, every town that has vital records and/or indexes available online and links are included to get you there. As such, this site is only helpful once you’ve discovered the name of the town from which your ancestors came. Most of the websites are in Polish.

Provinces

 * Greater Poland - Wielkopolskie
 * Kuyavian-Pomeranian - Kujawsko-Pomorskie
 * Lesser Poland - Małopolskie Kraków
 * Łódź -   Łódzkie
 * Lower Silesian - Dolnośląskie
 * Lublin  -  Lubelskie
 * Lubusz -   Lubuskie
 * Masovian - Mazowieckie
 * Opole - Opolskie
 * Podlaskie - Podlaskie
 * Pomeranian -  Pomorskie
 * Silesian  -   Śląskie
 * Subcarpathian  - Podkarpackie
 * Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) -  Świętokrzyskie
 * Warmian-Masurian -  Warmińsko-Mazurskie
 * West Pomeranian



Click to enlarge map

Extraction Projects
Extensive extraction of Catholic Church records for the parishes of Medrzechow, Kupienin and Samocice, Poland have been completed and are available. For more information see the Polish Parish Extraction Project page.

Facebook Page
Because the Research forums are no longer available for help, be aware that FamilySearch has Facebook pages for this country that you should consider when doing your research:

Poland

Here you can help others, post your questions and look for answers and helpful links, as well.

News and Events


Finding records of your ancestors, Poland 1808 to 1900 is a color publication showing how to find records of a family who lived in Poland from 1808 to 1900. It tells you which records to use and how to search them. It also introduces you to the research tools you will need. A case study illustrates each step of the research process.

Polish Partitions

 * Austrian Poland
 * Prussian Poland
 * Russian Poland

Help Wanted
In order to make this wiki a better research tool, we need your help! Many tasks need to be done. You can help by: