Silesian (Śląskie) Voivodeship, Poland Genealogy

Silesian Voivodeship, Poland Genealogy

Historical Geography
Silesian Voivodeship is a voivodeship, or province in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia, with Katowice serving as its capital. Despite the Silesian Voivodeship's name, most of the historic Silesia region lies outside the present Silesian Voivodeship — divided among Lubusz, Lower Silesian, and Opole Voivodeships — while the eastern half of Silesian Voivodeship (and, notably, Częstochowa in the north) was historically part of Lesser Poland. Only a few far western areas were part of German Silesia (Schlesien). Because of this history of changing nationality, records for Silesia Voivodeship are found in the FamilySearch system under both Schlesien, Prussian, Germany, ''Katowice, Poland.," and "Krakow, Poland."
 * Use the gazetteer, Kartenmeister - German/Polish Place Name Conversion to find the name of your town in both languages.

Civil Registration and Church Records
Almost all of the research you do will be in civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (baptism, confirmation, marriage, and burial records). To understand these records better study the articles: Poland Church Records and Poland Civil Registration.

Online Databases
There does not exist one central online database for Poland, rather many independent projects by many different organizations. So you will need to search several databases.
 * Szukaj w Archiwach: collections from all over Poland, continuously updated.
 * Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach: Record books of Katowice, Silesian voivodeship, Lesser Poland
 * JewishGen Poland Database
 * Archion: Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin ($)
 * Eastern Prussian Provinces, Germany (Poland), Selected Civil Vitals, 1874-1945, index and images, incomplete.
 * Index of Polish marriages until 1899
 * Metryki Genealodzy Roman Catholic records indexing

FamilySearch Historical Records

 * 1226-1950 - ., images, no index.
 * 1700-2005 - , images, no index.

Microfilms: The FamilySearch Catalog
To search the catalog:
 * Many church records have been microfilmed and can be viewed at the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eventually, microfilmed records will all be digitized and available online. The records you need might have been digitized now.  Check back from time to time to see if they have become available.
 * The FamilySearch Catalog is organized by the voivodeships as they existed in 1967. There are maps on the Poland Genealogy main page comparing those jurisdictions with the modern jurisdictions. In 1967, most of Silesia  voivodeship was known as Katowice voivodeship. A small area in the southeast belonged to Kraków voivodeship. A few small areas in the west once belonged to German (Prussian/Preusssen) Silesia (Schlesien) and will be found there under German names.
 * Use the gazetteer, Kartenmeister - German/Polish Place Name Conversion to find the name of your town in both languages if necessary.
 * a. Click on the records of Poland, Katowice or records of Poland, Kraków] or records of Germany, Preussen, Schlesien']
 * b. Click on Places within Poland, Katowice or Places within Poland, Kraków or Places within Germany, Preussen, Schlesien and a list of towns will appear. Check each one until you find your town
 * c. Click on your town.
 * d. Click on the "Civil registration" or "church records" topic, if available. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * e. Choose the correct record type and time period for your ancestor.
 * For records in German: "Geburten" are births. Heiraten are marriages.  "Verstorbene" or Toten are deaths.
 * For records in Polish:  Akta urodzeń are births.  Akta chrzest are christenings/baptisms.  Akta małżeństw are marriages.  Akta zgonów are deaths.
 * f. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the microfilm.

Poland Letter Writing Guide
This letter writing guide will enable you to write in the Polish language to parish churches and church and government archives: Poland Letter Writing Guide. Generally, the people you wrie to will appreciate your effort to use Polish and cooperate more readily.

Civil Registration Office Addresses

 * Technika Platform of Civil Registry Services: Polish civil registration offices mailing addresses and phone numbers, web addresses and email addresses, when available. Parish information is also on this site.

Church: Parish Addresses

 * The Catholic Directory, Poland
 * Luteranie.pl: Polish Evangelical website with all diocese addresses and individual parishes and email addresses.
 * Technika Platform of Civil Registry Services: Parish information is also on this site.

Church Diocese Archives Addresses
See the Catholic Diocese map on the Poland Genealogy main page. Use The Catholic Directory, Poland to find the diocese for your town. Click on "View Full Listing" for your parish.

State Archives Addresses

 * PRADZIAD This website can be searched by location (town or parish).  It will then tell you which archives hold what records for the location. On the entry for the records you want, click on "More" at the far right, and it will give you the contact information for the archive.

Word Lists
The language of the records depends on the controlling government. Most of Poland was part of Austria until 1918, and church records are in Latin. The parts of Poland which belonged to Prussia (Germany) used German until they were ceded back to Poland (after World War I or II). Records in parts of Poland controlled by Russia can be in either Russian or Polish.
 * Polish Genealogical Word List
 * German Genealogical Word List
 * Russian Genealogical Word List
 * Latin Genealogical Word List

Lessons

 * Reading Polish Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: Polish Letters
 * Lesson 2: Polish Words and Dates
 * Lesson 3: Reading Polish Records
 * Reading German Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: Kurrent Letters
 * Lesson 2: Making Words in Kurrent
 * Lesson 3: Reading Kurrent Documents
 * Old German Script
 * Part 1
 * Part 2
 * Part 3 (German Church and Civil Records)
 * '''Latin for Genealogists

Search Strategy

 * Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth record, search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
 * Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents.
 * You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
 * Search the death registers for all known family members.
 * Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
 * If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.