Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland Genealogy

Guide to Podlaskie Voivodeship ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Historical Geography

 * Podlaskie Voivodeship or Podlasie Province is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland.
 * The capital of Podlaskie Province is Białystok.
 * Prior to 1945, it belonged to Russian Poland.
 * Also, Białystok Voivodeship was a unit of an administrative division in eastern Poland from 1945 to 1975. From 1975 to 1998 it was separated into eastern Suwałki Voivodeship, Łomża Voivodeship, and Białystok Voivodeship.
 * The establishment of Podlaskie Voivodeship in 1999 was essentially a reunion of the 1945-1975 area of ​​Białystok Voivodeship . Source: Wikipedia, Białystok Voivodeship (1945-75)

Name Changes and Locating Records

 * In 1967, most of Podlaskie was in Bialystok voivodeship, with a small part in Suwalki. Use those province names when working in FamilySearch records.

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.
 * 1. You will find birth, marriage, and death records:
 * in online databases
 * in microfilmed records of the FamilySearch collections
 * by writing to request searches
 * from State archives where records have been deposited
 * from church archives where records have been deposited
 * from local civil registration offices
 * from local parish churches
 * 2. To find information on town of origin for U.S. immigrants from Poland, use the Wiki article Poland Locating Town of Origin.
 * 3. You will need to determine the both the Polish and German name of the town your Polish ancestors lived in.
 * If the town was in the area of Poland once controlled by Russia or Austria, look it up in Skorowidz Gazetteer Online to find the parishes of various religions. Here are the instructions. Use the second option, "Viewing anywhere via the Digital Library of Wielkopolska".
 * To see a map of the town, use mapa.szukacz. Enter the town name in the "place" field in the right sidebar and click "Show". Province, area, commune, and postal code will appear at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Finding Aids
Poland finding aids have been created by a variety of state, church, society, and private organizations. Their goal is to inform what records exist and the repositories that hold them. Each finding aid has a different focus--a particular religion or geographical area or archive or collection. Be sure to search all that apply to your ancestors. Remember that churches often produced civil registration records. The church records might have been destroyed, but copies had been sent to the government and still exist. So we search for both church records and civil registration records.
 * The PRADZIAD Database A database that comprises information on parish and civil registration registers preserved in all branches of the Polish State Archives and some Roman Catholic diocesan and archdiocesan archives. Gives location of specific records and address of archives.
 * Szukaj w Archiwach Search page for church records and civil registration at the National Archives. Links directly to scans.
 * FamilySearch Catalog for Poland Microfilms (all will eventually be digitized, many are now) of the FamilySearch records.
 * Lutheran Records in Russian Poland Church records inventory with links to scans held at various repositories.
 * Baptist Church Records in Poland
 * Baptist Records in Russian Poland
 * Parafie.genealodzy.pl, Parish inventory, address list of current parishes.

1. Online Databases

 * Geneteka
 * Szukaj w Archiwach; [[Media:1-Polish_State_Archives-Instruction.pdf|Tutorial]] - The Polish Archives
 * Metryki Genealodzy Roman Catholic Records
 * Metryki GenBaza
 * See, also: JewishGen Poland Database
 * Jewish Records Indexing-Poland

Ancestry.com

 * Poland, Roman Catholic Church Books Index, 1742-1964, Lublin and Kielce, index, ($)

Jewish Records
Some areas of Poland were predominantly Jewish settlements. Because churches were frequently expected to act as civil registrars, Jewish births, marriages, and deaths can appear in Catholic records.
 * A comprehensive list of finding aids for Jewish records is found in the Wiki article Poland Jewish Records.
 * An excellent two-part online course is available: Poland and Galicia Jewish Research. This demonstrates important finding aids and databases.
 * See, also: JewishGen Poland Database

2. Microfilms and Digitized Records: 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 Podlaskie voivodeship was known as Białystok Voivodeship. Towns in the former Suwałki Voivodeship are listed under Suwałki. Łomża and its surroundings were in Masovian voivodeship.
 * a. Click on the records of Poland, Białystok  or records of Poland, Suwałki.
 * b. Click on Places within Poland, Białystok or Places within  Poland, Suwałki, and a list of towns will appear.
 * 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.
 * c. 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 Address
Write to the local civil registration office for records after 1900. Records prior to 1900 will probably be in the state archives. Records in the last 100 years will have some privacy restrictions where you will have to prove your relationship and/or the death of the person the certificate reports.

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.

Church: Parish Addresses

 * The Catholic Directory, Poland
 * Luteranie.pl: Polish Evangelical website with all diocese addresses and individual parishes and email addresses.

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

Białystok Archdiocese
Archdiocesan Archives and Museum in Bialystok ul. Warszawska 48 15-077 Białystok Poland tel. Head of the Metrology (Church Registers) Archive: 85 - 732 40 51 e -mail archive: lp.laibihcra@baa
 * Website

Metryczne Archie Metropolitalnej Bialostocka
Metryczne Archive has copies of baptism, marriage and death certificates from individual parishes. Every year, by the end of March, each parish has the obligation to pass duplicates of metrical acts from the previous year. Copies are arranged according to deaneries and bound in one book. The Metric Archive has copies of metrical books (a total of 1,041 volumes) from 1865 to the current year. The copies are arranged according to the following deaneries: Priests are obliged to make an annotation about the marriage in the original metric books, and send them to the Metryczny Metropii Metropolitan Archives.
 * Bialystok deanery - 430 books;
 * Korycin deanery - 64 books;
 * Krynki deanery - 81 books;
 * Knyszyn deanery - 93 books;
 * Dąbrowa Białostocka deanery - 74 books;
 * Sokółka deanery - 182 books;
 * Grodno deanery - (1865-1937) - 92 books;
 * Łunna deanery - (1922-1937) - 25 books;

Drohiczyn Diocese
Diocesan Archives in Drohiczyn ul. Kościelna 10 17-312 Drohiczyn Poland tel. 85/655 78 08 wew: 710 E-mail: archiwum@drohiczynska.pl A visit to the Archive must first be established by telephone. The instructions on genealogical requests is confusing as translated into English. It states that it does not answer genealogical inquiries and then goes into great detail into how to make those inquiries.
 * List of parish records begin on page 3.

Łomża Diocese
No archives.

Ełk Diocese

 * Parish list gives starting dates, select "Read more."

Inventory of Lutheran Parish Records
This website lists for each parish the years parish records exist, the archives where they are held, and links to online records and microfilms.
 * Lutheran Records in Russian Poland

Word Lists
The language of the records depends on the controlling government. Records in parts of Poland controlled by Russia are in Russian 1868-1918, and in Polish otherwise.
 * Polish Genealogical Word List
 * Russian Genealogical Word List

Word-by-Word Reading Aids

 * Reading Polish Birth Records - [[Media:1-Poland_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Poland_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Assignment.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Poland_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Polish Marriage Records - [[Media:1-Poland_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Poland_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Polish Death Records - [[Media:1-Poland-Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Poland-Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Poland-Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Polish Civil Registration Reading Aid
 * Reading Russian Birth Records - [[Media:1-Russia_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Russian Marriage Records - [[Media:1-Russia_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Russia_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Russia_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Russian Death Records - [[Media:1-Russia_Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Russia_Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Russia_Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]

How-to Guides
For areas of Poland that were once part of Russia:


 * Cyrillic Alphabet - [[Media:1-Russian_Alphabet_Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Russian_Alphabet_Assignment.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Russian_Alphabet_Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Cyrillic Script - [[Media:1-Russian_Script-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Russian_Script-Assignment.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Russian_Script-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Polish Birth Records - [[Media:1-Poland_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Poland_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Assignment.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Poland_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Polish Marriage Records - [[Media:1-Poland_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Poland_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Polish Death Records - [[Media:1-Poland-Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Poland-Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Poland-Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Russian Birth Records - [[Media:1-Russia_Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Birth_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Russian Marriage Records - [[Media:1-Russia_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Russia_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Russia_Marriage_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]
 * Reading Russian Death Records - [[Media:1-Russia_Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Russia_Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Russia_Death_Records_in_Paragraph_Format-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]

Russian and Polish Transliteration Tools

 * Transliterating Russian to English in One Step, or English to Russian
 * Polish Cyrillic Transliterate the Polish language to a Cyrillic
 * Converting between Russian Print and Cursive in One Step
 * Russian for Everyone: The Russian Alphabet
 * SGGEE Cyrillic Handout.pdf for months and numbers in Russian cursive.

Lessons

 * Reading Polish Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: Polish Letters
 * Lesson 2: Polish Words and Dates
 * Lesson 3: Reading Polish Records
 * Reading Russian Handwriting
 * Lesson 1: The Russian Alphabet
 * Lesson 2: Russian Words and Dates
 * Lesson 3: Reading Russian Records
 * Russian for Everyone: The Russian Alphabet
 * SGGEE Cyrillic Handout.pdf for months and numbers in Russian cursive.

Search Strategy
'''For records before 1808, you will use just church records. For records from 1808 on, civil registration records will be your main source, supplemented by church records, if possible.'''
 * 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.