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Poland and Galicia Jewish Research: A Template for East European Research - Research tutorial at FamilySearch

Jewish Records [Akta żydowskie]
Records of vital events pertaining to the Jewish community:


 * Chiefly these consist of transcript records created in accordance with the laws of each of the governments that controlled Poland after the partitioning.
 * Prior to the introduction of civil transcript laws (and occasionally after), Jews were sometimes included in Christian church books.
 * By the 1820s and 1830s many Jewish congregations were keeping their own distinct civil transcript records.
 * Other types of Jewish records include circumcision records, marriage contracts, as well as holocaust memorial records, There was little consistency to the keeping of birth, marriage, and death records which was by the whim of the local religious Jewish leaders until the introduction of civil transcript laws.
 * Other types of Jewish records include circumcision records, marriage contracts, as well as holocaust memorial records, There was little consistency to the keeping of birth, marriage, and death records which was by the whim of the local religious Jewish leaders until the introduction of civil transcript laws.

Contents:


 * Civil transcripts and/or civil registration: record contents are similar to Christian civil transcripts.
 * Circumcision records (mohalim books): given Hebrew male names of children, circumcision date (Hebrew calendar), father’s given Hebrew name, sometimes surname.
 * Marriage contracts (Ketubbot): marriage date, names of groom and bride, contractual agreements.
 * Death memorial records: names of deceased individuals and death date in Hebrew calendar with month and day but sometimes not year.
 * Kahal records: Records of the Jewish governing bodies, including lists of those who voted for the head rabbi, lists of community inhabitants, etc.

Finding Records:

For information regarding locations of Polish Jewish records, see: Weiner, Miriam. Jewish Roots in Poland, Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories. New York, New York: Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, 1997. (FHL book 943.8 F2wm.)

History of the Jews in Poland


 * To read the Wikipedia.org article History of the Jews in Poland, click here.
 * Take the Poland Virtual Jewish History Tour. "Before the outbreak of World War II, more than 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland, the largest Jewish population of Europe and second largest Jewish community in the world. Poland served as the center for Jewish culture and a diverse population of Jews from all over Europe sought refuge there, contributing to a wide variety of religious and cultural groups. Barely 11% of Poland's Jews - 369,000 people -survived the war. Today, approximately 3,200 Jews remain in Poland."
 * To visit the Galicia Jewish Museum online click here. The Galicia Jewish Museum exists to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to celebrate the Jewish culture of Polish Galicia, presenting Jewish history from a new perspective.
 * http://www.dutchjewry.org/genealogy/ashkenazi/index.shtml Ashkenazi Amsterdam in the Eighteenth Century] "Research of the family origins and heritage of Dutch Jewry (A.R.)"
 * Historians estimate that during the 19th century more than 85 percent of the world’s Jews lived in Europe.
 * Most of these lived in Poland and Russia. Many books have been written about Jews in Poland. You can often find these in a public or university library.

The JewishGen Poland Database

 * More than five million records for Poland, from a variety of sources, including: vital records, business directories, voter lists, passenger manifests, Yizkor books and other Holocaust sources. A joint project of Jewish Records Indexing - Poland and JewishGen. Requires free registration. To search, click The JewishGen Poland Database.

JewishGen Complete List of Databases
Poland's historic borders extend into Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine and also into parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire known as Silesia. For this reason, use the database specified on your community page to find indexed records. Search for your community page at JewishGen Communities Database. Nonetheless, persons may show up elsewhere due to migration or deportation internal to Eastern Europe.

JewishGen Given Names Data Bases (GNDB)
Explains Primary-Subsidiary double given names (e.g., Aleksander Ziskind or Yehuda Leyb) and legal double (Primary-Subsidiary) given names which were composed of a classical Hebrew name plus an "Old" and/or "NEW" name, as the rabbis called them. Includes a database for searching Jewish given names.

Get ideas and help with the Facebook Polish Genealogy Research Community here.

JRI - Poland
Jewish Records Indexing - Poland is the largest fully searchable database of Jewish vital records accessible online. 4 million records from more than 500 Polish towns are now indexed. More are being added every few months.


 * On finding an indexed record of interest, there will usually be three options for obtaining the original record:
 * a link to the digital image (or one nearby)
 * a Family History Library microfilm number
 * the contact information for the archive (follow the links at the page bottom) Order these records directly from the Regional Archive where the records are maintained. Instructions and further information are found here. Use the Order Form for your inquiry.

Indexing is incomplete! Sometimes only part of the available record set is indexed (e.g., births and not deaths). Carefully watch the place names, record types and date ranges listed in the search results.

The Knowles Collection: Jews of Europe
Genealogies of many Jews who appear in the records of the countries of Europe. The great advantage of the Knowles Collection is that it links together into family groups, thousands of individual Jews (over 380,000 for this database as of Jan 2015). Use the above link to search the collection. To view a description of the collection, click here.

Yad Vashem Shoah Database
The YadVashem.org Central Database of Shoah (Holocaust) Victims’ Names is searchable by name and by community with “synonym” or “Soundex” options.

Shabbat goy
A new website Shabbat Goy that provides information about more than 200 concentration camps, Jewish synagogues and cemeteries in Poland. The site is in French, but the home page provides a link to Google Translate so that it can be read in any language. To read the locality list in your native language, invoke the language conversion feature on the home page and then click the words “All Sites” on the black bar near the top of the page. The list of localities is not in alphabetical order, so an alphabetical list appears below:


 * Annopol, Auschwitz, Bedzin, Belzyce, Biala, Biala Podlaska, Biala, Bialystok, Bielsk Podlaski, Blechhammer, Bochnia, Bojanowo, Buk, Byczyna-Biskupice, Chelm, Chelmno, Chrzanow, Czeladz, Czerniejewo, Czestochowa, Dabrowa Tarnowska, Debica, Drawsko Pomorskie, Elk, Gdansk, Gliwice, Glogowek, Glubczyce, Gogolin, Goleniow, Gryfice, Jarocin, Jaworzno, Jedwabne, Karczew, Katowice, Kazimierz Dolny, Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Kepno, Klimontow, Konin, Kornik, Koscian, Koszalin, Kozmin, Krakow, Krapkowice, KraSnik, Krasnystaw, Krotoszyn, Kuznica, Lancut, Leczna, LeSnica, Leszno, Lodz, Lomza, Lublin, Majdanek, Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Mikolajki, Milowka, Miroslawiec, Mosina, Mszczonow, Niezdrowice, Nisko, Nowy Dwor, Nowy Sacz, Opatow, Opole Lubelskie, Orla, Ostrow Wielkopolski, Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, Oswiecim, Otwock, Ozarow, Piaski, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Plaszow, Pobiedziska, Pogorzela, Polczyn Zdroj, Poznan, Prudnik, Przeworsk, Przysucha, Pszczyna, Pyskowice, Radymno, Radzyn Podlaski, Ropczyce, Rozwadow, Rymanow, Rzeszow, Sandomierz, Sanok, Sawin, Sedziszow Malopolski, Sejny, Skoczow, Slomniki, Slupca, Smigiel, Sobibor, Sokolow Malopolski, Sosnowiec, Stary Sacz, Strzegom, Strzegom, Strzelce Opolskie, Stutthof, Sulawki (sic), Swarzedz, Swidnica, Swidwin, Szczebrzeszyn, Szczucin, Szczuczyn, Szydlow, Tarnobrzeg, Tarnow, Tarnowskie Gory, Toszek, Toszek, Treblinka, Trzebinia, Tuczno, Tyczyn, Tykocin, Ujazd, Ulanow, Uzarzewo, Warszawa, Wieliczka, Wlodawa, Zabrze, Zamosc, Zary, Zator, Ziebice, Zyrardow.

The International Tracing Service
International Tracing Service was established at the end of World War I to help people in Europe to find family and friends who had been lost as a result of the war. The archives of the ITS were opened to the public in November 2007. The collections of the ITS are written in German. Two of the collections of the ITS have information of particular value for researching Jewish families. These records are the T/D files, and the Central Name Index.

T/D Files

The T/D (Tracing Document) files contain inquiries made by individuals after the war seeking to know the fate of their friends or relatives. The writer often provides valuable information such as family relationships ages, birthplaces, and locations where the family lived. Any documents or future correspondence related to the initial inquiry are included in the file. Even if the missing person was never found, the inquiry and associated documents may provide valuable information and lead the researcher to other relatives.

Central Name Index

This file indexes the over 17 million names found in the collections of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen. Most of the documents in the ITS are World War II era documents such as arrest papers and concentration camp lists. Names from these lists, along with the those in the T/D, are contained in the Central Name Index. Genealogists with a rare surname may even want to do a general search in the Central Name Index, as this may provide a more complete picture of the family.

Overlaps and Differences between ITS and Yad Vashem Databases

Read The International Tracing Service (ITS) and Yad Vashem to fully understand the relationships between the two. Most of ITS holdings may be found at Yad Vashem.

ITS Contact Information

The Address for the International Tracing Service is as follows:

International Tracing Service

Grosse Allee 5-9

34454 Bad Arolsen

Germany

E-mail: email@its-arolsen.org

The German Red Cross Tracing Service
The GRC Tracing Service supports people who have become separated from their family due to armed conflicts, natural disasters, escape, displacement or migration. It helps to trace family members, to put them back in contact and to reunite families.

Select region and branch office to find contact information.

The Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation

Data regarding locations of Polish Jewish records originally published in books by Miriam Weiner is now on this website with periodic updates. Contains articles, essays, maps, archivist insights, and archival inventory for Jewish research in Poland. The website also contains a database of documents that is searchable by town. The search for documents in Eastern Europe ancestral towns is complicated, partly because of the destruction of documents during the Holocaust and changing borders and names. Only the first few letters of the town needs to be known, as all towns beginning with those letters will appear in the list. Some towns will even be cross-referenced with spelling variations or name changes. However, to determine the current spelling of a town, consult Where Once We Walked by Mokotoff and Sack (Avotaynu, 1991). The database will note the types of documents that has survived for that town, including army lists, Jewish vital records, family lists, census records, voter and tax lists, immigration documents, Holocaust material, school records, occupational lists, and more. The span of years covered by these documents and where to find them will also be provided. Records in the archives can be accessed on various websites or databases (such as JewishGen) in person at the archives, by writing to the archives directly, or by hiring a professional researcher to do the work. By consolidating data from five Eastern European countries, researchers can easily determine which records are kept by which archives or repositories.


 * See Routes to Roots Foundation and hover over Poland for a Genealogical and Family History guide to Jewish and civil records in Eastern Europe
 * See also the book, Jewish roots in Ukraine and Moldova by Miriam Weiner (FamilySearch Catalog call no. 947.71 F2w 1999)

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
"YIVO is dedicated to fostering knowledge of the ongoing story of Jewish life, with a focus on the history and culture of East European Jewry." Includes a significant collection of records from Vilna, Lithuania, which was a part of Poland for a time.

Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland
The foundation's primary mission is to protect and commemorate the surviving sites and monuments of Jewish cultural heritage in Poland.

Maps of Poland

 * To view present-day Poland at Google Maps, click here.
 * For a Jewish population density map of Europe in 1900, click here.
 * For a map showing the percentage of Jews in the Pale of Settlement and Congress Poland, c. 1905, click here.
 * To view an additional historical map showing the historical percentage of Jews in governments, click here. Definition of "Pale of Settlement" from Wikipedia.org: "The Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта́ осе́длости, chertá osédlosti, Yiddish: דער תּחום-המושבֿ, der tkhum-ha-moyshəv, Hebrew: תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, tḥùm ha-mosháv‎) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited. It extended from the eastern pale, or demarcation line, to the western Russian border with the Kingdom of Prussia (later the German Empire) and with Austria-Hungary. The English term 'pale' is derived from the Latin word 'palus,' a stake, extended to mean the area enclosed by a fence or boundary."
 * To view historical maps of Poland, click here.
 * For a map showing Poland's current voivodeships (provinces), click here.

Historical Background
INSERT HISTORICAL BACKGROUND HERE.

Find the Town
In order to research your family in Russian Poland, it is essential that you have identified the place where they came from. It is not enough to only know 'Poland' or 'Russia;' you must know the shtetl, or town, they came from. In addition to research in the records of the country they immigrated to, you may also want to examine the following sources to help you determine possible town locations.

JewishGen Family Finder
The Family Finder is a database of both ancestral hometowns and surnames that have been researched by their descendants world wide. The Family Finder allows you to connect with others who are researching similar ancestors and origins and collaborate your research. To add the surnames and locations you are researching:


 * click on Modify (Edit your existing entries) or Enter (Add new entries).
 * Type in the surnames and/or locations of interest and hit Submit.
 * To search the database and see if you can connect to family members and other researchers, choose Search (Search the database) from the Town Finder home page. You can search for a surname and/or a town. Search results will appear in a chart format giving you the surname, town, country, and researcher information (often includes contact information) and the date they last logged into JewishGen.

Miriam Weiner's Surname Database
Using the Surname Database on Miriam Weiner's Routes to Roots Foundation website can help narrow down a more specific location for where individuals lived who shared your ancestor's surname.


 * Use the Standard Surname Database if you know your ancestor's given name, surname, or town name. This database is comprised of name lists from local historians and heads of Jewish communities, name lists from books, and name lists from various archives.
 * Use the OCR Surname Database (optical character recognition) to search for your ancestor's surname in either the Latin alphabet or in Cyrillic. This database is comprised of information from business directories, address calendars, telephone books, typed name lists, and name lists from books and from archives.

Maps and Gazetteers
Once you have determined the town your ancestor came from, the next step is locating the town in a map or a gazetteer. This will help you to identify political boundaries, place names, alternate spellings, etc. Gazetteers and historical maps are especially useful for understanding boundary changes or finding communities that no longer exist.

JewishGen Gazetteer

 * The JewishGen Gazetteer is a useful online gazetteer for locations in Eastern Europe. Note that wild card searches are not supported. To view an entry page, click on the Jewish star to the left of the town name. Entry pages provide jurisdictions for before WWI, the interwar period, after WWII and modern-day. Alternate names and Yiddish and Russian spellings are also included. In the center, you'll find a map and a list of additional Jewish communities located nearby. Finally, under Additional Information and in the green box at the top, you'll find links to references and additional resources that may help you in your research.

Maps of your Ancestor's Town

 * Miriam Weiner's website offers select historical maps of Poland, as well as a variety of historical images from towns in Poland that may prove useful in your family history.

1897 Census
The 1897 Russian Imperial Census was the first and only census carried out in the Russian Empire. The census enumerated the entire population of the Empire (excluding Finland), but after statistical data was gathered, many of the census returns were destroyed. Most Russian Poland census returns were destroyed; however, some original returns still exist for Łomża and surrounding areas. Use the resources below to help you locate existing Łomża census information. Use the Reading the 1897 Census "How to" Guide to learn how to read census records.

JRI Poland
JRI-Poland has compiled a surname list of family names that appeared in the surviving Łomża 1897 Census returns. To find records for any of the surnames mentioned on the list, search the JRI-Poland database for the exact spelling of the surname (for help using the database, click here). In the search results, select List [number] records from Łomża Gubernia. Look for the collection title called Łomża District Census.

Polish State Archives
Indexes to census records can be found on JRI-Poland, but the originals are still located in Poland, in the Archiwum Państwowe w Białymstoku Oddział w Łomży. Digital images are not yet available online, but you can access information about the records here on the Polish State Archive's new website, or here on the old version of the site.

Vital Records
In the former Russian territory, rabbis were designated as official registrars of Jewish civil transcripts after 1826.

Between 1808 and 1826 Jews may have been recorded in the Roman Catholic Church. For more information see the article Jews Found in Records of Other Denominations. In 1826, Jewish congregations were required to keep their own vital statistics records and will not commonly be found in the records of the Roman Catholic Church. Some Roman Catholic church records that include Jewish individuals have been indexed on JRI-Poland - see the section below for more information about this website.

JRI Poland (indexed records)
JRI-Poland has indexed over 6.1 million Jewish birth, marriage, and death records from current and former territories of Poland. Search the free database using information such as surname, given name, or any field. Search results are displayed according to historical region (gubernia, wojewodztwo, etc.). For additional help in searching the database see the article, How to Search Our Database.

Indexes were taken from a variety of different places including FamilySearch microfilms, digital images housed on the Polish State Archives and other genealogical/archival sites, or from originals located in Poland.


 * To locate original images on FamilySearch using a microfilm number, look for a number found in the microfilm column (usually the last column on the right). If there is not a blue hyperlink on the number, copy the microfilm number and then go to the FamilySearch Catalog. Paste the microfilm number in the Film/Fiche Number box and select Search (you may need to remove commas). One, or several result may appear. Look for a result with the the Author as the town listed on JRI-Poland. Scroll down to the portion of the page entitled Film/Digital Notes. Look for your film number in the Film Column. Pay attention to the item number (if one is listed). Next, look in the Format column.
 * A camera icon indicates the digital images of the records are accessible online. Click on the camera and then locate the correct item number within the film.
 * A camera icon with a key indicates that the item has viewing restrictions and may be accessible at a Family History Center or on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. To locate a Family History Center near you, click here.
 * A magnifying glass indicates that at least a portion of the film has been indexed. Click on the magnifying glass to search through the indexes.
 * A wheel icon indicates that the item has viewing restrictions and is only accessible on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 * To locate original images on the Polish State Archives
 * To locate additional source information scroll down to the bottom of your search page on JRI-Poland to the Datafile section. Locate the collection of interest from the index and then look at the final column, LDS films/contact information.

Polish State Archives (digital images or archival references)
The Polish archive system consists of many regional archives throughout Poland which are under the umbrella of the main Polish State Archive in Warsaw. Their website incorporates the holdings of all regional archives to help users find and locate records and documents. Note that some records are digitized and accessible online, while other records simply provide an inventory and an indication of which archive they are presently stored in. To access the new version of the Polish State Archives, click here. To access the old version of the Polish State Archives website, click here. To learn how to use the website see below. For more detailed information, see the Szukaj w Archiwach - The Polish State Archives Website "How to" Guide.

Click here to begin your search.


 * Change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper right hand corner (unfortunately, not everything will be translated into English - if you are using the Google Chrome browser, you can right-click anywhere on the page and select translate to English, to get translations for anything the website didn't automatically translate).
 * Enter desired search terms (typically, you'll want to search for a place name rather than a personal name). Keep in mind the following:
 * The Polish word used on the site to identify Jewish records is mojżeszowe.
 * urodzenia = birth
 * małżeństwa = marriage
 * zgony = death
 * alegata = marriage banns
 * Choose your search options by clicking on the tabs above the search box - you can choose to search Everything, Files, or Vital Records and Civil Registers.
 * If you find an entry that interests you, click on it, and then select the option See units from this period. After opening the entry, look for Digital Copies in the upper right hand corner of each individual entry. If scans of the records have been made, then the Digital Copies number will be greater than zero. If scans are not available then contact the archive that holds the records. Reference the archival information found in the entry. This will help the archive locate your record faster.

FamilySearch (digital images)
There may also be records available through FamilySearch. To find records for your location, go to the FamilySearch Catalog. In the place box, type in the name of your town and click the appropriate entry from the drop-down box. Keep in mind that records are often listed using multiple levels of jurisdictions from largest (country) to smallest (town), as well as varying jurisdictions over time.

Alternatively, you can click here to access catalog entries for Poland. Click on Places within Poland and a list of places will appear. Click on your desired location(s). A list of record topics will then appear. Jewish records are most commonly catalogued under the headings Jewish Records or Jewish History. You may also find record under Church Records (for Jews recorded in records of other denominations), Civil Registration, Concentration Camps, Genealogy, Holocaust, and Minorities.

To open a topic, click on it and then a list of the records included in that topic will appear. Click on the blue links to view specific record titles. As you scroll down on the catalog entry page, look for the Film/Digital Notes section. The column on the left explains the types of records/years that are contained on the film. The final Format column indicates accessibility.


 * A magnifying glass indicates that at least part of the film is indexed, and clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index.
 * A camera indicates records are available online in a digital format.
 * A camera with a key on top means the record is viewable digitally but with certain restrictions that may mean the record can only be viewed at a Family History Center, FamilySearch affiliate library, or the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Take a look at the Family History Center Finder to discover a location near you.
 * A wheel icon indicates the record is only available on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Holocaust

 * JewishGen Poland Collection
 * European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Online Portal offers information on Holocaust archival material held in institutions in Europe and throughout the world.
 * USHMM: Poland, Jewish Holocaust Survivors Registered in Warsaw, 1945-1956 Ancestry Collection contains indexes to 31,175 registration cards of Jewish survivors in Warsaw after the war. The indexes provide name, date of birth, information about parents, pre-war residences, and additional information. Ancestry is typically a subscription site, but you can search Holocaust records for free. See more information about that here. You can request a copy of the original record by using the Document Request Form fond at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.
 * Arolsen Archives, also known as the International Center on Nazi Persecution, and formerly the International Tracing Service, is one of the largest archives on the victims of Nazi persecution. Many of their holdings are available to research online.
 * International Tracing Service was established at the end of World War I to help people in Europe to find family and friends who had been lost as a result of the war. The archives of the ITS were opened to the public in November 2007. The collections of the ITS are written in German. Two of the collections of the ITS have information of particular value for researching Jewish families. These records are the T/D files, and the Central Name Index. T/D Files  The T/D  (Tracing Document) files contain inquiries made by individuals after the war seeking to know the fate of their friends or relatives. The writer often provides valuable information such as family relationships ages, birthplaces, and locations where the family lived. Any documents or future correspondence related to the initial inquiry are included in the file. Even if the missing person was never found, the inquiry and associated documents may provide valuable information and lead the researcher to other relatives.  Central Name Index  This file indexes the over 17 million names found in the collections of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen. Most of the documents in the ITS are World War II era documents such as arrest papers and concentration camp lists. Names from these lists, along with the those in the T/D, are contained in the Central Name Index. Genealogists with a rare surname may even want to do a general search in the Central Name Index, as this may provide a more complete picture of the family.
 * Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is a database of victims of the Holocaust.

Yizkor Books
Yizkor books are memorial books commemorating a Jewish community that was destroyed during the Holocaust. Books are usually published by former residents and records the remembrance of homes, people and ways of life lost during World War II. Most books are written in Yiddish or Hebrew, but in recent years, many have been translated and made available online. You may wish to refer to the Glossary of Yizkor Book Terms list to help you.


 * Take a look at the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project to locate a translation or Yizkor book for your locality of interest.
 * Use Genealogy Indexer to find indexes to over 364 Yizkor books.
 * The New York Public Library has a large collection of Yizkor books, and many have been digitized.
 * The Family History Library has copies of many Yizkor books. Check the FamilySearch Catalog for availability for your town.

Historical Photos
The Image Database on Miriam Weiner's website contains photographs and postcard views of many towns and cities throughout Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Poland, and other select countries dating back to the early 1900s. These include pre-WWI and current town views, photos of synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, and Holocaust memorials. Even if you are unable to find a picture of your ancestor's town, it may still be interesting to see what other towns in the area looked like, which will allow you to a get a feel of what life may have been like for your ancestor.

Genealogy Indexer
Genealogy Indexer is a free database that provides access to thousands of records including city directories from the Russian Empire, Yizkor books, WWI casualty lists and other military records, as well as school records. Links to the original records are included.

Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation
Use the Archive Database to locate what records exist for your ancestor's town, and where to find them. Search for the name of your ancestor's locality, and the database will provide results for known surviving records from that location, and where the records are held. (Remember to adjust the search criteria for Soundex options or spelling variations).

This database contains documents such as army/recruit lists, family lists and census records, Jewish vital records (birth, marriage, death, divorce), immigration documents, voter and tax lists, property and notary records, Holocaust documents, police files, and pogrom documents (school records, occupation lists, local government and hospital records).


 * See Routes to Roots Foundation and hover over Poland for a Genealogical and Family History guide to Jewish and civil records in Eastern Europe.

Jewish Roots
The Еврейские Корни (Jewish Roots) site is an excellent resource to help you locate archival documents. The website is in Russian, but if you are using the Google Chrome browser, simply right click anywhere on the page and select Translate to English. Search using the name of the town (find the Cyrillic spelling of the town on JewishGen Town Finder) to see what archival records might be available for your location. In addition to the database, use the Forum to connect with other researchers and find other potential resources for your location.

Reading Records
Polish Jewish records are most commonly written in Polish or Russian. Use the resources in this list to help you learn how to read the records. You may also consider using a free translation service such as the FamilySearch Community (Be sure to post in the Poland or Russian Empire Genealogy Research group or tag @PolandGenealogyResearch or@RussianEmpireGenealogyResearch in your question) or JewishGen View Mate.

Polish

 * Polish Genealogical Word List

Russian

 * The Russian Alphabet "How to" Guide
 * Deciphering the Handwriting and Understanding the Grammar "How to" Guide
 * Russian Genealogical Word List
 * FamilySearch Learning Center - Russian Handwriting Courses

Additional Resources and Special Interest Groups (SIGS)
Białystok Region SIG The city of Białystok and nearby towns and villages, currently in Poland, formerly in the Russian Empire's Grodno Gubernia.


 * Łódź area SIG The city of Łódź, Poland, and localities within a 40-mile radius – in Congress Poland's gubernias of Piotrków, Płock, Warszawa, or Kalisz.
 * Suwalk-Łomza SIGPublisher of Landsmen, covering these two northeastern gubernias of Russian Poland, now in northeast Poland and southwest Lithuania.
 * Warszawa SIGThe capital city of Poland, Warszawa (Warsaw).

Kielce-Radom SIG Journal
A link to a list of indexed towns from the Kielce-Radom area. For many years, the Kielce-Radom Special Interest Group has been indexed Jewish vital records from that area of Poland, publishing the data in their printed Journal. These indexes have been now merged into the JRI Poland database.

AUSTRIAN
Austrian laws allowed Jews to maintain registers under Catholic supervision from 1789, but most Jewish registers date from the 1830s or later. Jewish records were not given the status of official legal documents in Austria until 1868.

Gesher Galicia SIG Austrian Poland, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1772 until 1917, now in southern Poland and western Ukraine.

GERMAN

 * Danzig/Gdańsk SIGDanzig/Gdańsk, and its precursor communities of Alt Schottland, Langfuhr, Mattenbuden, Weinberg, and Danzig in der Breitgasse, and Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański).
 * Danzig/Gdańsk SIGDanzig/Gdańsk, and its precursor communities of Alt Schottland, Langfuhr, Mattenbuden, Weinberg, and Danzig in der Breitgasse, and Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański).

German-Jewish SIG Germany and German-speaking areas of Alsace, Lorraine, Switzerland, and Poland.

Historical Background
INSERT HISTORICAL INFORMATION HERE

Find the Town
In order to research your family in Prussian Poland, it is essential that you have identified the place where they came from. It is not enough to only know 'Poland,' 'Prussia,' or 'Germany;' you must know the shtetl, or town, they came from. In addition to research in the records of the country they immigrated to, you may also want to examine the following sources to help you determine possible town locations.

JewishGen Family Finder
The Family Finder is a database of both ancestral hometowns and surnames that have been researched by their descendants world wide. The Family Finder allows you to connect with others who are researching similar ancestors and origins and collaborate your research. To add the surnames and locations you are researching:


 * click on Modify (Edit your existing entries) or Enter (Add new entries).
 * Type in the surnames and/or locations of interest and hit Submit.
 * To search the database and see if you can connect to family members and other researchers, choose Search (Search the database) from the Town Finder home page. You can search for a surname and/or a town. Search results will appear in a chart format giving you the surname, town, country, and researcher information (often includes contact information) and the date they last logged into JewishGen.

Miriam Weiner's Surname Database
Using the Surname Database on Miriam Weiner's Routes to Roots Foundation website can help narrow down a more specific location for where individuals lived who shared your ancestor's surname.


 * Use the Standard Surname Database if you know your ancestor's given name, surname, or town name. This database is comprised of name lists from local historians and heads of Jewish communities, name lists from books, and name lists from various archives.
 * Use the OCR Surname Database (optical character recognition) to search for your ancestor's surname in either the Latin alphabet or in Cyrillic. This database is comprised of information from business directories, address calendars, telephone books, typed name lists, and name lists from books and from archives.

Maps and Gazetteers
Once you have determined the town your ancestor came from, the next step is locating the town in a map or a gazetteer. This will help you to identify political boundaries, place names, alternate spellings, etc. Gazetteers and historical maps are especially useful for understanding boundary changes or finding communities that no longer exist.

JewishGen Gazetteer

 * The JewishGen Gazetteer is a useful online gazetteer for locations in Eastern Europe. Note that wild card searches are not supported. To view an entry page, click on the Jewish star to the left of the town name. Entry pages provide jurisdictions for before WWI, the interwar period, after WWII and modern-day. Alternate names and Yiddish and Russian spellings are also included. In the center, you'll find a map and a list of additional Jewish communities located nearby. Finally, under Additional Information and in the green box at the top, you'll find links to references and additional resources that may help you in your research.

Meyers Gazetteer

 * Meyer's Gazetteer represents Prussian areas as they existed in 1871. The gazetteer, available online is easy to search and can be searched using wild cards. To learn how to use this gazetteer, see the Meyer's Gazetteer "How to" guide. Note that you will need to search for places using the German version of the name, rather than the Polish.

Kartenmeister

 * Kartenmeister shows Prussian Poland as they existed in 1950. It provides both the German and Polish names. To learn how to use this gazetteer, see the Kartenmeister Gazetteer "How to" guide.

Maps of your Ancestor's Town

 * Miriam Weiner's website offers select historical maps of Poland, as well as a variety of historical images from towns in Poland that may prove useful in your family history.

JRI Poland (indexed records)
JRI-Poland has indexed over 6.1 million Jewish birth, marriage, and death records from current and former territories of Poland. Search the free database using information such as surname, given name, or any field. Search results are displayed according to historical region (gubernia, wojewodztwo, etc.). For additional help in searching the database see the article, How to Search Our Database.

Indexes were taken from a variety of different places including FamilySearch microfilms, digital images housed on the Polish State Archives and other genealogical/archival sites, or from originals located in Poland.


 * To locate original images on FamilySearch using a microfilm number, look for a number found in the microfilm column (usually the last column on the right). If there is not a blue hyperlink on the number, copy the microfilm number and then go to the FamilySearch Catalog. Paste the microfilm number in the Film/Fiche Number box and select Search (you may need to remove commas). One, or several result may appear. Look for a result with the the Author as the town listed on JRI-Poland. Scroll down to the portion of the page entitled Film/Digital Notes. Look for your film number in the Film Column. Pay attention to the item number (if one is listed). Next, look in the Format column.
 * A camera icon indicates the digital images of the records are accessible online. Click on the camera and then locate the correct item number within the film.
 * A camera icon with a key indicates that the item has viewing restrictions and may be accessible at a Family History Center or on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. To locate a Family History Center near you, click here.
 * A magnifying glass indicates that at least a portion of the film has been indexed. Click on the magnifying glass to search through the indexes.
 * A wheel icon indicates that the item has viewing restrictions and is only accessible on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 * To locate original images on the Polish State Archives
 * To locate additional source information scroll down to the bottom of your search page on JRI-Poland to the Datafile section. Locate the collection of interest from the index and then look at the final column, LDS films/contact information.

JewishGen
Some vital records have been indexed and are available through the JewishGen Germany database.

Polish State Archives (digital images or archival references)
The Polish archive system consists of many regional archives throughout Poland which are under the umbrella of the main Polish State Archive in Warsaw. Their website incorporates the holdings of all regional archives to help users find and locate records and documents. Note that some records are digitized and accessible online, while other records simply provide an inventory and an indication of which archive they are presently stored in. To access the new version of the Polish State Archives, click here. To access the old version of the Polish State Archives website, click here. To learn how to use the website see below. For more detailed information, see the Szukaj w Archiwach - The Polish State Archives Website "How to" Guide.

Click here to begin your search.


 * Change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper right hand corner (unfortunately, not everything will be translated into English - if you are using the Google Chrome browser, you can right-click anywhere on the page and select translate to English, to get translations for anything the website didn't automatically translate).
 * Enter desired search terms (typically, you'll want to search for a place name rather than a personal name). Keep in mind the following:
 * The Polish word used on the site to identify Jewish records is mojżeszowe.
 * urodzenia = birth
 * małżeństwa = marriage
 * zgony = death
 * alegata = marriage banns
 * Choose your search options by clicking on the tabs above the search box - you can choose to search Everything, Files, or Vital Records and Civil Registers.
 * If you find an entry that interests you, click on it, and then select the option See units from this period. After opening the entry, look for Digital Copies in the upper right hand corner of each individual entry. If scans of the records have been made, then the Digital Copies number will be greater than zero. If scans are not available then contact the archive that holds the records. Reference the archival information found in the entry. This will help the archive locate your record faster.

FamilySearch (digital images)
There may also be records available through FamilySearch. To find records for your location, go to the FamilySearch Catalog. In the place box, type in the name of your town and click the appropriate entry from the drop-down box. Keep in mind that records are often listed using multiple levels of jurisdictions from largest (country) to smallest (town), as well as varying jurisdictions over time.

Alternatively, you can click here to access catalog entries for Poland. Click on Places within Poland and a list of places will appear. Click on your desired location(s). A list of record topics will then appear. Jewish records are most commonly catalogued under the headings Jewish Records or Jewish History. You may also find record under Church Records (for Jews recorded in records of other denominations), Civil Registration, Concentration Camps, Genealogy, Holocaust, and Minorities.

To open a topic, click on it and then a list of the records included in that topic will appear. Click on the blue links to view specific record titles. As you scroll down on the catalog entry page, look for the Film/Digital Notes section. The column on the left explains the types of records/years that are contained on the film. The final Format column indicates accessibility.


 * A magnifying glass indicates that at least part of the film is indexed, and clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index.
 * A camera indicates records are available online in a digital format.
 * A camera with a key on top means the record is viewable digitally but with certain restrictions that may mean the record can only be viewed at a Family History Center, FamilySearch affiliate library, or the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Take a look at the Family History Center Finder to discover a location near you.
 * A wheel icon indicates the record is only available on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

1939 German Minority Census Database
The 1939 German Minority Census Database is provided by Tracing the Past and the Mapping the Lives Project.

In May of 1839, a census was conducted in Germany that required the head of each household to fill out an Ergänzungskarte, or a card that indicated the Jewish background of each of the resident's four grandparents. Microfilm copies of the German Minority Census of 1939 are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Copies can also be found in Germany and Israel. The database includes those who had at least one Jewish grandparents. For more information about these records, click here. To search the database, click here.

Jewish Families in the German Empire Database (Familiendatenbank Juden im Deutschen Reich)
The Jewish Families in the German Empire Database (German - Familiendatenbank Juden im Deutschen Reich), compiled by Ingo Paul, contains nearly 70,000 individuals from parts of Prussia that are now a part of present-day Poland (Ostpreußen, Pommern, Posen, Schlesien, and Westpreußen). The website and database is in German.

Pomeranian Genealogical Association German: Pommern, Polish: Pomorski
Look for civil registry records with a “USC” (Urząd Stanu Cywilnego) designation.

Poznan Project German: Posen
Includes “civil registry” records.

Akta Miasta Poznania - Kartoteka ewidencji ludności /1870-1931/

Ancestry.com

 * Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Births, 1550-1993, index
 * Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Deaths, 1808-1942, index
 * Poland, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Marriages, 1798-1939, index
 * Poland, Jewish Prisoners of War Registration Cards, 1939-1945, index
 * Holocaust: Records from Ten Ghettos, index
 * Poland, Business Directories, 1926, 1930, 1932 and 1935, index
 * Poland, Martyred Jewish Physicians, 1939-1945, index
 * Poland, Jewish Children Survivors of the Holocaust, 1945, index



Lost Shoebox Overview of Online Records for Poland
A map view of available scans and indexes arranged by Voivodeships (administrative districts). The numbers on the map refer to the items listed below.

Szukaj w Archiwach (Search the Polish Archives)
Contains information about Polish national archive resources kept at state archives in Lublin and Poznań and their branches. Digital copies of some of archive materials from these and other archives are also available in the service. Additional scans will become available as the website develops.

Its primary purpose is to provide online descriptions of archival material from state archives and other cultural institutions. Selected archival descriptions are presented in parallel with the scans, the number of which is steadily growing. Using the service is free and does not require a log in.


 * The Polish word used on this site to identify Jewish records is "mojżeszowe."
 * Each catalog entry includes the collection name. For vital records and civil registers, the catalog entry includes the locality (e.g., town) where the record was made.
 * The Polish identifier for birth records is "urodzenia."
 * The Polish identifier for marriage records is "małżeństwa."
 * The Polish identifier for death records is "zgony."
 * The Polish identifier for marriage banns records is "alegata."
 * Search Example: To find Jewish marriages in the city of Radom, enter "mojżeszowe małżeństwa radom" in the search field at Szukaj w Archiwach.
 * If scans of the records have been made, then the "Digital Copies" number will be greater than zero. After opening the catalog entry by clicking on it, look for "Digital Copies" to the right of the very red arrow towards the top, and click there. At that time, you will see the online viewer options.
 * If scans are not available then contact the archive that holds the records.
 * Begin searching at Szukaj w Archiwach by clicking here and closing the pop-up.
 * Switch to English as necessary (unfortunately, not everything will be translated).
 * Choose to search "Everything," "Files," or "Vital Records and Civil Registers."
 * Enter desired search terms.

The PRADZIAD Database
PRADZIAD stands for "Database Registration Program Vital Records and Civil Status." It is a catalog of record sets found in Polish archives. Search by name of town, denomination “mojżeszowe,” etc. Here is a fast link to all Jewish records found in the PRAZIAD database (over 3000 record sets). However Jews will also be found in other historical and civil record sets not designated as "Jewish" record sets. You may wish to search through all the record sets for your towns.

Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie (National Archive in Krakow)
Includes online scans of census records, civil registers etc. For civil registers, search “Akta stanu cywilnego Izraelickiego”.

Archiwum Państwowe w Olsztynie (State Archive in Olsztyn)
Includes images of civil registries (“Urząd Stanu Cywilnego”).

(Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu - State Archive in Poznan/Posen)
Includes indexed census records from 1870-1931 with link to image.

Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie (State Archive in Szczecin)
Includes civil registry records by community, designated “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego” and linked from the left-hand sidebar. Browse images.

Genealogia w Archiwach (Genealogy in the Archives of Torun and Bydgoszcz}
A joint genealogical project of the state archives in Torun and Bydgoszcz containing images of civil records starting in 1874 for Pomorski and Kujawsko-pomorski. Browse by community and date.

Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD) (Central Archive of Historical Records in Warsaw, records of Galicia)
Online images of the registry books of Jewish communities in the area of the Bug River from 1789-1943. The Bug River ran through Galicia and presently forms part of the border between Ukraine and Poland. Some, but not all, of these records are indexed at JewishGen.

The records of 137 Jewish communities are to be found at AGAD. Those with digital images (most of them) are identified by a “galeria ze skanami” (gallery of scans) link. Contact the archive about those without scans. The access page begins with general information, lists all 137 communities, and then re-iterates record set by record set with record type and dates covered.

Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu (State Archive in Wrocław)
Search for scans of civil registers using “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego.”

Metryki Genealodzy (Genealogical Records Indexing Project)
Click on the current Administrative Division for your community, then the county (info from your community page). Look for “Denomination: mojżeszowe” and/or “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego” meaning “Civil Registry Office,” and then follow the links to browse the online images.

Geneteka
Search indexed records by name, place, event, and date.

National BaSIA Database (Wielkopolska Genealogical Society)
Covers Greater Poland and Kuyavian-Pomerania. Includes civil registry records. Click on map to see what is indexed. Search by name.