Lower Silesian (Dolnośląskie) Voivodeship, Poland Genealogy

Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland Genealogy

Historical Geography
Throughout its history Lower Silesia has been under the control of the medieval Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy from 1526. In 1742 nearly all of the region was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia (Germany) and became part of the German Empire in 1871. After 1945 the main part of the former Prussian Province of Lower Silesia fell to the Republic of Poland, while a smaller part west of the Oder-Neisse line remained within East Germany. The voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Wrocław, Legnica, Wałbrzych and Jelenia Góra Voivodeships.Sources: Wikipedia, Lower Silesia and Lower Silesian Voivodeship.

Because of this history of changing nationality, records for Lower Silesia are found in the FamilySearch system under both Schlesien, Germany and Wrocław, Poland. Use the gazetteer, Kartenmeister - German/Polish Place Name Conversion to find the name of your town in both languages.

See also: Silesia, Germany Genealogy

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 we Wrocławiu: State Archives in Poznan, Greater Poland
 * JewishGen Poland Database
 * Archion: Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin ($)
 * 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

 * 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, Lower Silesi voivodeship was known as the Wrocław voivodeship. The FamilySearch Catalog is organized for Germany by the 1871 Meyer's gazetteer.  At that time, Lower Silesia was part of Schlesien, Germany.  Therefore, records for this area are listed under Wrocław, Poland and Germany, Preußen, Schlesien.
 * Towns had both German and Polish names. For example, Polish Wrocław is Breslau in German.  Use the gazetteer, Kartenmeister - German/Polish Place Name Conversion to find the name of your town in both languages.

To search the catalog:
 * a. Click on the records of Poland, ].
 * b. Click on Places within Poland,  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.
 * 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.

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.