Russian Poland Genealogy

Historical Background

 * 1772-1918 Obszar ziem dawnej Rzeczypospolitej pod władzą cesarza rosyjskiego zmieniał się na przestrzeni lat, tj. od I rozbioru w 1772 r. do chwili odzyskania niepodległości przez Polskę w 1918 r. Po kongresie wiedeńskim na terenach byłego Księstwa Warszawskiego (oprócz departamentu bydgoskiego i poznańskiego) utworzono Królestwo Polskie połączone z Rosją unią personalną. Cesarz Aleksander I oktrojował konstytucję, lecz po jakimś czasie przestała ona być przestrzegana, co było jednym z powodów wybuchu powstania listopadowego w 1830 r.
 * Od roku1807 zapisy metrykalne były sporządzane w języku polskim, zgodnie z kodeksem napoleońskim. Kler był odpowiedzialny za prowadzenie rejestru w określonej formie.
 * In 1825 the civil records were combined with the church records, when the clergy (being also the civil registrars) had the right to make the religious entry first and then to make a civil copy of it (the opposite to the previous system). The none-Christian records were maintained by the civil authorities.
 * Since 1830, the rabbi was responsible for keeping the Jewish records, and he was supervised by the civil authorities. The records were to be maintained in Polish.
 * The clergy, as well as the rabbis, were responsible for keeping a book divided in three parts: births, marriages, and deaths. That book as a duplicate was going to be closed each year and delivered to the appropriate court’s archive. The originals, where the entries were made in the separate books for births, marriages, and deaths, would remain at the place of their origin and consist of entries being made for many years in each of the books, until they will run out of space in them, at which point they will start entries in the next volume. All of the pages in the books had to be numbered.
 * The birth records had to be entered within eight days from the day of birth. The marriage record was entered after the marriage took place in the presence of two witnesses. The divorces and separations were within the scope of duties of the prosecutors.
 * Since 1868 the records were maintained in Russian, and after 1918 in Polish.
 * Where can we find the records today: At the places where the records were originally kept; at the appropriate Civil Registrar’s Offices (usually not older records than 100 years in Poland and 80 years in the Ukraine) then at the State Archives; at the Church Archives.

Jewish Records
You may access Jewish records from Russian Poland through Jewish Records Indexing_Poland (JRI-Poland), located at Jewish Records Indexing-Poland