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Eastern European Research — Focus on Poland
By Jonathan D. Shea, AG
I. Determining
the family's place of origin
To conduct
successful research in Europe it is absolutely necessary to pinpoint the
place of origin of the family, which must be gleaned from documents
generated in the United States. If you do not have an exact birthplace the
following sources will assist you in obtaining this essential information.
Do not just check one of the following; corroborate the data with other
documents.
NATURALIZATION
RECORDS
The series of documents created in the naturalization process
originated in the court where the applicant filed his request to be admitted
to US citizenship. The documents can be found in various court jurisdictions
including federal, state or county courts. The branches of the National
Archives have centralized many of the federal naturalizations and some state
archives have gathered this body of documents at their respective state
repositories. Geographical data improves after 1906 when naturalization
became a function of the federal government. However, not all naturalization
documents (pre and post 1906) were filled out in the degree of depth a
genealogist might desire. Some only give the country of origin.
PASSENGER SHIP
ARRIVALS
The name of each passenger on a ship docking at US ports of arrival was
recorded on ship passenger manifests created at the European port of
departure. Besides the passenger's name, and depending on the time period,
(pre 1900 lists provide much less information than later lists) you can also
learn a birthplace, the destination and name of the person to whom the
immigrant was going, and the name and place of residence of the immigrant's
nearest living relative in Europe. The main ports of departure in Europe for
Eastern European immigrants were Bremen and Hamburg in Germany, Antwerp in
Belgium, Rotterdam in Holland and Liverpool in England. Most Eastern
Europeans arrived in the US at NYC, followed by Baltimore, Philadelphia and
Boston. These lists can be found at the National Archives and LDS Family
History Centers. Names of the immigrants are in their native language, thus
you must use the proper spelling of first and last names (for example if you
called your Eastern European born grandmother "Fannie" and her real name at
birth was Feliksa or Fejga, you will NOT find her in the passenger list
index under “Fannie”).
CHURCH RECORDS
Many Polish, Lithuanian, German etc. pastors of Catholic ethnic parishes in
the US scrupulously recorded the exact places of origins of their
parishioners in the marriage records of the parish and on the baptismal
certificates of their American born children. If you are fortunate, your
parish of origin in the US will have records that will have a geographical
link to lead you back to your ancestral place of origin in Europe.
RECORDS OF
ETHNIC FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS
Many ethnic groups established mutual benefit societies, which had a formal
application process. Your ancestor's birthplace may appear on these
applications.
OTHER SOURCES
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US Vital records
(a long shot, many just list the country or region)
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Other federal
records - Social Security applications, WWI Draft Registrations, US
Passport records
-
Other records
generated locally such as: employment applications, welfare records,
community or parish histories, cemetery headstones, obituaries (English
language and ethnic press), probate records, coroners reports
-
Oral accounts of
the family (do not fully trust these unless you are speaking to the person
who actually immigrated) - Don't forget to check family photographs for
the name and location of a photographer or handwritten notations on the
back of pictures.
Caution:
If any of the above sources provide you with the name of a large city, this
information should be viewed with suspicion. Most of our ancestors were
engaged in agricultural occupations and lived in small villages and towns.
You need to do further investigating.
II.
Major Sources in Europe
Once you have
found the name of your ancestral village it is necessary to determine where
records were generated for this locality. In much of Poland a clergyman
functioned simultaneously as the vital records registrar. Each religion had
separate registers. (Civil registration did not exist in Poland until 1946.)
For Catholics and Protestants you will need to know the name of the parish
to which the village belonged. If you are researching Jewish ancestors you
will need to know the name of the Jewish registration district. To assist
you in pinpointing the location of your village and parish of origin the
following are recommended (those marked with an asterisk can be found at the
Resource center of The Polish Genealogical Society of the Northeast, New
Britain, Connecticut)
Please note:
Poland's external and internal borders changed frequently in the time period
that interests most researchers (late 1700s to present). Poland, once an
expansive and prosperous commonwealth, was wiped off the map of Europe in
the late 1700s in a series of partitions executed by its neighbors Prussia,
Russian and Austria. It did not emerge as an independent state until 1918.
Since that time its external (national) borders have changed twice. Since
1945 when the last external border change took place there have been three
internal revisions of provincial boundaries 1945-1975, 1975-1999, and
1999-present.
GAZETTEERS AND GEOGRAPHICAL
DICTIONARIES
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Slowmk
Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego...
A sixteen volume compilation of geographical place names printed in the
latter decades of the nineteenth century and beginning decade of the
twentieth. Provides a brief history of each locality. Useful for
historical background of your locality of origin.
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Spis
Miejscawosci Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej.
Printed in 1934, this work lists all localities in Poland within its
borders at that time. It included territory that is now in Belarus,
Lithuania and Ukraine. Another special feature is the inclusion of the
location of the parish church for each locality.
-
Spis
Miejscowsci Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej.
Printed in 1967 this work is similar in format to the 1934 work except
that is does not give the parish for each locality but does provide the
location of the civil registry office. It also includes territory regained
from Germany in 1945 that is not included in the 1934 publication.
Note: The
Mormons use the 1945-1975 border configuration to catalogue their films,
thus consulting this volume will assist you in navigating through the FHS
Catalog.
ARCHDIOCESAN GUIDES
Each Polish diocese publishes, at
irregular intervals, directories of all parishes in a given diocese or
archdiocese. If you are unsure what parish had jurisdiction over your
village, these guides are an excellent source to determine parish
affiliations. Many contain a brief history of the parish and a photograph of
the church edifice. The PGS of the Northeast has approximately 100 such
guides in its collection, one of the largest in the nation.
LOCATION OF VITAL RECORDS IN
POLAND
Before writing to Poland, CHECK
THE HOLDINGS OF THE FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS OF THE LDS CHURCH. LDS has
microfilmed thousands of parish records from Poland. If your records have
not been filmed, they may be in one, some or all of the following places:
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Parish Archives.
Records may still be in the archives of the parish at which they were
created. Addresses of parishes can be obtained form the diocesan guides
described above. Many Lutheran and Greek Catholic parishes were liquidated
due to population shifts as a result of the upheavals of the Second World
War. Any extant records of these parishes will be found at a repository of
the State Archives (see below).
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Diocesan Archives.
Some Polish dioceses have centralized some of their older records. If you do
not find what you are looking for at the parish level, the Archdiocese may
have earlier or later records than those housed at the parish.
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Local Vital Registry Office
(Urzad Stanu Cywilnego
or USC). In 1946 the government created civil registration and registry
offices to house the documents. It also at this time seized records from
religious bodies and placed them in the USC offices (this applies to all
religions, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, etc.). As these
older records become 100 years old they in theory are to be
transferred to a State Archives repository. However some of these
repositories are slow to comply with archival regulations and older records
can still be found at this level. The PGS of the Northeast had a list of
records housed at USC offices from the 1880s to 1945.
-
State Archives.
Poland has a main archives in Warsaw and branch archives throughout the
country. Most non-Roman Catholic registers that are not at the USC offices
are located at a state archival repository. Records are searched on a fee
basis the particulars of which can be obtained from the Archives’ web site.
A good number of the registers located at the state archives have been
filmed by LDS.
III. Other
European Sources
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Parish censuses, confession lists
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Published cemetery inscriptions
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Tax lists (for easternmost parts
of Russian Poland, only)
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Contemporary telephone
directories (to locate living relatives)
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Other archival sources that are
unique to your area of interest. Every Polish archives publishes a guide to
its collections. Use these to determine if any records collections may be
applicable to your research
IV.
Linguistic Necessities
Records in Poland were kept in
various languages. Most record keeping was done in Polish but depending on
what part of the country your family is from and what religion your
ancestors practiced, you may also have to acquire some knowledge of German,
Latin, Russian, or Hebrew. Several excellent publications for translating
documents of genealogical value are available to assist you with
translations.
V.
Surnames- Meanings and Distribution
-
Polish surnames
were created using many of the same mechanisms found in other European
countries. A good number of surnames derive from the following sources:
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Place names and other topographical and geographical features
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Patronymics
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Occupational features and characteristics
Some surnames are
unique to certain regions of the country while others are found universally
throughout the nation. To determine the frequency of use of your surname and
its geographical distribution by province consult the ten volume series "Spis
Nazwisk Wspolczesnie w Polsce uzywanych" available at the PGSNE Resource
Center.
Note from author:
The PGSCTNE website has several searchable data bases and new ones will be
added by the end of 2005.
Polish Genealogical Society of Connecticut and the Northeast, Inc.
8 Lyle Road, New Britain,
Connecticut 06053-2104
Tel: 860-223-5596
E-mail:
pgsctne@yahoo.com
Website:
http://www.pgsctne.org
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