Getting records from Poland (are records of Poles moved from churches to the archives)?

Question: Did the Poles move the records from the churches to the archiwums? Or how far back are the records dating I can get from the archiwums? I'm talking about Silesia. Since it used to be Germany, they moved the records from the churches to the city's responsibility in 1874. I was wondering if the Poles moved the records from the pre 1874 area also to the archiwums? I suppose they must have organized it on a national level at some point, so I am hoping I can get an answer to this and that it dosen't depend on each city. I noticed that they msut have moved the records from smaller towns to the next bigger city, or maybe the capital of that particular voivodeship.

katowice.ap.gov.pl/english/databases.htm

I suppose the one in Katowice has all the archives from the small cities listed there. Racibórz etc.

Also, does anybody know if they are computerized? The thing is I do not always have the birth date, but might have the full name etc. But they are obviously not going to go through it manually if I give them the name and a time span when that person must have been born ( the birth certificates only list the parent's name..nothing else ). How else could I find it out? Not at all, unless I have the full names AND birth dates?

Any info is appreciated!
Thank you!

all my records I recieved from the church/s ( with a nice donation) and I believe that
it was up to 1889.

but have you tried the LDS?

its online and they microfilmed alot.

Thanks for the reply! What's LDS?

And I have never had any luck with those internet sites.

LDS and the link patrycja19 provided are the same thing.

it is always difficult to get copies of records in Poland. one needs precise information and in some cases a professional genealogist to do the work for you.

make use of ancestry.com and similar sites. someone might have already done the work for you.

note to all: no-one seems to mention it, but buying a decent book on genealogy/family history is a must.

then u can keep up to date and fill in gaps of knowledge by using the internet.

That is incorrect, unless you deal with civil registration offices. Most Polish state archives are extremely helpful with a highly motivated staff. You can write to them in Polish, German and (sometimes) English, and they quickly send you copies of documents for a modest fee. Even research is done by the archives, in case you cannot provide detailed information. It's more expensive, but still less than you would have to shell out for a professional genealogist. The latter is a special case anyway, and many of the so-called Polish professionals in this sector are crooks. Well-known fact amongst foreign genealogists. You have to chose carefully.

The LDS web site is only a first stop to get an overview. You have to double-check every piece of information you retrieve from there, because there are countless typos and other errors in their records (mainly because the people who entered the data couldn't read the old scripts properly). Ordering the relevant films or microfiches is a must if you are a serious genealogist.


Try the EZA in Berlin for protestant church books, the Polish archives for catholic ones.

interesting. i may act upon this and have another go at finding the Polish side of the family.

Hello everybody!

Thank you for the replies. I just got a birth certificate ( 1883 )today. Now, this is where I am running into problems. Of course, there are only the names of the parents listed. I have no other information but the names of the parents. Does anybody know what I do now? Does the archiwum have bastism certificates, too? Or do I have to contact the churches? T

The fees weren't that high. The lowest I paid was 8 zloty. The highest 85.

@TheOther... she said "one needs precise information".

Yes, and that is incorrect. It's enough if you know one name, the place and a rough time frame. The archives do the rest if necessary.


Usually, one would now look for the marriage record of the parents. Was this their first child? Then go back 12 to 15 months and search for the marriage by moving forward in time until shortly before the birth date of their kid. Marriage was normally in the church closest to the residence of the bride. Once you've found the marriage record, you know the birth dates of the couple, the maiden name of the bride plus the names of their parents. Then you start all over again.

Forgot to say: you're lucky that the birth happened in 1883, because now you might be able to find detailed information about the birth and the marriage in the records of the local civil registration office. A lot more valuable than anything you'll find in the church books.

Hm, I did that once and they told me they could not start the search with more information. I had the name, city, and gave them a 10 year time frame.

It would be hard to find out if was their first child or not. I probably should not focus on trying to find this out. So I can't go this route. But who would have the marriage certificates? Archiwum? I could get the baptism certificate if I knew who has it. That's why I mentioned the church. But I do not know for sure because they moved, apparently, a lot of things into the archiwums. civil registration office... isn't that basically the archiwum? I thought that's where they moved everything.

Of course they couldn't go through the records of a whole decade. Can you imagine how many children were born over ten years? The research would take weeks, if not months, and the archives are short on staff given the rising number of requests.


You have to. Otherwise you will never find the marriage record, because you don't know in what year the marriage happened and nobody in the archives would be willing to research over an undefined time frame (see above). Just give it a try. Maybe you are lucky and it was their first child. If not, ask the archive to check the previous year for another child of that couple. Go backwards until you find the first born (provided they were all born in the same parish).


There are certain restrictions before things like church books and civil registration records are publicly available. 100 years for birth records, if I recall correctly.


No. State archives (archiwa.gov.pl/?CIDA=177) are like a libraries - collecting old documents, records and other stuff from all over the country, and making them available to the public. A civil registration office was introduced in most parts of Germany in October 1874. Some places a little earlier. From then on it was mandatory to register births, deaths and marriages, and people got married at both the church and the civil registration office. Poland continued with this practice after its independence.

That is impossible to find out how many children they had, and who was the first child. I might as well ask them to search a certain time frame. I don't even know how I would find out who the first child was. A lot of people do ancestry research, and they obviously start using information they got from their relatives. Everybody will run into the same problem. You have a birth date of one person, depending on how far back the relatives could remember, then you just have the names of the parents from the birth certificate. There must be an easier way to find this out. I will try the civil registration office. I have not been able to get a hold of the church there anyway. Thanks.

Hi, This is a summary of my own search at a small town/village in South East Poland.

I visited and found the local council office held birth, marriage and death records from 1890. They would look up a specific record and read it out to you but would not let you take a photo of the record. They would supply an official copy for about 120 Zl.They would not let you brouse through the records.

A fellow researcher suggested I try the Parish Church for the ' Spiz Parafialny' which was the church equivalent to today's elector's list but had additional information. The Parish Priest told me that the Communists had removed the records and they were lost. Subsequently a relative in the village told me that her mother ( the local school teacher) had perused the records recently and that they were still housed at the Priest's House. he had lied about their availability on instructions from the Bishop.

The Archives in Przemysl held B,M,D records for the town from 1784 to 1861. They were very helpful and would have made the records available but their opening hours were somewhat limited and I ran out of time.

Subsequently I found that the LDS (Mormons) had photographed the records. They are not online, but I was able to order the records on two rolls of microfilm. The cost was 16 dollars and I had them sent to the nearest Family Research Centre (which was attached to the Mormon Temple near where I live). I was able to view them there over a period of ninety days.

I went to the following site: familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

I clicked on Library Catalogue in the Library tag and then clicked on place search. Entering the name of the town I was searching for gave me a list of the records they hold on that place. I then ordered the recordes I wanted. It took them about three weeks to send the films from Salt Lake City, USA to France.

The gap between 1861 and 1890 is covered by information from the 'Spiz Parafialny'.

One complication is that the details I was looking for at the Council Offices could also be in either the Roman Catholic books or the Greek Orthodox books ( in fact the council had GO records from 1880 rather than the 1890 for RC records.

Richard.

That's interesting, Richard. I'm looking for information from Tarnawce which is very close to Przemyśl, but couldn't find any LDS films listed - can you remember the number(s) of the film(s) you requested? I'm thinking they might lead me to the ones I need (assuming there are films, that is).

cheers

steve

No, there's nothing there.

The archiwum in Katowice still had the documents from 1859. I'm still waiting on them to come back with the results of the search. I still don't know how I would find out how many children they had, or when they married etc. I don't think it's possible, other than giving them a time frame and tell them to look for whatever documents.

Hi Steve.

I've sent you the details in a private message.

Richard.

Richard... thanks, but I see no private message listed. You can get me at skp3@btinternet.com if that's more convenient...

thanks

steve

Merged: searching census records

is it possible to search Polish census records online?

I know my grandmother was married once before and all I have is the last name. I know when and where she was born and I can extrapolate when she would have gotten married. But I do not know what church it would have been in or if the civil registry would have access to the marriage records. She would have turned 18 in 1922 and the 1st child was born by 1928. Would the archives in Wlodawa help if I gave them whatever information I have? What is their address?

My great grandfather was born in Clumon. Anyone ever heard of that?

That sounds more like a family name. Are you sure it's a place?

familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3AClumon

Hello,
I would like to obtain a certified copy of the original death document of my second-great-grandmother, Thekla Schula Kania (ca. 1840-1895). She died at Klischczow, near Sohrau. She was the wife of Johann Kania (ca. 1836-1912). Please provide me with information regarding a fee for providing me with a certified copy of the document I desire. I appreciate so much your helpfilness in this matter.

Most Sincerely,
Erwin Heinrich Lepiarczyk II