My father was born in Kielce 1916 and my maiden name was Zimny. I am interested in how I can find if I have any living relatives in either Kielce or surrounding area. I would also like to visit my grandparents grave in Kielce , how can I find which cemetary they are in ?
Christina x
Hello from Germany,
A possibility is to contact the "Bundesarchiv" in Berlin. It's the archive which has the old registration cards of polish citizens which aplied for the german citizenship. The Address is:
Bundesarchiv
Finckensteinallee 63
12205 Berlin
Germany
I've noticed that there where several german soldiers with the surname Zimny who died in action, so maybe part of your family went to Germany?
I don't know if they speak english, however I often work with them and they are very cooperative. However it's not for free and you have to pay for their services. It then depends how long they have to search and how complicate the whole thing is.
Another possibility would be contacting the vital-record office of Kielce (Address: Rynek 1 25-303 Kielce)
If you speak polish you could ask for a copy of your father's birth-certificate, then identifying your grandparents and then asking them to search the registers for siblings - maybe they do it.
The religiouse registers are also very usefull. For catholic families you can address the: Kuria Ciecezjalna, ul. Jana Pawla II, 3, 25-013 Kielce, Polska and ask for copies of the baptism-records. Before the Nazi came to Kielce aproxemately 1/3 of the people living in Kielce where jewish. I read that there was a Synagogue in Kielce which, in nowerdays, is rebuilt into a memorial place. Maybe the city admin. of Kielce has information on the whereabouts of the old documents (i.e. births, deaths marriages...).
If you, however, sould be a descendant of a jewish family ther's very little chance that you still have relatives in Kielce: first the Nazi and then on July 4th 1946 polish citizens killed 46 Holocaus-surviving-jews and injured 86 of them. So the jews left Kielce and, as far as I know, nerver came back.
The old cemetary in Kielce is:
sowa.website.pl/cmentarium/Cmentarze/spisKielce.html
(however there's no entry for the surname Zimny)
I don't speak polish, however this is something about the jewish-cemetary in Kielce, maybe you find something there!
sztetl.org.pl/pl/article/kielce/12,cmentarze/1833,cmentarz-zydowski-w-kielcach-ul-pakosz-dolny-/
Good Luck!
Robert
