How to find a burial site / records in Poland...

@Chemikiem
It's didn't even know there are such recent records on geneteka :)

Can you tell me the name or names of the cemeteries in Dembno, Poland? Am looking for Anna Julianne (Drews) Splitzer d 16 Dec 1875 along with a baby, Theophila Johanne 3 weeks old. Are the cemeteries searchable on line? Thank you for your time....blessing...countryposie@yahoo.

@countryrose
In the city of Debno (Dębno - but not Dembno today - old name) you can find two cemeteries. Both are the Municipal cemeteries, one by the Kosciuszki street, another by Wloscianska I street.

cmentarze24.pl/debno/index.php?go=1

But the people you're looking for were most likely buried in the old cemetery in Debno (old. Neudamm/Nm. - Germany):
neumark.pl/main.php?obiekt=debnocmentarz&lang=en.
Now only a park there.

Info about the city: neumark.pl/main.php?miasto=debno&lang=en - check the comments of ancestors from this place.

...If this is the right place - in Poland there are several towns with the name of Dębno: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dębno_(disambiguation)

I'm searching for information on my great-grandparents. My grandmother came in 1909 to Ellis Island and I have all those ship manifests, etc. She was born in Szrensk but Place of Resisdence is listed as Krziwki, Russia. I understand names of villages were changed due to occupation. However, I would assume this area is where my great-grandparents continued to live. Both were alive till late 1940's.

Grandmothers maiden name was Wesolowski, born in 1890, died at age 95 in Salem, Massachusetts. Married name was Leszczynski. Also searching for family and info for that name, my grandfather.

I'm planning a trip to Poland in April and would love to find family graves and even perhaps farm/homestead where my grandmother lived.

Can anyone help direct me to the best way to achieve this? Thank you in advance for any assistance.

The records will be in Russian. What was her first name?
Here are the births (urodzenia) from 1890 from Szrensk. Record 193 is for Julianna Wesołek from Krzywki. I can't see any Wesołowski in the index -last three scans but my Russian is rusty. If it's not her, check other years.

metryki.genealodzy.pl/metryki.php?op=kt&ar=13&zs=0616d&sy=1890&kt=1

I'm afraid the graves might be long gone. You need to make a payment every 20 years. Abandoned graves are often reused. If there was no one to make a payment, the graves might be gone.

Thank you SO much to Kaprys! That IS my grandmother. Her given name was Julianna and she went by Julia, here in America. But the last name has me confused. I know names were shortened at Ellis Island, but seems hers was lengthened. I wonder why that is.

There is still a lot of family in the area. My aunt, Julia's daughter, went for the first time in 1976 to meet a lot of the family and I have letters and envelopes they wrote back and forth prior to my aunt visiting.

So I'm thinking perhaps they have paid to keep the graves up as they are still in the area.
Do you know if that village, Krzywki is still there? Or is it called something else now? I'd love to visit there and also Szrensk, as that is where my grandmother was born and then the place she left to come to America.

Is there any way I can see her birth listing? Is that what the link is that you put above?
Thank you so much for your help! I deeply appreciate it! I'm having a problem here with my user name.....So I've just changed it TerriLD and hope I'll be able to sign up again as a member. But I just wanted to posted this back to you.

Record 193 is for Julianna Wesołek (parents: Michał and Maryanna nee Dąbrowska). If you have her death or marriage certificate (I don't know where she got married), compare the names of the parents. Julianna Wesołek was born in Krzywki, the parish was in Szrensk. The names of the parents, the witnesses and the child are also written in the Latin alphabet.

As for the surname, ime, they sometimes got ski ending at some point but in my family's case that happened in the 1790s -early 1800s.

Some records from Szrensk are indexed at geneteka, including Michał and Maryanna's marriage.
geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=gt&lang=eng&bdm=S&w=07mz&rid=3646&search_lastname=Wesolek&search_name=&search_lastname2=D%C4%85browska+&search_name2=&from_date=&to_date=

When you're sure it's your Julianna, you can go deeper into your family's history. The links to the scans of actual records are given on the right.

As for Szrensk and Krzywki, a quick google search suggests they still exist; )

Szrensk
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szre%C5%84sk

Two places called Krzywki in gmina Szrensk

Krzywki -Boski
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzywki-Bo%C5%9Bki

Krzywki-Piaski

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krzywki-Piaski

I am positive this is my grandmother! I do have her death certificate. Despite the language barrier, we were quite close. My father and aunt were the translators when I was growing up. I feel fortunate to have the information and history that they gave to me. Her death certificate says: Father, Michael Wesolowski. Mother: Maryanna Dombrowski. Am I correct to assume that Dabrowska and Dombrowski are one and the same name?

When I went to the link you gave me yesterday, I see lines of text that all run together. In other words, not a separate listing on a line for each person. Are there any dates of birth there? We always celebrated my grandmother's birthday on November 1. However, I remember years later my father and aunt saying that October 28 was the actual date of birth but I wasn't told why it was changed. Perhaps Oct. 28 was the actual date but it wasn't registered until November 1?

Thank you so much for the links. I will check those out. Based on letters that I have and research I did years ago, it appears that Krzywki-Bratki might be relevant.

How exciting that you even found the listing for my great-grandparents marriage. Is there a date listed? But I wonder why the information is listed in Latin, rather than Polish or Russian.

Based on the information I have, I have no doubt that the information you found is definitely my grandmother.
I will check the links and again, thank you so much for your assistance. You have been extremely helpful!

I clicked the link for marriage and its amazing to see in print my great-grandparents marriage record! The pieces of the puzzle are fitting together so well because I see that Marianna Wesolek.....my grandmother's sister!.......married in 1909 (the year my grandmother came to America) to a Walenty Jankowski. Many of the letters I have are from somebody named Jankowski on the return address. I always wondered how this name fit in to our family.

I'm now positive that would be my grandmother's sister's children. And they are located in Bartoszyce and Olsztyn. I'm age 72 so there is a good possibility that some cousins, etc. from this family are still living there.

I'm so glad I saved these letters and kept all the information I gathered over the years. I had always hoped to return to my Babci's homeland and in April, I will. Hopefully, during the coming months I will discover even more information.

Dąbrowska and Dombrowska are pronounced pretty much in the same way, so yes, I think it's the same person.

Some Catholic records were kept in Latin. However, it's not the case here. In the Russian partition of Poland they used Polish up until the 1860s or so and then Russian. I was referring to the Latin alphabet, so the one we use in Polish or English. In Russian they use the cyrillic alphabet. The birth record of your grandma is written in Russian in the cyrillic alphabet. However, her name and the names of the parents are also written in Latin letters in brackets. There are several birth records in the scan. No 193 is your grandma's. If you look closer, you'll see the names.

Click on 190 -195 to see the record.
I won't try to guess the date of birth. I don't want to mislead you. It's in Russian.

I'm not surprised her birth record is written in Russian. On her papers from Ellis Island, it lists her residence village, Krzywki, as Russia.

I'm a bit unclear as to which link you gave me will take me to see the several birth records you mentioned. The marriage listing is clear and typed so I can read it.

I'm afraid I'm unable to read the handwritten pages.

Also, you said to click 190-195 but I'm unsure how I access this.
I can't thank you enough for your wonderful help.

I was talking about this link

metryki.genealodzy.pl/metryki.php?op=kt&ar=13&zs=0616d&sy=1890&kt=1

You'll see a list of numbers. Click on 190-195 to open the page. Julianna's birth record in Russian with Polish names in brackets is number 193.

There are some Facebook groups that are devoted to Polish geneaology and some that specialise in translations of old church records. If you're on Facebook or some of your family are, join such a group and you'll find someone who can translate it into English.

Also in case of her parents' marriage certificate, the link to the scan is on the right. You can see the original record there. When you find out their age and parents ' names you can go even deeper in searching your roots.

Thank you so much for all your help. Due to your assistance, I've taken more steps forward.
I will check out FB and hopefully find someone to translate those records for me.
Best to you,
Terri

@TerriLD
I'm happy I could help.
Good luck :)

Her 'name day' is 1 November and is usually the more important celebration in Poland. Probably because her birthday and name day fell so close together, she celebrated her birthday on the same date and on the day that would have been more culturally significant for her as a Polish person.

That certainly makes sense to me. I have no doubt that you're probably correct. So today.....she would have turned 129! Wow!

Is there any chance that you might know how to contact living relatives in Bartoszyce? My grandmother and aunt stayed in touch via letters, which I now have but written in Polish, over the years and my aunt did visit the family there in the early 1970's. One who seemed to write the most, Krystyna, is only 3 years younger than I am. I do have her address but I'm hesitant to send a letter in English and I'm not sure if she even still lives there. I would love to reconnect with her and others from my grandmother's side. My fondest hope is that they could tell me where my great-grandparents are buried. I'm pretty sure that the letter writer's grandmother and my grandmother were sisters. So I would think she might have a lot of information I would treasure. I have attempted translation online and she seemed to list all the relatives, ages, etc. in one of her letters. Any help you could give me would be appreciated.

You can try writing a letter to that address to see if any of your family still live there. Just a short note explaining who you are and leaving your contact details - home and email address. Perhaps her children or grandchildren speak English. We can help you translate it into Polish.

First, check google maps to see if that place still exists.

I can take a photo of the address on the envelope, but I don't want to put it here in public. You can email me at paristjd@gmail to give me your email and I can send the address. I know the town is still there. It's in Bartoszyce. The one who is 3 years younger than I am was 23 back in 1973 when she wrote one of the letters and she said she was a school teacher. So there's a possibility she might read/write English. I was able to translate certain sentences on Google but those z's and a few other letters are difficult. So I wouldn't want to take a chance on an address.

@TerriLD
Don't reveal your contact details here or their address.

It's best if you write to that address just to check if your family still live there.
I can help you to translate a short message into Polish. You can post it here or send me a message on Polish forums - you need to register here to do so. I'm sorry I don't email anyone from here as there are some mean people here.

Hi I'm trying to locate my great uncles grave he died in Lodz Poland in 1938 according to family he was missing in Russia but I found his death record in Poland no one is sure why he was in Poland he is from the uk any help please I have been searching for him for years. Frederick Bickerton Burton

many thanks
Diane

Some of these messages are really old. I am using Google Earth to visually locate the cemeteries in Poland to track down my family for my family tree. I have been successful in discovering where the cemeteries are, clicking on to discover the name of the cemetery, then searching on Google to find it on the internet. I then go to each of them and search the cemetery databases. It's working! Give it a try.