Polish-American Genealogy Records

Every Polish-American family story has the same four chapters: a life in a Polish village, the decision to leave, the crossing, and a new life in America. Each chapter produced its own records, in its own archives and its own language. Follow them in order.

1841 lithograph of Polish Kurpie peasants in regional dress from the Ostroleka area
Kurpie peasants from the Ostrolenka area in an 1841 lithograph by Jan Nepomucen Lewicki. Chapter one of every family story starts in a village like theirs. Polona, Biblioteka Narodowa
Polish immigrant mother and children near Baltimore, Maryland, 1909
A Polish family working the fields near Baltimore, photographed by Lewis Hine in 1909. The new life in America produced its own records: censuses, naturalizations, parish books. Library of Congress
Polish emigrant carrying a trunk on his shoulder while boarding a ship, 1907
A Polish emigrant boards ship with his trunk on his shoulder, photographed for the Bain News Service in 1907, the peak years of the crossing. Library of Congress

The four chapters

Where a chapter ends in a record you cannot read, or a record that must be obtained from a Polish archive, the research projects pick up from there.