Life in America: Polish-American Records

Chapter 4 of 4

The American half of the story is the half most families start with, and the half that points back to Poland. Several US records were designed to ask exactly where a person was born, and a few were filled in by the immigrant personally. Here they are, in roughly the order a life produced them.

Several American records were designed to ask exactly where a person was born, and a few were filled in by the immigrant personally. These articles cover them in roughly the order a life produced them.

Records in this chapter

Census records

US Census Records for Polish Immigrants

1900 to 1950: immigration year and status

Naturalization

Naturalization Records of Polish Immigrants

Declarations, petitions and certificates

Draft & alien registration

Draft Cards and Alien Registration

1917, 1942 and the 1940 registration

Social Security SS-5

Social Security Applications (Form SS-5)

Parents’ names and birthplace in the applicant’s hand

Polish-American parishes

Polish-American Parish Records

Baptisms, marriages and jubilee books

Death & obituaries

US Death Records, Obituaries and Cemeteries

The last records, and the Polish press

Fraternals & US passports

Fraternal Society and US Passport Records

PNA, PRCUA and the trip back home

Research guide

The American documents that name a Polish village

What we do with these records

These are the records that Ancestral Village Identification reads to establish the parish, and that Immigration & Passenger Records assembles into a documented account of the American side of the family.

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