Polish America · Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s Poles came for steel. They settled in the Strip District and on the slope above it that became Polish Hill, and in the mill towns strung along the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers.
The Strip and Polish Hill
St. Stanislaus Kostka in the Strip District, founded in 1875, was the first Polish parish in Pittsburgh. As the community outgrew it, Polish families built homes on the hillside above, and Immaculate Heart of Mary, whose domed church was completed in 1904, became the parish of Polish Hill. Other Polish parishes grew on the South Side and in Lawrenceville, and in mill towns such as Braddock, Homestead, McKees Rocks and Sharpsburg.
Records to search
- Parish registers, held by the parishes or the Diocese of Pittsburgh for closed and merged parishes
- Pennsylvania state birth and death certificates from 1906: under state law, birth records become public after 105 years and death records after 50 years, and the Pennsylvania State Archives provides copies
- Allegheny County records of marriages and estates, and Pittsburgh city registrations before 1906
- Naturalization records from the Allegheny County courts and the federal court
- Mill and union records, occasionally, and the annual reports of industrial accidents
Organizations
Pittsburgh is the home of the Polish Falcons of America, a fraternal organization founded in the nineteenth century to promote physical fitness and Polish culture, and of many local Polish lodges and clubs. Membership and insurance records of fraternal societies can give dates and places of birth; see our article on fraternal society records.
Mill workers moved often between towns in the valleys. If a family disappears from one parish, look in the next mill town up or down the river.
How we can help
Immigration & Passenger Records follows a Pittsburgh family through Pennsylvania state records, parish registers and naturalization files, and Ancestral Village Identification uses them to find the parish in Poland.