Polish America · Texas & Panna Maria
Panna Maria, in Karnes County, Texas, is the oldest permanent Polish settlement in the United States. It was founded in December 1854 by Silesian families who followed their priest across the Atlantic, and their descendants still farm the land around it.
The founding of Panna Maria
Father Leopold Moczygemba, a Franciscan from Upper Silesia serving in Texas, wrote home urging his family and neighbors to join him. In 1854 about a hundred families sailed from Bremen to Galveston, walked and traveled by cart to the San Antonio river valley, and founded the settlement on Christmas Eve under an oak tree that still stands by the church. More Silesians followed in the next decades, founding or joining settlements at Bandera, Cestohowa, St. Hedwig, Kosciusko and elsewhere in south and central Texas.
Where the settlers came from
Almost all of the early Texas Poles came from a small area of Upper Silesia, then part of Prussia, around Strzelce Opolskie, Toszek and Opole. Their home parish records are in Latin, Polish or German, and from 1874 Prussian civil registration adds German-language records of every birth, marriage and death.
Records to search
- Parish registers of Immaculate Conception in Panna Maria and the other Silesian parishes, held locally and by the Archdiocese of San Antonio
- Galveston passenger lists for arrivals on the Bremen route
- Texas death certificates from 1903, which often give the parents’ names and birthplace
- Karnes County records of land, marriages and probate
- Collections of the Polish Heritage Center at Panna Maria and local histories of the Silesian settlements
Many Texas families have Silesian roots on both sides, with intermarriage among a few dozen founding families. A well-documented Texas line can often be taken back to the eighteenth century in the Silesian parish books.
How we can help
Parish & Civil Record Research covers the Silesian parishes and Prussian civil registration in German, Latin and Polish, which is what Texas families need.