Chapter 1 of 4
Before anyone boarded a ship, they were born, baptised, married and counted in a Polish village. Those records still exist in far greater numbers than most American families expect. This is what was written down, by whom, and what each kind of record can tell you.
Which records exist for your family depends on which partition the village was in: Russian, Prussian or Austrian. Each article below explains one kind of record, what it contains, where it is kept today and how to search it.
Records in this chapter
Birth & baptism
Polish Birth and Baptism Records
Parish and civil entries, with parents and godparents
Population registers
Polish Population and Residence Registers
Who lived in which house, decade by decade
Military & conscription
Military and Conscription Records for Polish Ancestors
Service in the Russian, Austrian or Prussian army
Land & notarial
Polish Land, Notarial and Court Records
Property, inheritance and the son who sold his share
Research guide
Four languages, one family: Polish records before 1918
What we do with these records
Parish & Civil Record Research searches the registers of one parish for one family; Family Tree Reconstruction follows the family across parishes and record types. Every record found is delivered as an image with a full translation.