Polish America · New England
Poles came to New England for the textile mills and hardware factories, and many then bought farms in the Connecticut River valley. Polish parishes still mark the map from the Berkshires to the coast.
Massachusetts
Polish communities grew in Chicopee, Holyoke, Ware, Three Rivers and Easthampton in the west of the state, in Webster and Worcester in the center, and in Salem, Lowell and South Boston in the east. In the Connecticut valley, Polish families bought tobacco and onion farms in Hadley, Hatfield, Sunderland and the surrounding towns from the 1890s onward. Chicopee’s St. Stanislaus and Webster’s St. Joseph are among the oldest and largest Polish parishes in New England.
Connecticut
New Britain, the “Hardware City”, had one of the largest Polish communities in the state, around Sacred Heart parish. Bristol, Meriden, Ansonia, Norwich, Hartford and New Haven all had Polish parishes and neighborhoods.
Records to search
- Town vital records: in New England, births, marriages and deaths are recorded by the town clerk, and Massachusetts also holds older records at the state archives
- Parish registers, held by the parishes and by the Dioceses of Springfield, Worcester, Boston, Hartford and Norwich
- Naturalization records from state and federal courts
- Land records for farm families, kept by the county registry of deeds in Massachusetts and by the town in Connecticut
- Local Polish societies and newspapers, and the collections of local historical societies
Because New England towns keep their own vital records, you need the exact town, not just the county, before ordering a certificate.
How we can help
Immigration & Passenger Records works through town, parish and court records in New England, and Parish & Civil Record Research follows the family into the Polish registers.
Keep reading
Polish New York and New Jersey