US Records · Catholic church records
Almost every Polish immigrant family was Catholic, and American Catholic registers often give what civil records do not: the mother’s maiden name, the godparents and, in Polish parishes, the village in Poland.
What the registers contain
- Baptisms: date of birth and baptism, both parents including the mother’s maiden name, godparents; later marriages are often noted in the margin
- Marriages: the couple, their parents, witnesses and, in many Polish parishes, their birthplaces in Poland
- Deaths and burials: date, age, cemetery and sometimes the birthplace
- Confirmations and first communions, which place a child in the parish in a given year
Where they are kept
Registers normally stay in the parish that created them. When a parish closes or merges, its books go to the surviving parish or to the diocesan archives. Knowing which parish the family belonged to is the key step: Polish families usually went to the Polish national parish, which could be some distance from home.
How to request a record
- Identify the parish from the address in the census or a directory, a baptismal certificate in the family papers, or the funeral home in an obituary
- Find out whether the parish is open and who holds its registers now
- Write to the parish or the diocesan archives with the name, the approximate date and the parents’ names
- Explain that the request is for family history and that the people concerned are deceased
- Offer the customary donation or fee, which varies by diocese
Privacy rules
Sacramental registers are church records, not public records, and each diocese sets its own policy. Many answer genealogical requests for people who are deceased or were born more than a century ago, but some give extracts rather than copies and some take months to reply. FamilySearch has filmed the registers of some dioceses, which can be viewed without a request.
A baptismal certificate issued decades later is only an extract. The register entry itself may contain more, including the marginal notes, so ask for a full copy or a photograph of the entry.
How we can help
Immigration & Passenger Records includes requests to American parishes and dioceses where they are likely to name the village, and we read Latin and Polish entries as a matter of course.
Keep reading
Polish-American parish records