Much has been written about the Virtual Shtetl Project, but no detailed discussion of what this project can do for genealogy researchers has appeared until now.¹ The website www.shtetl.org.pl/ has many resources for genealogists interested in researching the Jews of current and interwar Poland.² The website is owned and operated by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and located in Warsaw.³ It is posted in both English and Polish; nearly every entry has been translated into English, with translations planned for the others. While not perfect, the translations are easily understandable. Few entries exist for those parts of Poland that lie outside today’s borders that were part of interwar Poland, but there are a few. They continue to grow in number so it is worth checking back periodically to see what has been added. Currently, nearly 1,400 towns are listed, most of them in contemporary Poland. Areas now in Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, that were inside Poland between World Wars I and II, continue to be added.

Perhaps the most useful tool for genealogists, the “Towns” entry on the homepage, enables the researcher to select a town that is now in Poland or was in Poland between 1919 and 1939 and to search for information on some or all of the following topics for text, images, audio or video, as listed on the left side of the page, in the following order, for that town:

• General information about the town, including its location, local history, and maps of the town with street names. This information is not specific to Jews.
• The Jewish community before 1989, including its history, organizations and associations, educational opportunities, legends and stories, accounts and memories, culture, memorabilia, people, lists of names, and genealogy.
• Historical monuments, including synagogues, prayer houses, and the like, cemeteries, places of martyrology, and Judaica in museums.
• The town today, including news, the landsmanshaft (burial society), cultural, social, and educational projects, local contacts, transportation, accommodations, restaurants, and other available resources. This information is particularly useful for individuals planning to visit an ancestral town.
• Sources, including archives, bibliographies, Musnet,⁴ and links.

Not all categories listed above contain information. The search for a town name may be conducted in German, Polish, Russian, or Yiddish. Some towns, but not all, are searchable under their names in Belorussian, Hebrew, Latin, and Ukrainian. An alphabetical listing of the towns by the first letter of the Roman alphabet appears across the top right of the page after accessing the “Towns” page. Not every town in which Jews lived has yet been added. Furthermore, although family names may be researched on the website, they may be searched in Latin letters only. Polish characters are not required for any searches—just the English version of the letters. The current listings of almost 1,400 towns include most organized Jewish communities (kehilot, in Hebrew) in current Poland plus some others in interwar Poland, as noted above.

Images Present

On the page for a given town, a gallery of small images appears on the right side to enable the researcher to click on them to display photographs of parts of the town of Jewish interest. Below these images is a selection of video and audio files, when available. The middle pane of the town page for a given town shows a current map of the downtown area of the town and displays a key to show symbols on the map for points of interest. Below that is a listing of the province, county, community (gmina, a geographical unit similar to a township in the United States), and longitude and latitude. In the same location, the name of the town may appear in many languages, including Yiddish, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Latin, among others, depending upon what language was used in that area at the time. To indicate an interest in learning about ancestors from the town, use the option on the left of the screen for “people, lists of names, genealogy.”

A new category created in response to requests from genealogists using the website is a type of blackboard where those interested may post questions and notes about ancestors, enabling contact with others also researching the same family names. Another possibility is simply to search for persons using the portal’s search engine. Such names are not necessarily listed under the town searched; in addition, no article about that family name may exist under any given town or in an article on the website about that family name. One great advantage of conducting such a search is that the reference found may have information about where the person who contributed the information found it posted in a bibliographical or archival reference. If so, this permits further research in the listed references. Whenever source information is not listed, the researcher may contact the website administrators. In turn, they will contact the person who posted the family name information and ask for additional information on sources. References posted are often based upon local archival sources. Administrators also may suggest other resources worth pursuing in such cases.

On the home page, in addition to the “Towns” option, a researcher may choose “People,” which leads to a list of famous or important Poles, most of them Jews. A “Gallery” of photographs and videos is available, but the content is difficult to identify, with inadequate titling in some cases; the organization appears to be chronological rather than topical.⁵ It is easier to search first for a town and then select relevant photographs or videos. A “glossary,” explains various terms applicable to Jews and Poland. A general “bibliography” about Polish Jews is provided, and finally a “help” function provides a single page of explanations on navigating through the pages.

Displays of data are possible in three sizes, as is a print option. In the left panel on the homepage, below the login/registration (for those wishing to submit data for posting as well as various other functions), one has the option to display a current map of Poland or one showing Poland as it was before World War II. One also can search for a word or phrase and limit the search to an identified town. Another search function on the extreme right hand side just below the top banner permits a general search of the database.

The web page continues to grow. From the topmost banner on the website, it is possible to reach the website of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, learn more about the project, learn about the meaning of the shtetl community, read the latest relevant news, volunteer, contact the webmaster, or switch to a Polish-language interface.⁶ Finally, the website enables users to report a bug found on the web page.

Notes

1. See <www.polishroots.com/Resources/tabid/58/ Default.aspx>, <www.sztetl.org.pl/?cid=86&lang=en_GB>, and <http://Jewish-heritage-travel.blogspot.com/2009/05/ poland-new-virtual-shtetl-resource.html> and <www. nytimes. com/2010/01/20/arts/design/20museum.html?emc=etal>. The project also has a Facebook webpage at <www.facebook.com/pages/Warsaw-Poland/Virtual-Shtetl-Portal/2110 26625174?_fb_noscript=1>. Polish Radio carried an article in English at <http://samanthamyers.typepad.com/theycalledmemayerjuly/2009/07/mayer-represents-opatow-on-virtual-shtetl.html>. Discussions of the Project also appear on the following websites and blogs: www.thenews.pl/ culture/artykul110285__polands_virtual_ shtetl.html>, <http:// tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2009/06/poland-high-tech-virtual-shtetl.html>, <www.israelnationalnews.com/News/ News.aspx/131969>, and <http://blogs.nyu.edu/projects/ materialworld/2009/10/a_virtual_home_for_polands_van. html>.
2. “Interwar Poland” refers to the borders of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and before September 1, 1939, when the Germans attacked and later annexed parts of Poland while the the Soviet Union annexed other areas.
3. See  www.jewishmuseum.org.pl   The physical building that will house the exhibits and holdings is under construction.
4. For information on holdings available for a given town in the archives of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
5. The number of times that visitors select a photograph determines which photographs are displayed in the gallery so the only efficient way to search for a photograph on a specific topic is via a town search. All photographs for a specific topic are displayed to the right of the article on the subject. The general gallery simply displays favorites on the website.
6. Currently, only the pages “About the Project” are available in languages other than English and Polish. These languages are French, German, Hebrew, Russian, and Swedish, with other versions in preparation. Eventually, the former German-speaking territories also will have their entire content listed in German in addition to the current Polish and English.