This article surveys online resources that help genealogists determine where records were created and where they are found. Determining place names and jurisdictions are the basic skills a researcher must develop when searching for a Polish ancestor in the place where the family resided prior to emigration. Many online resources assist in this learning about places and the official bodies that created records for that place. Once the place of origin is known, the researcher can learn, without ever visiting Poland, exactly what records exist in the archives. The Polish State Archives has inventoried its collections and provided online searches for researchers who seek to identify records that may exist for a specific place. The names in the records are not indexed, as has been done for some Jewish records by JRI-Poland. (Additional information may be found at www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl.) Begin the search at JRI-Poland before investigating sources not yet indexed. The value of the Polish State Archive site is to learn what exists there. It includes records not only of modern-day Poland but also records of territories now within the borders of Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.

Place Names and Jurisdictions

Gazetteers (place-name dictionaries) and maps help researchers determine the locations and jurisdictions for which records were created. At the end of the 18th century, the Kingdom of Poland was absorbed by its neighbors. Gazetteers or substitute publications, such as postal directories, identify jurisdictions that existed in each of the three kingdoms that acquired Polish territory.

German Partition

Begin with an online gazetteer that covers German territory now in Poland. Kartenmeister (map master) indexes more than 87,000 locations east of the Oder and Neisse Rivers based on the borders of the eastern German provinces in the spring of 1918. It includes territory formerly in East Prussia (including Memel), West Prussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia, and offers a quick way to find information for a place if its name already is known. It also includes information on microfilms of original vital records for these places found in the collection of the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library (FHL). The index is found at www.kartenmeister.com.

A pre-World War I postal directory that identifies civil jurisdiction and places where religious congregations were located is Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs (Meyer’s gazetteer and commercial directory of the German Empires). 5th ed. Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1912–13. 2 volumes. This work lists all localities in the German Empire just before World War I. It identifies which places had religious congregations or civil registry offices. If a place of interest did not host religious services and rites, or did not register vital events, then a researcher must look for records under the name of the location where religious individuals went for these purposes—usually a nearby place. The typeface is Gothic, which may take a little time to learn to read, but it is well worth the effort. Entries for places with the same name are numbered. It is important to select the proper place among multiple localities that have the same name. Knowledge of the general location, such as northern or southern Germany, is useful in order to rule out places with the same name. Many terms are abbreviated to save space, but a key to the abbreviations appears in the preface. Abbreviations of particular genealogical assistance are:

• Common place types: D. =Dorf (village); St. = Stadt (city); Wlr. = Weiler (hamlet)
• Jurisdiction types: Kr. = Kreis (county); StdA. = Standesamt (civil registry)
• Religion: J. = Jews; Syn. = synagogue; ev. = evangelisch (Protestant); kath. = katholisch (Catholic); Pfk. = pfarrkirche (parish); K. = kirche (church).

The images for this directory are found at www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/. Toward the bottom of the search screen is a box to search just the Gazetteers Collection. Meyer’s is filed, along with other gazetteers, alphabetically by title. The text has been digitized and indexed for searching, so that genealogists can search this volume commercially using Ancestry.com.

A gazetteer of the Prussian portion of the German Empire that makes up for the primary deficiency of Meyer’s by identifying religious jurisdictions: Gemeindelexikon für das Königreich Preussen: auf Grund der Materialen der Volkszählung vom 1. Dezember 1905 und anderer amtlicher Quellen (Gazetteer of the Kingdom of Prussia, Germany, based on the 1905 census). Berlin : Verlag des Königlichen Statistischen Landesamts, 1907–09, 13 volumes. Not only the Polish territory absorbed by Germany but a large piece of what was historically Prussia are included in modern Poland. This publication provides the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Church jurisdictions for each locality. While it does not specifically identify Jewish jurisdictions, it does list the towns in single civil jurisdiction. This is a good beginning point to look for Jewish rec­ords in surrounding places if there were no synagogue in a specific place of origin.

A problem in using this gazetteer is the researcher must know the Prussian province to avoid searching the index for each of the five volumes that pertain to territory now in Poland: West Prussia (West Preuβen), East Prussia (Ost Preuβen), Pomerania (Pommern), Silesia (Schlesien), and Poznan (Posen). The index indicates a district and entry number. Find the entry by going to the pages pertaining to each district. The districts are listed in alphabetical order in the volume. Likewise, the places within a district are listed alphabetically within each district.

The images for Poznan and West Prussia are found at http://fbc.pionier.net.pl/owoc/main. As with Meyer’s, the images and an index are found commercially at Ancestry.com.

Austrian Partition

A pre-World War I census directory that identifies civil and church jurisdictions and also provides the German, Polish, and Romanian variants of place names is Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder…vom 31. Dezember 1900 (Locality dictionary for the crownlands and territories represented in the Imperial Council from December 31, 1900). Wien, 1905–08. 14 volumes.

A portion of what was historically Galicia (Galizien) and Austrian Silesia (Schlesien) in the Austrian Empire are part of modern-day Poland. Information on Galicia is found in volume 12, and information on Silesia is found in volume 11. This publication lists where people registered vital events civilly or where they attended religious services, including Jews. An index appears at the end of each volume that provides a page number by which to look up an entry for a place. Entries are arranged by district and sub-district in columns. The parish or synagogue location is not listed in the main body of text, but it is given in the appendix located in a section of the volume between the place entries and the index. Once a researcher knows the district and sub-district, the parish or synagogue location may be found in the appendix, where they are listed alphabetically by district then sub-district. The parish or synagogue location is given in the last column labeled as: Standort der röm.-kath., gr.-kath. und isr. Matrikelstellen (rec­ord place of Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, and Jews). The images for this directory are found at www.lib. byu.edu/fhc/index.php. As with Meyer’s, a researcher searches just the Gazetteers Collection. The Gemeindelexikon is filed alphabetically by title on the web page along with gazetteers of other countries.

Russian Partition

Places and church jurisdictions that existed previously in the territory of the Russian Partition are found in a directory published during the Second Republic of Poland (1918–39): Skorowidz miejscowosci rzeczypospolitej polskiej (Listing of localities of the Polish Republic). Przemysl, 1934, 2 volumes. The church jurisdiction is listed in the last column labeled as: Urzędy parafjalne (rz.-kat., gr.-kat., wsch.-słow., orm.-kat., prawosł., ewang., ew.-ref.), which translates as Official Parish (Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, Reformed). Unfortunately for the Jewish researcher, this publication does not identify where Jewish congregations existed. However, it provides a political jurisdiction that can assist in finding other places close to the one where a Jewish ancestor lived. The images are available at www.wbc. poznan.pl/dlibra/ docmetadata?id=12786. Researchers must download a viewer (called DJVu Browser) to see the images.

All Partitions

Begin with the JewishGen ShtetlSeeker, an online gazetteer that permits researchers to search for a place name by various spellings. It links to maps that help one determine more precisely if it is a place of interest to the research at hand. A separate search is useful for those places known to have Jewish inhabitants. Titled “JewishGen Communities Database,” it identifies historical jurisdictions. It is found at www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker. A Polish turn-of-the-century gazetteer that identifies the civil jurisdiction for all places in the Kingdom of Poland is Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Slowiańskich (Geographical dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic countries). Warsaw: Sulimierski i Walewski, 1880–1902, 15 volumes. This is a comprehensive gazetteer, but it is very difficult to use without Polish-language proficiency. The entries are in narrative format. Knowing a few key terms helps to extract important content. The images may be viewed at www. mimuw.edu.pl/polszczyzna/SGKPi/ indexse2.html#x3-50002. As with Skorowidz, the researcher must download a viewer (called DJVu Browser) to see the images. The digital publication of the gazetteer was done by the University of Warsaw.

Maps

Online gazetteers and directories are particularly useful in connection with online maps. Maps show surrounding communities, and locations on a map provide clues to the jurisdictions to which the place belonged. Also, they permit finding the various names of a place used over time. Finding an ancestral place of origin on an historical map, helps a researcher find it on a modern map—and vice versa.

Polish maps for the period between the two world wars are Mapa Taktyczna Polski (Tactical Maps of Poland). Warsaw, 1926–38. 483 maps. Scale 1:100,000. Authored by the Polish Military Geographical Institute (Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny) these maps cover pre-World War II Poland. They are useful in locating villages that no longer exist and cannot be found on modern maps. They are maps, scanned by a non-commercial group, and are freely available at http://english.mapywig.org/news.php. An on­line index to these maps is found at a site called Mapster, igrek.amzp.pl/.

German maps for the pre-World War I German Empire are Karte des Deutschen Reiches (1:100,000) (Maps of the German Kingdom). Berlin : Kartographische Abteilung der Königlichen Preußischen Landesaufnahme, 1914–17. 647 maps. These maps are of similar value to Germany as the above maps are to Poland. They cover the entire German Empire prior to World War II. One caution for the researcher is that the maps use Ferro as the prime meridian, which is 17˚39’44” degrees west of Greenwich, England. Ferro is the western-most point of the Canary Islands and is traditionally considered the western-most point of Europe. Scanned by the State Office for Cartography and Geodata (Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäs), the images are available free of charge at www.posselt-landkarten.de/ index_ostgebiete.htm. A subset of the images for Northern Poland is found at www.mapy.eksploracja.pl/viewpage. Php?page_id=28.

Austrian maps for pre-World War I Central and Eastern Europe are Generalkarte von Mitteleuropa (General map of Central Europe. Vienna, 1898–1967. 249 maps. Scale 1:200,000. These maps cover the central/south portion of Poland and provide the German variants of name places for the Austrian and some of the German partition. Maps are named by the principal town located on the map. Each map is commonly referred to by longitude and latitude when using the index map to find an individual map. As with The Tactical Maps of Poland, this set uses Ferro as the prime meridian. They are not indexed. The digital publication of the maps was done by the Eötvös Loránd University’s Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics in Hungary; the images are available free of charge at http://lazarus. elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/3felmeres.htm.

U.S. Army maps for post-World War II Poland appear in two sets, one for Western Europe and one for Eastern Europe. They are: 1) Western Europe 1:250,000. Washington, DC: Army Map Service, 1954, 378 maps; 2) Eastern Europe 1:250,000. Washington, DC: Army Map Service, 1959-. 219 maps. Two sets cover Poland. The map set for Western Europe covers most of Poland and may be accessed at www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/western_europe/. Eastern Europe overlaps with the Western Europe map set, covering all of eastern Poland. In both cases, a link at the top connects to an index map. The places are also indexed, but the publication is printed and not online.

One set of modern Polish maps is found at mapa.szukacz.pl, where a researcher can search for a place name in the search box labeled Miejscowość. Maps can be retrieved at different zoom levels, from 512 to 2 m. A distance calculation tool becomes operational after a search for a place. For instance, select 384 mm and enter “Olstyn” in the search box (Miejscowość). Hovering the cursor over Suwałki, reveals 167 km in the lower right-hand corner of the map labeled Odległość.

Once a researcher has used gazetteers and maps to identify a place, its location, and the jurisdictions to which it has belonged, it is time to begin looking for records concerning that place. A key resource for this is the website of the Polish State Archive.

Polish State Archive Databases

In many cases, a researcher can learn what exists in Polish archives without ever going there. Four databases created by the Polish State Archives permit one to look up what information is available online. This article covers the four databases that include descriptions of the records found in the archives. None of these databases links to images of the records, so a researcher must still visit, employ an agent, or correspond to obtain a copy of an original record. Before doing this, note that the Family History Library microfilmed some vital records during the period 1968–98 that may be sought in the library catalog at www.family search.org.

The Polish State Archives holds the government copy of church and/or synagogue registrations of births, marriages, and deaths. These are searchable in PRADZIAD (described below), but the researcher must be aware that the original church records are not found in this index, but are located in the churches or in diocesan archives and are not controlled by the state archive system.

Another key genealogical record type found in state archives is various forms of population registers. These are searchable in ELA (described below). Less easy to use are many other records that pertain to emigration, military service, land ownership, and services rendered to a manor, all searchable in SEZAM and IZA. Each database makes use of an English interface; a researcher who encounters Polish text may click on the British flag at the top of the page.

PRADZIAD. Baza danych Program Rejestracji Akt Metrykalnych i Stanu Cywilnego (The Program for the registration of records from parish and civil registration offices) has information on parish and civil registration registers preserved in all branches of the Polish State Archives and some Roman Catholic diocesan and archdiocesan archives. It does not include personal name indexes or images of original documents. PRADZIAD is found at http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/pradziad.php?l=en.

This database covers both historical and modern Poland. Records do not always move with boundary changes. Consequently, Polish archives hold records for places now in surrounding countries. Likewise, Polish records are held in the archives of surrounding countries. The database includes towns that no longer exist or that now are located in another country and towns that belonged to pre-1945 Germany and were incorporated into Poland. A researcher can search by town name alone, but other search elements are available if unclear about the spelling of the town or to filter a search that produces too many results:

• Town name. Enter the name of the town where the parish, the civil registration office, or the religious community was located. Enter either the current or former name of the town in Polish in addition to the former name of the village.
• Commune. Enter the name of the commune in which the town is located or the county in the territory where it was located before the war.
• Province. Select the name of the province within the 1975–98 or 1918–39 borders. A drop-down menu facilitates the name selection.
• Denomination or religion. Select the denomination or religion that created the record using the drop-down menu rather than typing text in Polish.
• Record type. Select the type of event. While the record types are listed in Polish, with the help of an online dictionary, a researcher can determine the English equivalent.

ELA. Ewidencje Ludności w Archiwaliach (Population registers in archival materials) includes information on all population registers (e.g., lists, rolls, indexes) found in archival materials of all branches of the Polish State Archives. It does not include information on parish registers and civil registration covered in PRADZIAD, nor does it contain personal name indexes or images of original docu­ments. ELA is found at http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/ ela.php?l=en.

A variety of records listed the population, including tax lists, residence lists, census records, and financial lists. The search elements are:

• Name of Town. Searches for any jurisdiction with that name. For instance, a search for Lublin will yield entries for the province, the district, and the place itself.
• Record Title. Once a record is found, a researcher may be able to retrieve it again more easily by remembering and searching by the title. The search engine will locate any record title that includes the word(s)—or partial word—in this field. For example, to isolate Jewish records, place zyd (without accent marks) in this field. Examples of record groups in this collection include:

1. Domowa Książka Meldunkowa (home registration books)
2. Księgi Ludnosci Stałej (books of permanent residents)
3. c. Księgi/Spis Ludności (books of residents)
4. Rejestr Mieszkańców (register of residents)
5. Lista Składek (fee books)

• Symbol. Symbol is the title of search box as is the case for Name of Town and Record Title above. A drop-down list can be understood by referring to the Searching Guidelines page (link in the left hand column of the search page). The record types represented by the symbols are listed on the page retrieved by clicking on this link.

SEZAM. System Ewidencji Zasobu Archiwalnego (Archival holdings registration system) includes information on the national archival holdings preserved by the State Archives and a handful of other key record repositories in Poland. It includes all records found in both PRADZIAD and ELA. While those two databases retrieve individual volumes or groups of volumes, the whole collection in which the volume is found is provided in SEZAM. The collection descriptions provide details on the collection name, author, dates of documents, number of units, or size of collection. If the collection has a digital inventory, it is attached to the collection description summary. The website uses the term fond, a universal term derived from French meaning collection. SEZAM is found at http://baza.archiwa. gov.pl/sezam/sezam.php?l=en. The fol­low­­­­­ing are the main search elements:

• Archive. Select from the drop-down list to avoid typing Polish text. If no specific archive is selected, the search will include all archives.
• Number of Fond. The fond number is valuable if the researcher has found this number in other database searches or is returning to a description found previously.
• Title of Fond/Name of Creator. Enter all or a portion of the title of the fond or the name of the institution that created the records using a minimum of two characters.
• Category/Sub-category. Select the category from a drop-down list in Polish. An online bilingual dictionary can help to determine the terms’ meanings. Categories include, for example, civil registers, military records, notarial rec­ords, culture, and education:

IZA. Inwentarze Zespołów Archiwalnych (United inventory of archival fonds) permits the researcher to search the terms in the inventories of more than 24,900 collections (the number continues to increase over time) or 28 percent of all collections preserved in branches of the Polish State Archives. Inventories provide greater detail than the summary information available in the other databases. A researcher might find the records for a place that is found in an inventory and nowhere else in the description of the collection. IZA is accessible at http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/ sezam/iza.php?l=en. The following are search elements:

• Option 1. Check to see if an inventory for a specific archive has been included in the database.

1. Select the archive of interest from the drop-down menu.
2. Initiate a search. In the results, all inventories for that archive are listed in numerical order by fond number. To display the inventory, click on inventarz in the right-hand column.

• Option 2:. Search for materials by terms at any level of description, for example, fond, series, subseries, item title, and so forth.

1. Number of the fond (collection)
2. Title of the series or subseries (subdivisions of a collection)
3. Title of an item
4. Any name, place, or subject that may have been used in describing the item.

SIMPLE INQUIRY. This is not a database, but a way to query all databases at the same time. A researcher enters any term into a search box and clicks on the search button. If that word appears in the text of the archival description (fond title, administrative history, scope and contents note, series, subseries, or file title), it will retrieve results from all four databases. At first, the results all merged into one list may be a little difficult to understand. Once a researcher becomes acquainted with the results from each database separately, he or she can easily understand the results of this search. One of the best uses of this search is to first find a place name in PRADZIAD, and then do this search to retrieve any instance of that place in any collection description, providing a comprehensive list of all records that pertain to that place.

Postscript

The databases of the Polish State Archives allow a researcher to learn what records of interest exist without going to Poland. A researcher can also advise an agent of the collections that should be searched. A mere decade ago, all of these functions could be done only at the archives. Under the communist system, the descriptions now available on the Internet were considered classified documents.

While these databases are essential to finding and using records in Polish archives, researchers should always keep in mind that not all records are held by archives. Records might be in the institution that created them or in collections of libraries, museums, and other institutions that preserve records. Still, using what is known should precede discovering what is not known.

Kahlile Mehr serves on the board of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and works as the Slavic Collection Manager for FamilySearch assisting in acquiring East European records for publication online and to build the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library collection. He published previously in AVOTAYNU and authored Tracing your Jewish Ancestors from the United States to Europe, 1850–1930. Mehr lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.