Research
All The Things You Want To Know To Get Research Started, Unblock Stuck, And Learn About Previously Unknown Resources
A collection of the most important research resources for anyone working within the boundaries of Poland, either historically or currently.
Alphabets, Calendars, Fonts, etc.
- Cyrillic Alphabet Cyrillic Script
Handy when you are trying to interpret the Russian language documents you've located - German Fraktur (Gothic Script)
- Jewish Calendar Tools
- Julian and Gregorian Calendars
- Old Church Slavonic Alphabet
- Old German handwriting
- Perpetual Calendar
- Polish and Cyrillic Fonts
Includes instructions on how to install MS software to support Polish characters from the JRI-PL project pages.
Archives
- Archives in Belarus
- Archives of Lithuania
Official web site of the Lithuanian Archives - Archives in Poland
Addresses for both Civil and Catholic Church archives - Archives in Ukraine
- Archives in the United States
- Parish Records Holdings
This is intended as a clearinghouse for parish records that have not been filmed by the Mormons.
For Starters
- Freedom of Information Act, Using
- How to Trace your Family Tree
- How to start my search for Ancestors
Letter Writing Guides
Libraries
- Poland
- United States
- Europeana.eu
Europeana.eu is about ideas and inspiration. It links you to 2 million digital items. - Slavistics Portal
Museums
Organizations: Fraternal
- Polish American Veterans Association
Stowarzyszenie Weteranow Armii Polskiej (w Ameryce) - PAVA/SWAP Posts
- Polish Falcons
- Polish Falcons Nests
- Polish National Alliance (PNA)
- PNA Lodges
- PNA Lodge Histories
- Polish National Union
- Polish Roman Catholic Union of America
- PRCUA Societies
- Polish Women's Alliance
- Sons of Poland
Organizations: Genealogical & Others
- East European Genealogical Society
- Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS)
- Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)
- NGS (National Genealogical Society)
- JewishGen®
- Jewish Family History Foundation
Focuses on records of the Polish Commonwealth in the 17th & 18th Centuries - Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw
- Polish American Historical Association
- Polish Center of Discovery and Learning
- Polish Genealogical Societies
- Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences of America
The leading center of learning and source of information about Poland's history and culture in the US - Silesian Genealogical Society
- Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe
(A Volhynian Genealogy Group) - Tatra Area Research Group
- Milwaukee Polish Fest
Resources: Country
Kashubians
Tatars
- A Short History of the Lipka Tatars
- Islam in Belarus
- Islam in Poland
- Tatar Nobility of the Polish Commonwealth
Resources: Regional
Bialystok
- “Kamera Wojny i Domen” 1793 – 1807
(documents made by Prussian authorities in the time of annexation)
Carpatho-Rusyn
- Carpatho-Rusyn Home Page
- The Carpathian Connection
- Górale i Tatry
- Lemkos
- Polen: Pictures of pre-war Polish sites
Pictures from Polen by Dr. Wilhelm Nölting, published in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. There are pictures from Hutsul villages in Carpathian Ukraine.
Czech-Slovak
- Czech Mail List on RootsWeb
- Czech & Slovak American Genealogy Society
- Czechoslovak Genealogical Society Int'l
- Slovak Genealogical-Heraldic Society
Eastern Europe
- EastEuropeGenWeb
- East European Research Group
Affiliated with the Alberta, Canada Genealogical Society - "People of a Thousand Towns"
Online catalogue of photographs of Jewish life brought to you by Yivo Institute
Galicia (Galizien)
- Compact Memory
A project to digitize German Language Jewish Periodicals - Galicia: Slownik Geograficzny translation
- Galizien German Descendants
- Galicia on EastEuropeGenWeb
- Galician Research: Historical Perspectives
- Gesher Galicia
- Lwów Travelogue
An Inter-War travelogue describing sights within the city - Kendler's Lexicon of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Maps of Galicia
- Podole
- Austrian Military Recruitment in Galicia
A town by town list of where regiments recruited by year. - Austrian Military Garrisons in Galicia
- Galician Federal Representatives
To the Government in Vienna from 1907 - Galician Provincial Representatives
- Galician Vital Records
List of available records for the former Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia. The list covers Roman Catholic and Jewish records. - 1891 Galician Business Directory
- 1891 Lwów Business Directory
This is a subset of the 1891 Galician Business Directory which includes street addresses not included in the Galician Directory - 1907 Kraków City Directory
Compiled from information taken from a directory for Kraków published in 1907 (Wielka księga adresowa Krakowa i Podgorza)
Kresy (Borderlands)
- Kresy-Siberia Memorial Wall
1.7 million Polish citizens of various faiths and ethnicities (Polish, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, etc.) deported from eastern Poland (Kresy) in 1940-42
Latin America
Sląsk
- Wandering Volhynians
A Magazine for the Descendants of Germans From Volhynia and Congress Poland - Wolyn province
This site is in Polish, but it has wonderful pictures from many of the powiats - woj. Wołyn
- Der Kreis Flatow
Pictures from a rare book that shows places in Posen during the inter-war years. - Krotoszyn (Krotoschin)
- Poznan City Guide
Practical information about the city, including pictures - Province of Posen, Prussia
From the Birchy Genealogy project - Vital Records for the Province of Posen (Poznan)
- Polish History: A Guide
A brief history of Poland written by Dr. Lukasz Bielecki - Germans in Poland
- Napoleon Orda
19th century lithographs of many interesting places in Poland - Polish Magnates and Their Archives
Avotaynu prepared list of Magnate and the location of estate archives - Magnate Landowner Records of Eastern Europe
- Prussian Education
- Relationships of the So-Called "Dutch Populace" in Greater Poland
- Soviet Archival Sources for the study of Emigration from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- 1835 Posen City Directory (Adress-Kalender)
The earliest known city directory published for the city of Poznan, Poland - Posen High Schools Index
Over 7,000 student/faculty names have been transcribed from Posen high school lists.
Resources: Religious
Jewish
- Avotaynu Home Page
Publisher of works on Jewish Genealogy - Center for Jewish History
This site has Family History section accessible from the front page - Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland
- History of the Jews in Poland (1800 - 1939)
- History of the Jews in Poland (1939 - 1945)
- JewishGen®
- Jewish cemetery of Czestochowa, Poland
This site includes much information about Czestochowa as well as a list of those buried in the cemetery - Jewish Encyclopedia
This website contains the complete contents of the 12-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, which was originally published between 1901-1906 - Jewish Family History Foundation
Focuses on records of the Polish Commonwealth in the 17th & 18th Centuries - Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw
- Jewish Records Indexing (JRI) - Poland
- Jews in Haller's Army
- Museum of the History of Polish Jews
- Routes to Roots Foundation
Site has an archive of Jewish vital records holdings listed by town name - ShtetLinks
- Virtual Sztetl Project
- 1787 Decree by Austrian Emperor Joseph
The decree requiring a fixed surname for all Jews
Lutheran
Translations
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