Poland Letter Writing Guide: Difference between revisions

Poland Letter Writing Guide (view source)

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 Before You write to Poland for family history records, you should do three things:
 *'''Determine exactly where your ancestor was born, was married, lived, or died. <br>'''Because most genealogical sources were recorded locally, you will need to know the specific locality where your ancestor was born, married, lived or died.
 *'''Determine your ancestor's religion.<br>'''Because most early records were kept by churches or synagogues rather than civil registraiton offices, you may need to write to the church your ancestor attended in his or her hometown. If you are not sure what your ancestor's religion was in Europe, determine what religion he or she practiced after immigrating. People usually did not change religions when they moved frm Europe to their new home.
 *'''Determine where records from your ancestor's home parish are stored today.''' <br>When you have a locality name, use a gazetteer to determine which parish or civil jurisdiction served your ancestor's locality.
-== Research by Mail  ==
+== Research (by institution) ==
-Church records are obtained from parishes, and civil records are obtained from civil registration offices. Both kinds of records may be stored in archives. In 1874 civil registration became mandatory in Poland, yet it started at different times throughout the country. If the dates you need precede 1874, you will need to write for church records.
+=== State Archives ===
-If you address your letter to a parish or local civil registration office, you must write the letter in Polish. Letters written in Polish have a greater chance of receiving a reply than those written in English. You may write in English to the Directorate of the State Archives.
+The best and the quickest way to contact State Archives in Poland is e-mail. It shouldn’t be a problem when you write letter in English. Probably there is at least one archive worker who knows English enough to understand our inquiry. Of course all answers you will get in Polish. You should receive an answer in a month but sometimes it can takes up to 2 months to get results of research. It depends how many cases archive works on. There is also a possibility to sent regular letter but it will significantly increase the time to get information.
-=== How To Address the Envelope  ===
+Here you can find a list of all State Archives in Poland with their e-mails.
-For a '''Roman Catholic Parish'''
+'''Payments'''<br>When writting a letter do not include any money in an envelope. The only acceptable form of payment is bank transfer. If research looks for time consuming one, you can be asked to pay an advance. If not, you will receive an invoice for archive services and after it is paid you will receive results of research.<br>
-Parafia Rzymsko-Katolicka<br>(street name and number)<br>(postal code) (name of locality)<br>POLAND<br><br>For a '''Protestant Parish'''
-Parafia Ewangelicka<br>(street name and number)<br>(postal code) (name of locality)<br>POLAND
-In Poland exist ca 134 protestant parishes. Some records formerly found in such parishes may be housed in local Catholic parishes. For a list of the Protestant parishes in Poland and their addresses you can<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;visit the following website </span>[http://www.luteranie.pl/o_naszym_kosciele.html www.luteranie.pl]<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> for a listing of Lutheran parishes which are in existence today.&nbsp;</span>
+=== Civil registration offices ===
-For an '''Orthodox Parish''' <br>Parafia Prawoslawna<br>(street name and number)<br>(postal code) (name of locality)<br>POLAND
+In civil registration offices are kept documents younger than 100 years (with some exceptions). Older records should be transferred to an archive. If you would like to know if records are already in archive, you can check it in [http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/pradziad.php?l=en Pradziad database].
-For a '''Civil Registration Office'''
+A letter to civil registration office should be written in Polish. You should include as much information as you know concerning record you are interested in: eg. full name, exact or estimated date of event and denomination. Civil registration officer is not obligated to perform research if you can’t specify what are you looking for.
-Urząd Stanu Cywilnego<br>(street name and number)<br>(postal code) (name of locality)<br>POLAND
+To receive a record you need to be straight descendant of person you are interested in. For example: you will get death certificate of your great grandfather but it can be a problem to get record of your grandmothers sister second husband. You can ask, but it depends on the officer.
-[http://www.usc.pl/s_urzedy.php?akcja=info1&id=2405074 Civil Registration address finder]
+'''Payments'''
-For '''State Archive<br>'''Urząd Stanu Cywilnego<br>(street name and number)<br>(postal code) (name of locality)<br>
+Since 2007 the only form of payment is bank transfer. Payment should be done before sending request. Otherwise you will get a response to complete your application within 14 days. If you have a friend or family member in Poland you can ask him to make bank transfer for you (which is cheap and quick) and send you confirmation of payment.
-<br>
+Copy of cetrificate (without legal force) - 5 zl (ca 1,5 USD)<br>Shortended transcript of certificate - 22 zl (ca 7 USD)<br>Full transcript of certificate - 33 zl (ca 10 USD)
-=== Postal Codes  ===
+There is also an option that records can be send to the nearest Polish consulate in your country and you will be notified to make payment in your local currency. This way is more expensive.<br>
-When addressing your letter, you will need to write the postal (zip) code in front of the name of the town you are writing to. For help finding postal codes for Poland, see:
+=== Parishes ===
-''Oficjalny spis pocztowych numerów&nbsp;adresowych (Official zip code directory for Poland).'' (FHL book Ref Area 943.8 E8o.)
+The results of writing to parishes can vary greatly. You may get a great deal of information, or you may get no answer at all. Some clergy are willing and able to provide considerable information, while others are not.<br><br>
-If your town is not listed, use the following gazetteer to determine where the closest post office is located:
-''Spis miejscowości Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej (Gazetteer of Localities of the Polish People's Republic).'' (FHL book Ref Area 943.8 E5s, film 2037058 item 2.)
-Towns in Poland are listed alphabetically. The post office is given in the fifth column, under the heading "Poczta."&nbsp; However, many of the post offices localities have been changed since this book was published.
-=== Payments  ===
-'''Writing to a Parish.'''&nbsp;When writing to a parish, it is a good idea to send a donation of $5.00 to $10.00 as a courtesy. Do not send a personal check, which is difficult and expensive to exchange in Europe. Cash is better since it is most easily converted to European currency, but be aware of the risks in sending it.&nbsp;
-'''Writing to a Civil Registration Office.''' When writing to the local civil registration office, it is not necessary to include money. The Polish Consulate will&nbsp;bill you for this service. You will be asked to send a certified check. After the payment is received the document will be mailed to you.
-'''Writing to Government Organizations.''' When writing to the State Archives, do not send money in your first letter. The staff will bill you for their services. You may be asked to make the check payable to the archive's account number. If you wish, you may write first to determine its fees before making a request. However, This will significantly increase the time it takes to get information.
 == What To Expect  ==