Prussian Poland Jewish Records
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Find the Town
In order to research your family in Prussian Poland, it is essential that you have identified the place where they came from. It is not enough to only know 'Poland,' 'Prussia,' or 'Germany;' you must know the shtetl, or town, they came from. For a great overview on ways to identify your Jewish ancestral hometown, see the free, virtual class Crossing the Ocean. In addition to research in the records of the country they immigrated to, you may also want to examine the following sources to help you determine possible town locations.
JewishGen Family Finder
The Family Finder is a database of both ancestral hometowns and surnames that have been researched by their descendants world wide. The Family Finder allows you to connect with others who are researching similar ancestors and origins and collaborate your research. To add the surnames and locations you are researching:
- click on Modify (Edit your existing entries) or Enter (Add new entries).
- Type in the surnames and/or locations of interest and hit Submit.
- To search the database and see if you can connect to family members and other researchers, choose Search (Search the database) from the Town Finder home page. You can search for a surname and/or a town. Search results will appear in a chart format giving you the surname, town, country, and researcher information (often includes contact information) and the date they last logged into JewishGen.
Miriam Weiner's Surname Database
Over her 30+ years of working in Eastern European archives, Miriam Weiner collected vast amounts of material and can be searched using the Surname Database.
- Use the Standard Surname Database if you know your ancestor's given name, surname, or town name. This database is comprised of name lists from local historians and heads of Jewish communities, name lists from books, and name lists from various archives.
- Use the OCR Surname Database (optical character recognition) to search for your ancestor's surname. The search of the database is done using Cyrillic spellings, but the search form allows you to enter the name in Latin letters and automatically transliterates it into Cyrillic for you. This database is comprised of information from business directories, address calendars, telephone books, typed name lists, and name lists from books and from archives.
You may also be able to use the database to help narrow down a more specific location for where individuals lived who shared your ancestor's surname.
Maps and Gazetteers
Once you have determined the town your ancestor came from, the next step is locating the town in a map or a gazetteer. This will help you to identify political boundaries, place names, alternate spellings, etc. Gazetteers and historical maps are especially useful for understanding boundary changes or finding communities that no longer exist.
JewishGen Gazetteer
- The JewishGen Gazetteer is a useful online gazetteer for locations in Eastern Europe. Note that wild card searches are not supported. To view an entry page, click on the Jewish star to the left of the town name. Entry pages provide jurisdictions for before WWI, the interwar period, after WWII and modern-day. Alternate names and Yiddish and Russian spellings are also included. In the center, you'll find a map and a list of additional Jewish communities located nearby. Finally, under Additional Information and in the green box at the top, you'll find links to references and additional resources that may help you in your research.
Meyers Gazetteer
- Meyer's Gazetteer represents Prussian areas as they existed in 1871. The gazetteer, available online is easy to search and can be searched using wild cards. To learn how to use this gazetteer, see the Meyer's Gazetteer "How to" guide. Note that you will need to search for places using the German version of the name, rather than the Polish.
Kartenmeister
- Kartenmeister shows Prussian Poland as they existed in 1950. It provides both the German and Polish names. To learn how to use this gazetteer, see the Kartenmeister Gazetteer "How to" guide.
Maps of your Ancestor's Town
- Miriam Weiner's website offers select historical maps of Poland, as well as a variety of historical images from towns in Poland that may prove useful in your family history.
Vital Records
JRI Poland (indexed records)
JRI-Poland has indexed over 6.1 million Jewish birth, marriage, and death records from current and former territories of Poland. Search the free database using information such as surname, given name, or any field. Search results are displayed according to historical region (gubernia, wojewodztwo, etc.). For additional help in searching the database see the article, How to Search Our Database.
Indexes were taken from a variety of different places including FamilySearch microfilms, digital images housed on the Polish State Archives and other genealogical/archival sites, or from originals located in Poland.
- To locate original images on FamilySearch using a microfilm number, look for a number found in the microfilm column (usually the last column on the right). If there is not a blue hyperlink on the number, copy the microfilm number and then go to the FamilySearch Catalog. Paste the microfilm number in the Film/Fiche Number box and select Search (you may need to remove commas). One, or several result may appear. Look for a result with the the Author as the town listed on JRI-Poland. Scroll down to the portion of the page entitled Film/Digital Notes. Look for your film number in the Film Column. Pay attention to the item number (if one is listed). Next, look in the Format column.
- A camera icon indicates the digital images of the records are accessible online. Click on the camera and then locate the correct item number within the film.
- A camera icon with a key indicates that the item has viewing restrictions and may be accessible at a https://www.familysearch.org/centers/locations/ Family History Center] or on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. To locate a FamilySearch Center near you, click here.
- A magnifying glass indicates that at least a portion of the film has been indexed. Click on the magnifying glass to search through the indexes.
- A wheel icon indicates that the item has viewing restrictions and is only accessible on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- To locate original images on the Polish State Archives
- To locate additional source information scroll down to the bottom of your search page on JRI-Poland to the Datafile section. Locate the collection of interest from the index and then look at the final column, LDS films/contact information.
JewishGen
Some vital records have been indexed and are available through the JewishGen Germany database.
Polish State Archives (digital images or archival references)
The Polish archive system consists of many regional archives throughout Poland which are under the umbrella of the main Polish State Archive in Warsaw. Their website incorporates the holdings of all regional archives to help users find and locate records and documents. Note that some records are digitized and accessible online, while other records simply provide an inventory and an indication of which archive they are presently stored in. To access the new version of the Polish State Archives, click here. To access the old version of the Polish State Archives website, click here. To learn how to use the website see below. For more detailed information, see the Szukaj w Archiwach - The Polish State Archives Website "How to" Guide.
Click here to begin your search.
- Change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper right hand corner (unfortunately, not everything will be translated into English - if you are using the Google Chrome browser, you can right-click anywhere on the page and select translate to English, to get translations for anything the website didn't automatically translate).
- Enter desired search terms (typically, you'll want to search for a place name rather than a personal name). Keep in mind the following:
- The Polish word used on the site to identify Jewish records is mojżeszowe.
- urodzenia = birth
- małżeństwa = marriage
- zgony = death
- alegata = marriage banns
- Choose your search options by clicking on the tabs above the search box - you can choose to search Everything, Files, or Vital Records and Civil Registers.
- If you find an entry that interests you, click on it, and then select the option See units from this period. After opening the entry, look for Digital Copies in the upper right hand corner of each individual entry. If scans of the records have been made, then the Digital Copies number will be greater than zero. If scans are not available then contact the archive that holds the records. Reference the archival information found in the entry. This will help the archive locate your record faster.
FamilySearch (digital images)
There may also be records available through FamilySearch. To find records for your location, go to the FamilySearch Catalog. In the place box, type in the name of your town and click the appropriate entry from the drop-down box. Keep in mind that records are often listed using multiple levels of jurisdictions from largest (country) to smallest (town), as well as varying jurisdictions over time.
Alternatively, you can click here to access catalog entries for Poland. Click on Places within Poland and a list of places will appear. Click on your desired location(s). A list of record topics will then appear. Jewish records are most commonly catalogued under the headings Jewish Records or Jewish History. You may also find record under Church Records (for Jews recorded in records of other denominations), Civil Registration, Concentration Camps, Genealogy, Holocaust, and Minorities.
To open a topic, click on it and then a list of the records included in that topic will appear. Click on the blue links to view specific record titles. As you scroll down on the catalog entry page, look for the Film/Digital Notes section. The column on the left explains the types of records/years that are contained on the film. The final Format column indicates accessibility.
- A magnifying glass indicates that at least part of the film is indexed, and clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index.
- A camera indicates records are available online in a digital format.
- A camera with a key on top means the record is viewable digitally but with certain restrictions that may mean the record can only be viewed at a FamilySearch Center, FamilySearch affiliate library, or the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City. Take a look at the FamilySearch Center Finder to discover a location near you.
- A wheel icon indicates the record is only available on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Gatermann films for the Prussian Poland and former East Germany regions are kept at the Saxon State Archive in Leipzig, and are available through familysearch.org.
The following two sources focus primarily on records of other religious denominations, but you may still find them useful.
Metryki Genealodzy (Genealogical Records Indexing Project)
Metryki Genealodzy is a source for finding scans of Polish vital records. Click on the current Administrative Division for your community, then the county (info from your community page). Look for “Denomination: mojżeszowe” and/or “Urząd Stanu Cywilnego” meaning “Civil Registry Office,” and then follow the links to browse the online images.
Geneteka
Geneteka indexes Polish vital records, and you can search indexed records by name, place, event, and date.
1939 German Minority Census Database
The 1939 German Minority Census Database is provided by Tracing the Past and the Mapping the Lives Project.
In May of 1839, a census was conducted in Germany that required the head of each household to fill out an Ergänzungskarte, or a card that indicated the Jewish background of each of the resident's four grandparents. Microfilm copies of the German Minority Census of 1939 are available at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Copies can also be found in Germany and Israel. The database includes those who had at least one Jewish grandparents. For more information about these records, click here. To search the database, click here.
Jewish Families in the German Empire Database (Familiendatenbank Juden im Deutschen Reich)
The Jewish Families in the German Empire Database (German - Familiendatenbank Juden im Deutschen Reich), compiled by Ingo Paul, contains nearly 70,000 individuals from parts of Prussia that are now a part of present-day Poland (Ostpreußen, Pommern, Posen, Schlesien, and Westpreußen). The website and database is in German.
Area Specific Resources
The following resources may apply to just a specific area rather than Prussian Poland as a whole.
State Archive in Szczecin (Archiwum Państwowe w Szczecinie)
The State Archive in Szczecin includes civil registry records by community, designated Urząd Stanu Cywilnego, and linked from the left-hand sidebar. Browse images.
Genealogia w Archiwach (Genealogy in the Archives of Torun and Bydgoszcz}
Genealogia w Archiwach is a joint genealogical project of the state archives in Torun and Bydgoszcz containing images of civil records starting in 1874 for Pomorski and Kujawsko-pomorski. Browse by community and date.
State Archive in Olsztyn (Archiwum Państwowe w Olsztynie)
The State Archive in Olsztyn includes images of civil registries (Urząd Stanu Cywilnego).
Poznań Marriage Project (Greater Poland/Poznań/Posen)
The Poznan Marriage Project has a goal to transcribe 19th century marriage records from historical Greater Poland (then the Prussian province of Posen/Poznań) into a searchable online database. Look for civil registry records which may include your Jewish ancestors.
Poznań Population Register, 1870-1931, Poznań City Files collection
The Poznań Population Register, 1870-1931 is a database of approximately 1.13 million people who resided in the city of Poznań, both permanently and temporarily. To see what kind of information can be found in the records, click here.
Pomeranian Genealogical Association (Pommern/Pomorski/Pomerania)
Search the Pomeranian's Genealogical Association's PomGenBase to find birth, marriage, and death records for ancestors who lived in the area of Pommern. Look for civil registry records with a USC (Urząd Stanu Cywilnego) designation.
National BaSIA Database (Greater Poland and Kuyavian-Pomerania)
The National BaSIA database from the Wielkopolska Genealogical Society covers Greater Poland and Kuyavian-Pomerania. Includes civil registry records. Click on map to see what is indexed. Search by name.
Holocaust
- 1939-1945 Jewish Holocaust Memorials and Jewish Residents of Germany 1939-1945 at MyHeritage - index
Additional Records and Finding Aids/Record Inventories
Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation
Use the Archive Database to locate what records exist for your ancestor's town, and where to find them. Search for the name of your ancestor's locality, and the database will provide results for known surviving records from that location, and where the records are held. (Remember to adjust the search criteria for Soundex options or spelling variations).
This database contains documents such as army/recruit lists, family lists and census records, Jewish vital records (birth, marriage, death, divorce), immigration documents, voter and tax lists, property and notary records, Holocaust documents, police files, and pogrom documents (school records, occupation lists, local government and hospital records).
- See Routes to Roots Foundation and hover over Poland for a Genealogical and Family History guide to Jewish and civil records in Eastern Europe.
For information about the repositories referred to on Miriam Weiner's Archive Database, see the Archives in Eastern Europe page which includes archival contact information. Contact/visit the respective repository for details on their holdings. For instructions on contacting archives and accessing records, see Q11 on this Routes to Roots page. For help writing in inquiry in Russian, see the Russia Archives and Libraries page.
Additional Resources and Special Interest Groups (SIGS)
- Danzig/Gdańsk SIGDanzig/Gdańsk, and its precursor communities of Alt Schottland, Langfuhr, Mattenbuden, Weinberg, and Danzig in der Breitgasse, and Tiegenhof (Nowy Dwór Gdański).
- German-Jewish SIGGermany and German-speaking areas of Alsace, Lorraine, Switzerland, and Poland.