Poland is a country whose borders and rulers have changed many times. Almost 9,000,000 Americans claim Polish roots. Yet, because of the many political shifts in Polish history, vital records can be difficult to locate. Here is a list of Polish resources to check if your family hailed from the area that today is Poland.
If your Polish roots are also Jewish, there is a separate page in the Resource Toolbox to help you.
1. AGAD – Ukranian, Russian and Lithuanian records from areas that once were in Poland, but are not currently. This archive is housed in Warsaw.
2. Ancestry.com – Although most records on Ancestry are available only by subscription, it does have a number of Polish databases that are available to search for free. Use this link to access the list.
3. FamilySearch
Poland Indexed Historical Records
Poland Wiki
4. FEEFHS (Foundation of Eastern European Family History Societies – This site has lots of gazetteer information, digital maps on line and links to many Polish genealogical societies
5. Geneteka
Donna Pointkouski’s blog post on how to best navigate the site
6. Moikrewni – a database of Polish names and where those names are found today in Poland
8. Polish Genealogical Society of America – membership organization, but check out their free “Databases” link.
9. Polish National Archives – There is an “English” tab on this site.
10. Polish Roots
11. ManyRoads – A relatively new website that has Prussian data.
12. Poznan Project – If you have relatives who married in Poznan, this is for you – a marriage database
13. The Polish Genealogy Project – It’s hard to tell when this site was last updated and the first link in the Databases section is broken, but there are many other good working links.