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Guide to Genealogy

What is genealogy?

Genealogy (from the Greek genea 'race, generation' + logy 'denoting a subject of study or knowledge') is a branch of science concerned with studying the links of family and lineage between people, with a view to establishing degrees of kinship or relationship, searching for their dates of birth, marriage and death, and establishing where these events occurred.

A step-by-step guide to genealogy

  • Familiarise yourself with genealogical and historical publications
  • Visit genealogy-related websites
  • Work your way backwards through time
  • Make use of the various, different sources employed in genealogical studies
  • Record your sources
  • Check whether or not anyone has documented your family history in the past
  • Keep a record of your discoveries

Start with your parents; their marriage, birth and death certificates give you information about the dates and places they were born, their parents' surnames and forenames, and so forth. Following this procedure through, find your grandparents' marriage, birth and death certificates.

Remember that the basics of any genealogical search are the dates of births and marriages, the places where those events took place, and establishing the faith professed by the person being sought.

Write down all the known information, collect as many family records and documents as you possibly can and interview family members,

Keep the information you acquire in order. You can present the results of your searches in a descriptive, written form, or in the form of a genealogical table; your family tree can either be an ancestry chart, showing the oldest generation at the bottom, or a descendant chart, a family tree which places the oldest generation at the top.

Divide your tree into sections; in order to simplify the data you collect, you can divide a multi-generational family into monogamous families consisting of biological parents and their children. You can use ready-made charts for plotting out your family's genealogy.

You will need to carry out your search for documents in various different institutions. First and foremost, there are the State Archives; information is available on their websites about carrying out genealogical searches. In other words, by visiting the Genealogy section at www.archiwa.gov.pl, you will find:

At the same website, you will also find a list of archives, together with links to the websites of individual departments and divisions.

You do not have to come from an armorial family, numbered among the nobility, in order to obtain some truly fascinating results.

If you know the region from which your family originated, you can ask post queries on one of a multitude of genealogy fora, as well as checking whether someone else has been searching for the same ancestors.

Check out the information available on the Internet. Enter your surname on www.google.pl ; give both the masculine and feminine forms if that is appropriate to the surname's country and language of origin. Search for genealogy websites and follow up on the links they give to other genealogy sites. Visit discussion fora and read what they have to say.

Check out databases which are generally accessible. The indexes to parish and civil registers may well prove to be a valuable source of information. Unfortunately, those available in electronic form cover only a small part of the extant resources; nonetheless, they are worth having a look at from the point of view of a personal search. They are Geneteka (Genetics), at www.przodkowie.com/metryki , and The Prussian Partition (The Grand Duchy of Poznań).

Polish genealogy links:

  • Among the means by which we can establish a chronology of a life and origins, are:
  • the origins of forenames and surname, which are often simply the subject of conjecture;
  • dates of birth, death, and appointment to office;
  • christening and burial records (these occurred, depending on the social class to which the person belonged);
  • chronicles of documents and notices of all kinds;
  • parish and civil registers (15th century);
  • monuments and tombstones.

Once compiled, a family history might contain, for example:

  • information about the origins of the surnames which appear in your family;
  • information on the Polish locations of people bearing the surnames you have chosen to investigate;
  • a list of the names of people related to your family;
  • maps showing the regions from which the family originates;
  • the history of the family;
  • a family tree.

A successful search for one's roots depends on four factors:

  • previous social class and financial position;
  • the state of preservation of the source materials, particularly municipal, district, civil and parish records;
  • the family's continuity;
  • the family name.

In general, it is a fairly simple matter to trace one's roots to the early 19th century. By turning to various sources, the majority of families should be able to trace their roots back to the time when their surname first came into being. In the case of the noble, armorial families, this would be the 15th – 16th centuries, with peasant and bourgeois families, it would be the 17th– 18th centuries.

Genealogical Research at the State Archives in Kalisz

Genealogical Research Sources at the State Archives in Kalisz

Parish and civil records

  • Registry office civil records;
  • Parish records (Roman Catholic parishes, Evangelical parishes (Austrian Partition), synagogue districts, the Orthodox Parish in Kalisz, The Uniat Parish in Kalisz;)
  • Parish registers from 1808 to 1946 covering various parishes within the former Kalisz Voivodship. They include individual documents to the register of marriages, evidence to civil proceedings, records of marriage banns and marriage contracts.
  • Detailed information on parish and civil status records is held on the PRADZIAD database.

State administration records

General, as well as regional and local self-governing authorities. The records include population registers, which are extremely useful in genealogical research, for example:

  • residency records for the districts of Jarocin, Kalisz, Kępno, Krotoszyn and Ostrzeszów;
  • population registration records for the city of Kalisz, the town and the district of Krotoszyn, Pleszew, and the Commune of Sokolniki.

These materials are located in specific archival fonds (municipal records, commune records, and the offices of district, municipal and commune councils.

General information, at the fonds level, is held on the SEZAM database, with more detailed information, at unit level, being held on the ELA database.

Judicial records

19th and 20th century court records from the former Kalisz Voivodship, including wills, cases of inheritance, guardianship, wardship, and official recognition of death, as well as Land and Mortgage Registers and records from the Nazi prison camps and penal camps in Kalisz and Ostrów Wielkopolski. General information, at the fonds level, is held on the SEZAM database.

Notary records

Notary records for the districts of Kalisz, Kępiny, Krotoszyn, Ostrów, Ostrzeszów and Pleszew, dating between 1808 and 1951.

General information, at the fonds level, is held on the SEZAM database.

Educational and cultural institution records, including:

  • records from Kalisz schools (the Kalisz Voivodship School, the Realschule HEI in Kalisz, the Realschule in Kalisz, and the Kalisz Women's Gymnasium) dating between 1775 and 1914;
  • the Ostrów Wielkopolski State Gymnasium for Men (1846-1935);
  • the Pedagogical High Schools in Kalisz and Krotoszyn;
  • the Teachers' Seminary in Kożmin;
  • the Kalisz Teacher Training School.

General information, at the fonds level, is held on the SEZAM database.

The SEZAM, ELA and PRADZIAD databases are available at the website for the Head Office of the State Archives (www.archiwa.gov.pl)

Detailed information, at archival unit level, can only be obtained at the Kalisz Archive itself.

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