Getting Started with Polish Genealogy Richard A. Szczepiński [email protected] The earliest records from the part of Europe, which is now called Poland, dates from AD 965. Poland has existed under different names and forms. From 1795 to 1918 Poland did not exist as a sovereignty. Poland was the largest European state but maintained an older political structure and failed to develop modern systems which in part lead to the first partition in 1792. The Partitions The First Partition occurred after Russia became involved in a war against the Ottoman Turks (1768) and won such impressive victories, particularly in the Danubian principalities, that Austria became alarmed and threatened to enter the war against Russia. Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia, however, in order to avoid an escalation of the Russo-Turkish War, determined to calm Austro-Russian relations by shifting the direction of Russia’s expansion from the Turkish provinces to Poland, which not only had a structurally weak government but also, since 1768, had been devastated by a civil war and by Russian intervention and was, therefore, incapable of resisting territorial seizures. On August 5, 1772, Russia, Prussia, and Austria signed a treaty that partitioned Poland. January 23, 1793, the two powers agreed upon the Second Partition of Poland. Confirmed in August and September 1793 by the Polish Sejm—surrounded by Russian troops—the Second Partition transferred to Russia the major remnant of Lithuanian Belorussia and the western Ukraine, including Podolia and part of Volhynia, and allowed Prussia to absorb the cities of Gdańsk and Toruń as well as Great Poland and part of Mazovia. By the Third Partition of Poland, which was not finally settled until January 26, 1797, Russia incorporated Courland, all Lithuanian territory east of the Neman (Nieman) River, and the rest of the Volhynian Ukraine; Prussia acquired the remainder of Mazovia, including Warsaw, and a section of Lithuania west of the Neman; and Austria took the remaining section of Little Poland, from Kraków northeastward to the arc of the Northern Bug River. Those territorial divisions were altered in 1807, when the emperor Napoleon of France created the duchy of Warsaw out of the central provinces of Prussian Poland, and in 1815, when the Congress of Vienna created the Congress Kingdom of Poland. However, the main result of the partitions—i.e., the elimination of the sovereign state of Poland—was in effect until after World War I, when the Polish republic was finally restored (November 11, 1918). Administrative divisions of Poland # Voivodeship Polish name Capital city (cities) 1 Greater Poland wielkopolskie Poznań 2 Kuyavia-Pomerania kujawsko-pomorskie Bydgoszcz and Toruń 3 Lesser Poland małopolskie Kraków 4 Łódź łódzkie Łódź 5 Lower Silesia dolnośląskie Wrocław 6 Lublin lubelskie Lublin 7 Lubusz lubuskie Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra 8 Masovia mazowieckie Warsaw 9 Opole opolskie Opole 10 Podlaskie podlaskie Białystok 11 Pomerania pomorskie Gdańsk 12 Silesia śląskie Katowice 13 Subcarpathia podkarpackie Rzeszów 14 Holy Cross Province świętokrzyskie Kielce 15 Warmia-Masuria warmińsko-mazurskie Olsztyn 16 West Pomerania zachodniopomorskie Szczecin Powiats Each voivodeship is divided into a number of smaller entities known as powiats (counties). The number of powiats per voivodeship ranges from 12 (Opole Voivodeship) to 42 (Masovian Voivodeship). This includes both powiats proper (known as land counties, Polish powiaty ziemskie), and cities with powiat status (city counties, Polish powiaty grodzkie or more formally miasta na prawach powiatu). Land counties have an elected council (rada powiatu), which elects an executive board (zarząd powiatu) headed by the starosta. In city counties the functions of these institutions are performed by the city's own council (rada miejska, rada miasta) and directly elected mayor (prezydent). Gminas The third level of administrative division is the gmina (also called commune or municipality). A powiat is typically divided into a number of gminas (between 3 and 19), although the city counties constitute single gminas. A gmina may be classed as urban (consisting of a town or city), urban-rural (consisting of a town together with its surrounding villages and countryside), or rural (not containing a town). A gmina has an elected council as well as a directly elected mayor (known as prezydent in large towns, burmistrz in most urban and urban-rural gminas, and wójt in rural gminas). Smaller units Gminas are generally sub-divided into smaller units, called osiedle or dzielnica in towns, and sołectwo in rural areas. However, these units are of lesser importance and are subordinate in status to the gmina. Bibliography Davies, Norman. God’s Playground: A History of Poland, Volume 1, The Origins to 1795. Columbia University Press 2005 Shea, Jonathon D. Going Home: A Guide to Polish American Family History. Language & Lineage Press, 2008. Shea, Jonathon D. & Hoffman, William F. In Their Words: A Genealogists Guide to Polish, German, Latin and Russian Documents. Language & Lineage Press, 2007. Online Resources Facebook Genealogical Translations Genealogy in Poland Polish Genealogical Society of Greater Cleveland Polish Genius Family Search https://www.familysearch.org/ Geneteka.Genealodzy https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/ Google https://www.google.pl/ Maps https://mapa.szukacz.pl/ Metryki Genealodzy https://metryki.genealodzy.pl/ My Heritage https://www.myheritage.com/ Polish Genealogical Society of America https://pgsa.org/ Polish Genealogical Society of Cleveland https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ohpgsgc/ Polish Genealogy Group https://sites.google.com/view/polishgenealogygroup/ Polish Roots http://www.polishroots.com/ Pomorskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne http://www.ptg.gda.pl/ Poznan Project http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/ Steve Morse https://stevemorse.org/ .