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Finding your roots

As our families embrace life in the U.S., many of us are challenged with how to keep the Polish culture in our families.
We are often asked “Where do I come from?” To many that came here empty-handed, family records are lost.
Creating a family tree is certainly a way to spark interest. Today, searching for your Polish ancestors and building your family tree can be a great adventure as millions of records are being digitized and available on line and we’ve found some dating back to 15th century!
You can search and view online millions of index entries (and, in many instances, original record images) from archives all over Poland. These often include scanned copies of vital records such as birth, marriage and death records. These Polish genealogy websites (most of them free) can save you loads of legwork in locating ancestral hometowns and figuring out where to look for records. Just as important, most are in Polish and English. These sites offer links to websites including vital records, archives & libraries, cemeteries, church records, etc.
  • Szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl Developed and maintained by the National Digital Archives (NDA) in Poland, this online platform provides free, unrestricted public access to descriptions and millions of high-resolution digital scans of archival materials from Polish state archives and other cooperating institutions. The information of interest may be easily found thanks to the user-friendly search engine offering many useful filters and options.
  • Polish Geneological Society of America
  • Heraldry - Alternatively, you can search online original references such as: Herbarsz Grabowiecki, Herbarz Polski Niesieckiego etc