A Guide for Using Szukajwarchiwach.PL Poradnik — #Polish, #Archive, #Guide, #Poradnik

Stanczyk has been writing for a while about Polish National Archives announcing via their National Digital Archive (NAC) that Poland would be putting 2.4 Million digital images of church / synagogue metric images from their regional archives online. So today’s blog post is a guide (poradnik) about how to use szukajwarchiwach.pl to view these images.

It is easiest if you know the regional archive you are interested in, but you do not need to know it really. I will demonstrate with the RZESZOW regional archive. This archive was in Austrian-Poland partition, so its records should be for those locales to Rzeszow. Recall from my post, Polish State Archives – Numbers (13 March 2013) where I listed the archive numbers, that Rzeszow = 59.

Œ Œ

Step By Step

Step One

            Go to the archive of interest - 
http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/
59#tabInformacje

You should see the web site with the information for the Rzeszow regional Archive.

Notice the two links: Poprzednie archiwum  and Następne archiwum . With these two links you go through the list of regional archives. The list of archives only includes those archives for which they are presently loading images. If you hover over my two links above you will see ‘Previous Archive’ and ‘Next Archive’.

Step Two

            Click on ‘Resource’ [see 2 in red circle] –  which brings you to the list of collections at Rzeszow. 
http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/59#tabZasoby

You should see …

Step Three

 Click on Collection Number ‘59/20/0‘ for the civil records from the Roman Catholic parish of Błażowej - 
http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/59/20/0#tabZespol

You should see …

Step Four

Click on ‘Units 20/20‘ in red circle - 
http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/59/20/0#tabJednostki

You should see …

Step Five

Click on ‘Reference Code 59/20/0/-/1‘ in red circle - http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/59/20/0/-/1#tabJednostka

You should see …

Step Six

Click on ‘Digital Copies 107‘ to see a table of 107 scanned images - 
http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/59/20/0/-/1#tabSkany

You should now see the scanned images …

There are 107 images [currently] and the data looks like it is in the Latin Box format. Since there is no index, you will have visit each image in turn and look at each row of boxes to see if that birth/baptism is for one of your ancestors.

So that is a visual guide for how you navigate the  szukajwarchiwach.pl website to get to the scanned images. Obviously, you will need to focus on the villages/parishes for your ancestor. That may be another Archive (besides Rzeszow) or if it is in the Rzeszow archive then you need to pay closer attention to the parishes in the Rzeszow collections and finally, you will need to select Birth/Marriage/Death (Urodziny/Małżeństwo/Zgony) for the year of interest to you.

You will still need to be able to deal with Latin or Polish or Russian or German language in the records to understand what you see in the scanned images. You will also need to be able to read the handwriting. But you can do this!

Good Luck!

Polish National Archives to post 2.4 Million Historic Church Records — #Genealogy

Stanczyk ‘s position has been overrun! I was trying to write a blog, but the course of events has been running at EXTREME Internet speed so much of this blog post may be “old news” to you — but in case its not, this is very exciting news!

According to a Polish website (The National Digital Library of Poland) …

URL:
http://nac.gov.pl/node/682

• By mid-year (2013), they plan to digitize 2.3 Million  historical  (>100 years old) vital records.
• This will happen in two phases: March,  June
• This PDF file (see link) lists 40 pages vital records from MANY parishes (a few synagogues too):
  • 
    http://nac.gov.pl/files/D’ASC1_02_2013v.3.pdf
    
• It appears the plan is to digitize about 1.37 Million records by March and the remainder (another 1 Milliion) by the end of June.

These are actual church record images! I hope they plan on digitizing records from the Kielce Archive (please do PACANOW, BIECHOW, SWINIARY, BESZOWA, ZBOROWEK, KSIAZNICE and STOPNICA parishes).

Can anyone detail the plans for JUNE yet? Unfortunately, the 1.37 Million records in March are NOT from the KIELCE archive or any parish where Stanczyk’s ancestors resided?

Do not forget about GENETEKA database in the meantime:

• Geneteka Database: 
  http://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/
  

Thanks in advance for any answers from our genealogists resident in Poland!

Post Office Department – Stanczyk’s Mailbag — #Polish, #Genealogy, Kuc, Kucz, Swiniary

From the Post Office Department

From Stanczyk’s Mail Bag …

Email From:   Barbara

I have been trying to do research in Pacanow but have not been very successful.  My Grandmother — Maryanna Kuc(z) is from Oblekon.  I wrote to the parish there — Parafia p.w. Najswietszej Maryi Panny Krolowej Swiata but never received a reply.  Perhaps they just couldn’t find any information.

My Grandmother:      Maryanna Kuc(z)

Born:                        March 15, 1886

Baptized                   March  25, 1887

Immigrated to USA:    September 1912

Father:                      Benedict Ku(z)

Mother’s first name:    Marianna

She had a sister Eva (born 1895)

 & a brother Jozef  (born 1893) both came to America.

I think she had other siblings but have not been able to find any records from Poland at all i.e. Marriage of parents, birth or baptisms or death of her parents.  I know her father was alive in 1912 when she came to America.

If you can help or shed any light on how I could obtain the information I am seeking, I would be extremely grateful.

Keep up the excellent work on your blog.

Thank you for any information in can provide and Thank you for your blog,  I learn a lot from it.

Barbara

I had told Barbara that I would search the Swiniary indexes that I have pictures of to see if I could find anything for her. When I searched my indexes, I found that her family name is spelled most as she had it: Kucz, but I did find one example where the priest wrote Kuć. There was also another family Kuzon, but I do NOT feel like they are the same family as her Kucz/ Kuć. Since this was from the era 1829-1852 the records were in Polish. I found one marriage index in the Swiniary parish:

1836 Franciszek Kuć marries Maryanna Duponką   [this is not your great-grandparents, but probably related]. 1836 was the only year that I had a marriage index picture.

1830-1840 no Kucz/ Kuć births in the indexes.

1841 Jozef Kucz birth record #23

1842 Maciej Kucz birth record #21

1843-1845 no Kucz/ Kuć births in the indexes.

1846-1849 I had no indexes (or pictures thereof)

1850 no Kucz/ Kuć births in the indexes.

1851 I had no indexes (or pictures thereof)

1852 Stanislaw Kucz birth record #28

I think I have seen Kuc in the surrounding parishes (Biechow & Pacanow).

First off, I checked the LDS website (FamilySearch.org). I wanted to see what microfilm they had. Your birthdates: 1886, 1893, 1895 are rather late (most LDS microfilm stop around 1884). Here is their inventory for Swiniary (you want “Akta urodzeń“, for births):

Family History Library Catalog (Place Search): Swiniary

Akta urodzeń 1686-1811 — małżeństw 1668-1863 — zgonów 1686-1811 -  INTL Film [ 939952 ]
Akta urodzeń 1797-1811, 1826-1865 -  INTL Film [ 939951 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1812-1816, 1818-1825 -  INTL Film [ 939949 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1878-1884 -  INTL Film [ 1808854 Items 9-15 ]

Akta zgonów 1797-1839 -  INTL Film [ 939950 ]

–

That is all the LDS (aka Mormons) have in their Family History Library that you can rent microfilm from. Next I checked the Polish National Archives via PRADZIAD . They did have books/microfilm for the date range you are seeking. Here is the contact info for the archive that has the data you seek. You would need to write them in Polish and they will write you back with their findings and instructions for wiring their bank the money they require (all in Polish).

PRADZIAD:

http://baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/pradziad.php?l=en&mode=showopis&id=14781&miejscowosc=swiniary

Archive:

Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach Oddział w Pińczowie – akta przeniesione do AP w Kielcach
28-400 Pińczów, ul. Batalionów Chłopskich 32
tel: (41) 357-20-02
fax: 357-20-02
email: pinczow@kielce.ap.gov.pl

I hope this helps you out!

–Stanczyk

Ukase – Decree … #Genealogy, #History, #Russian, #Polish

This jester thanks my Slavic readers from: Poland, Russian Federation, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, Slovakia, etc and of course their American emigres and American born of that heritage. This is after all predominantly a blog of genealogy that focuses on its Slavic Heritage and especially the heritage of Stanczyk‘s paternal grandparents who were born, married, had children and emigrated from Poland … Russian-Poland also known as Congress Kingdom of Poland and to a lesser degree, Vistulaland (a collection of ten gubernia in the czarist Russian Empire). Poland was occupied and partitioned between three Empires: Prussian (German), Austrian (Austro-Hungarian / Hapsburg), and Russian from 1792-1918. As such, in the Russian partition, they were subject to the Czar’s ukases (decrees).

A UKASE (указ) is formally an “imposition” , usually by the czar, but possibly by an Orthodox Patriarch. But ukase is usually translated as decree or edict.

My ancestors were from the Russian-Poland partition, but just across the Vistula (Wisla) river from the Austrian-Poland partition — which had, to me, a surprising number cross-Empire interaction in vital records. The Russian-Poland nominally a fiefdom of the Russian Czar, who was also titled as King of Poland, as well as Russian Emperor.

There were many Ukases from each czar/czarina. So many so, that Czar Nicholas in 1827 ordered a collation of these edicts (a kind of codification Russian law). The result was a 48 volume collection of ukases. Some notable ukases …

• Created (1791) and others amended the Pale of Settlement
• 1821 Territorial waters off Alaska (affecting British Empire and a young America)
• 1861 Freeing the Serfs
• 1868 Decreed that vital records in the Kingdom of Poland be recorded in Russian

Stanczyk is fascinated by the last one. It is said that it is in the Polish DNA to be multi-lingual. Certainly, my grandmother was capable of four languages (Polish, Russian, German, and finally English). But how did the Catholic priests do this? Switching from recording vital records in Polish to recording them into Russian? The year of the switch-over was 1868. The records start out in Polish but switch during the year to being in Russian ??? Admittedly, the Russian in most cases was a bit … uh “problematic”.

Can you imagine that happening in America? Most of the world thinks of the USA as being linguistically challenged. This jester is fluent only in English. I did receive much French tutelage and can read French. With my genealogy, I have been self taught in Polish, Russian and Latin. Thankfully, Google provides the Google Translator, flawed as it is, for Polish. Still as it was, I was able to use it communicate with a distant cousin in Poland who could not speak any English and my ability to write Polish was so very limited. Yet we overcame and I was blessed with the gift of my grandparent’s marriage record from Biechow church and a civil record of their marriage from a local USC office.

And it was a good thing my cousin sent me both. As the USC mistranslated the Russian language church record on my grandmother’s age. They had accidentally added five years to my grandmother’s age, which I would not have known if I did not have the original church record in Russian (which apparently the local USC could not read as well as I could).

So here is Stanczyk’s UKASE …

All Polish Genealogists must be able to read Latin, Polish, and Russian. (Who can read that German handwriting?)

Family Search Indexing Tool – #Genealogy – #Polish Radom 1866

Stanczyk wanted to take a moment to say, “Thanks”. You may recall I did my due diligence on the Genealogy Website Rankings. I added my own blog website for reference. At the time of the survey I was a little over 12.8 Million-th most popular website on the Internet. Out of the billions of pages, I thought that was a great start.

For kicks, I went to Alexa.com and inquired if my ranking had changed. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was now the 10.3 Million-th most popular website. That is an improvement of 2.5 Million in about one month !   So I just wanted to say thanks. I am hoping to eventually crack the top 1 Milliion (with perhaps a dream of being in the top 100,000 some day). I asked for your support and I can definitely see that I received it. Thank You very much for lending me your eyes.

I am also looking for people to help me in my volunteer efforts. If you can read Polish (or even Russian, I saw two projects for Ukraine-Kiev church records), then you can join with me on one of two projects: Lublin and/or Radom. I chose Radom as it was close to my grandparent’s ancestral villages (Biechow/Pacanow).

Most projects are for English language records. Of those, many are in the USA, so you could pick your local area and get a local genealogy society or historical society to pitch in. It will provide more data for all of us to research. If you want to thank me, but only read English then perhaps you can pick from a project for: Philadelphia, Buffalo, Toledo, Detroit (or Michigan in general). This is another way you can lend me your eyes and feel good about doing some volunteer work (Random Act of Genealogical Kindness, anyone?).

Two Polish projects open at present.

As I said, I chipped in some effort to read one batch (of 12 birth church records). The records I was given in my first batch were from 1866 in the Radom diocese. This data (index and images) will be free to search from their website: FamilySearch.org (Europe Record Groups) .

Good Luck & Thanks again!

– Stanczyk

Post Office Department – Stanczyk’s Mailbag

From the Post Office Department

From my Mail Bag …

 

FROM:   MaryAnne
MaryAnne asked about “readability” of the blog,

REPLY:

The format of the blog/website is due to wordpress (my blogging software and website provider). Their programs/widgets dictate the “style” which I have very little control over. I will try and write using a bigger “format” (ex. Heading 4 instead of paragraph). I cannot write in all bold as that will actually make things harder to read for more people.

But I suspect the problem is really your browser. Fortunately, most browsers now allow a “zoom” feature. I can give you help with either Internet Explorer or Firefox(Mozilla) browsers.

In Internet Explorer (popular in Windows computers), you would hit ‘Alt-X’. That is press and hold the ‘Alt’ key next to spacebar, and while still holding down the ‘Alt’ key press ‘x’. Hence Alt-x. This will bring up a “contextual” menu near the top of your browser window. “Zoom” is the third choice. It will bring up a list of zoom-levels. I recommend 125% or 150% for you. That should improve the readability for you.

In Firefox, you press “Ctrl-Shift-+” to zoom in and “Ctrl–” That is Control-plus to zoom in and Control-minus to zoom out. As with the “Alt” key, the “Ctrl” key must be pressed and held down while you type the other key(s).

Let me know if you use another browser. I do have Safari for Windows (sadly Stanczyk is making do with a Windows computer instead of his beloved MAC).

If the “zoom” feature improves your ability to read my blog, then I will not make any changes. You may also want to have someone to adjust the contrast/color on your monitor for you too. I know I had to really tinker with these Windows computers to get the colors to give me the proper contrast. This was something I took for granted in the MAC world.

Stanczyk too has “very aged” eyes from years of working on computers. Thanks MaryAnne!

 

—————————-

FROM: Jonathan

Jonathan asked about Pacanów and Kłoda, his Pytko family,  and how hard it is to read “Old Russian”.

REPLY:

Jonathan, thanks for writing. As for emails – you can send me A church record and I will be happy to read it for you and send you a translation of the “Old Russian” (pre-1918 reforms). You can write to me at: Stanczyk@eliasz.com . OK?  Any pictures you send me via email may or may not be used in the blog as part of the answer [fair use].

As for Pacanów, the LDS have four microfilm of the Pacanów(Busko-Zdroj) in Kielce(old woj.). There are a few Kłoda villages. Is yours the one near Radom? That Kłoda has parish of Magnuszew (no microfilm for this parish). Here are the four microfilm (1875-1884) for Pacanów(Busko-Zdroj):

Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1875 – FHL INTL Film [ 1192351 Item 10 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1876-1877 – FHL INTL Film [ 1192352 Items 1-2 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1878-1881 – FHL INTL Film [ 1807621 Items 8-11 ]
Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów 1882-1884 – FHL INTL Film [ 1807622 Items 1-3 ]

Akta urodzeń, małżeństw, zgonów = Birth, Marriage, Death records.

I have seen Pytko/Pytka in Pacanów and Świniary parishes.

–Stanczyk

#Jewish #Genealogy – A Continuing Homage to Moja żona

I am continuing my efforts to retrieve/extract the Jewish records from the Catholic parish of Biechow during the years when the Catholic Church was ordered to act the civil registration authority.  My last posting was for the years 1810-1815 inclusive.

These are the Jewish Births from 1816 in Biechow parish. For the record, there is not any record of 1817 on the microfilm. Ergo, this posting brings us upto: 1810-1817 inclusive. The prior post is here .

Year: 1816      Priest: Jozef Parzelski         Gmina: Biechow     Powiat: Stopnica     Departement: Krakow      93 Total Births

Record #11     Date: 1/31/1816

Father: Dawid Matusowicz, Pakiarz, Age 22, Biechow   House #23

Mother: Estera z Isserow, age 20

Baby: Jasek

Witnesses:  Jaska Walsowicz, pakiarz, age 38 & Rzelika Chaymowicz, kaczmarz,  <no age>

—-

Record #24     Date: 3/17/1816

Father: Layzar Kabmanowicz, Pakiarz, Age 38, Piestrzec   House #33

Mother: Rywka z Chaykow, age 40

Baby: Hima (40)

Witnesses:  Judka Faycer, arendarz, age 38 & Jaska Jaskowicz , arendarz, <no age>

—-

Record #38     Date: 5/23/1816

Father: Abram Menkier, Pakiarz, Age 40, Woycza   House #2

Mother: Channa z Fercykow, age 24

Baby: Icek

Witnesses:  Rzelika Chaymowicz, Kaczmarz, age 50 & Giecta Moska, pakiarz,  <no age>

That is it for 1816 only 3 out of 93 total  = 3.22% of the births in the “parish”.

JRI you are welcome to use this data and/or incorporate this into your databases.

–Stanczyk

#Russian – #Poland #Genealogy : Swiniary Birth Index 1833

Well I wanted to publish some more Swiniary parish indexes to celebrate my line of Kordos and Leszczynski who lived in the parish. So far I have seen the following villages to comprise the Swiniary Parish (parafii):     Swiniary, Parchocin, Oblekon, Zielonki, Tur, Trzebica, Ludwiniow,  and Wlosnowica.

As always, keep in mind that I have done some surveys for Biechow and Pacanow too and those are available via the menus near the top of this page.

The first index was for Swiniary 1826 Births. So here is the  second index – Swiniary Parish Birth Index from 1833 (roku):

#	First Name	Last Name	Village
1	Agnieszka	Woycikowna	Oblekon
2	Sebastyan	Kolano	Tur
3	Sebastyan	Kawa	Oblekon
4	Sebastyan	Sobieszkada	Zielonki
5	Sebastyan	Gadas	Oblekon
6	Maryanna	Ozimkowna	Parchocin
7	Jan Chryzstom	Wronski	Zielonki
8	Jan Chryzstom	Bodach	Parchocin
9	Kazimierz	Nowak	Parchocin
10	Pawel	Fabian	Swiniary
11	Dorota	Szczepanska	Oblekon
12	Stanislaw	Parka	Parchocin
13	Jozef	Dyrliski (sp?)	Oblekon
14	Ignacy	Czekay	Parchocin
15	Agata	Rzepska	Parchocin
16	Apolonia	Kowlowna
17	Jozef	Satoza	Ludwiniow
18	Maciej	Banas	Wlosnowica
19	Jozef	Gadawski	Oblekon
20	Luza Maryanna	Walenty; zanprawi	Oblekon
21	Maryanna	Kasperkowna	Parchocin
22	Jozef	Skowron	Parchocin
23	Maryanna	Wierzbicka	Zielonki
24	Maryanna	Sowinska	Parchocin
25	Maryanna	Woyniakowna	Oblekon
26	Maryanna	Luza z Cepielowna [sp?]	Oblekon
27	Stanislaw	Padak	Oblekon
28	Maryanna	Dorniowna	Parchocin
29	Wincenty	Zayda	Tur
30	Anna	Piotrowska	Oblekon
31	Katarzyna	Wawrzencowna	Oblekon
32	Stanislaw	Wawro	Oblekon
33	Stanislaw	Pawlak	Ludwiniow
34	Julianna	Kordosowna	Oblekon
35	Magdalena	Misiaczkowna	Oblekon
36	Magdalena I		Oblekon
37	Antoni	Zaladz	Oblekon
38	Maryanna	Dabrowska	Tur
39	Maryanna	Gawlowna	Parchocin
40	Malgorzata	Dryiowna	?
41	Maryanna	Krawczykowna	Oblekon
42	Malgorzata	Kozlowna	Parchocin
43	Anna	Zalewska	Parchocin
44	Angiela Anna	Zalewska	Swiniary
45	Jakob I Wincenty (bliz)	Kostery	Oblekon
46	Anna	Zdybowna	Oblekon
47	Wawrzeniec	Kolodziej	Parchocin
48	Piotr I Ignacy	Gluszczykowna	?
49	Rozalia	Orlikowna	?
50	Piotr I Ignacy	Grzeda	?
51	Wawrzeniec	Gryc	?
52	Maryanna	Skowronowna	?
53	Michal	Buska	Parchocin
54	Michal	Luszcz	Oblekon
55	Franciszek	Fiutko	Parchocin
56	Jadwiga	Pisarczykowna	Trzebica
57	Jan	Baran	Oblekon
58	Elzbieta	Doktorowna	Oblekon
59	Teressa	Juszczykowna	Zielonki
60	Teressa	Karetowna	Oblekon
61	Anna	Dudek	Parchocin
62	Marcin	Gryc	Parchocin
63	Lucya	Markowna	Wlosnowica
64	Jan	Laszkiewicz	Parchocin
65	? Much polish		Swiniary
66	Marcin	Skalbania	Parchocin
67	Magdalena	Kawionka	Parchocin
68	Jedrzy I Marcin	Gora	Wlosnowica
69	Marcin I Ignacy	Babiarz	Parchocin
70	Katarzyna	Adamusowna	Wlosnowica
71	Katarzyna	Kloskowna	Trzebica
72	Elzbieta	Nowakowna	Wlosnowica
73	Tomasz	Pawlak	Oblekon
74	Tomasz	Kawa	Parchocin
75	Adam	Baran	Parchocin
76	Katarzyna	Doktorowna	Zielonki
77	Jedrzey	Sobieszkada	Swiniary
78	Barbara	Doktorowna	Parchocin
79	Lucya	Kamienska	Zielonki
80	Szczepan	Pisarczyk	Tur
81	Maryanna	Zemlonka	Swiniary
82	Agnieszka	Pankowna	Wlosnowica
83	Ewa	Woytelowna	Oblekon
84	Barbara	Wawrzencowna	Oblekon
85	Ewa	?	Zielonki
86	Ewa	Stankowna	Parchocin
87	Ewa I Barbara	Chlosciowy	Oblekon
88	Ewa	Chloscianka	Oblekon
89	Maryanna	Baranowna	Parchocin
90	Agnieszka	Gadawska	Oblekon
91	Jan	Wierzbicki	Swiniary
92	Tomasz	Kostera	Oblekon

– Stanczyk

Ecclesiastical Archive for: Biechow, Ksiaznice, Zborowek … and Pacanow?

Stanczyk said a week ago he would show a series fonds in the Catholic Church Archive in Kielce, Poland. These fonds are microfilmed church books of the various parishes in the Kielce Diocese. Sadly, the church does not publish a library catalog of its holdings. Let’s review these images which I collected a long time ago and do not seem to be available any more upon the Internet. I also hope to beseech my readers (in Poland — I know there are a few of you tanks to my Flag Counter), to help me acquire at least Pacanow and I also hope for Swiniary too. Please email Stanczyk if you can help me locate Kielce Diocessan Holdings for: Pacanow and Swiniary parishes (parafii). I can accept a text file of the details or even an image (JPG, GIF, TIF, BMP, PNG) or even a PDF document.

Now lets take a look at what I have (and what I am seeking) …

Biechow Holdings in Kielce

 

Biechow Parish Holdings

These birth/baptismal , marriage/marriage banns, and death church records have been microfilmed by the LDS (aka Mormons).

The LDS also have three microfilm covering the years 1875-1884 which are church records written in Russian that do not appear in this image of their holdings. Now to be fair the image is a few years old and perhaps the Diocessan Archives has been updated since this was taken.

A careful comparison seems to indicate that the LDS microfilm are missing some things that Diocese has and that the Diocese may be missing some things that the LDS have. If this is true then it would appear this is not the source of the LDS microfilm.

You can find the LDS microfilm for my Biechow parish here  and also here too .

If anyone knows if the Diocessan Church Archives in Kielce has microfilm for Biechow from the years 1861-1910, please email me (see above for my email link),  so I can do complete research plans.

I also hope someone out there in the Internet can answer why there is not alegata listed in the Kielce Diocessan Church Archives. Poland’s  State Archives (PRADZIAD) has alegata mcirofilm. Why would the Kielce Diocessan Church Archive be lacking in this manner? I hope this present somewhere in their holdings. I have had excellent success with alegata records giving me missing data.

Finally, my last question is, does the Church Archive also have physical books or only microfilm? If the books exist, can you take photographs of the books themselves?

Now lets look at Ksiaznice. Most people are not aware that Ksiaznice was ever a parish or possibly they were not aware that microfilm existed for Ksiaznice separate from other parishes. I think people just think that Ksiaznice’s church records were added to either Zborowek or Pacanow.

Ksiaznice Holdings in Kielce

Ksiaznice Parish Holdings

The LDS does not have any microfilm of my Ksiaznice which is from the area around Pacanow. Now I did notice some scant records in the Pacanow(Zborowek?) microfilm for Ksiaznice. But look at all that Diocese’s Archive has in Kielce !

I will have to spend a lot of time here to figure out if any of my missing records are here or not. But the holdings looks very complete indeed  — very few gaps !

There is no LDS microfilm for my Ksiaznice, so I have no link to post for you. Clearly, LDS does not get their microfilm from the Diocessan Church Archive. I guess its microfilm  comes directly from the parish books. Again this is probably why people never think of Ksiaznice as a parish separate and apart from Zborowek. Yet look at all of the data they have.

Back at the beginning of July, I talked about this book I used about Biechow parish, from the SwietoKrzyskie Digital Library, in the book,
“Historical Description of Churches, Cities, Monuments, & Memorials of Stopnica“, written by Jan Wisniewska in 1929. This book describes all of these parishes in today’s posting too, plus more. That is how I knew about Ksiaznice.

And now lets review the third parish that I have, Zborowek.

Zborowek

The LDS does have microfilm for Zborowek. To be precise, they have one microfilm covering the years  1878-1884 for birth, marriage and death church records.

The Zborowek LDS microfilm can be found here. But look at the holdings in the Diocessan Archives ! Their records span the years 1736-1887 ! That is again a lot more than you can get from your local Family History Center which has only 6 years I spoke of above.

Again, Stanczyk has his work cut out for him to review the records in Zborowek. I can only dream about the possibilities.

So now gentle reader you know why I am seeking the holdings for Pacanow and Swiniary in the Kielce Diocessan Archives. The potential to close the holes in my family tree and answer all questions back to just before the three partitions of Poland for my Elijasz, Leszczynski, Wlecialowski, and Kedzierski lines is almost more than I can bare. You see I am hoping to plan the search beforehand, so I am prepared for a rather lengthy visit to the Church Archives.

Zborowek Parish

 

House Numbers – Numerus Domus – Redux

In case you missed my first posting with the questions, you can catch-up by following this link . Debbie G (moderator of the Yahoo Group, Polish Geniuses) sent me some answers — first a reminder of the questions I am researching …

Research Questions

1. Was the column labeled ‘Numerus Domus‘ in the Latin Box format of church records required by the Codex Napoleon?
2. When did house numbers get assigned?
3. How were numbers assigned?  Did they number starting from the church (I have had that said to me.)? Did they give the lowest numbers to the “most important” members of the parish? Were houses assigned numbers in the order they were built without regard to their sequential location to another house or did they start at 1 and proceed down the street numbering each house, such that consecutive house numbers are next door neighbors?
4. Were house numbers unique to a single village or to the parish they all belonged?
5. Why did they stop collecting house numbers in the church records?
6. Did house numbers get renumbered (if so then when)? I am thinking like, in Detroit around 1920 when many/most homes were renumbered.
7. If the houses were not renumbered, then is it possible to visit the same house (assuming it still stands) and know it was that house where so-and-so lived?

Answers …

#2 … I have seen house numbers on records as old as late-1600s  [Stanczyk: so this way pre-dates Napoleon and as such also answers #1; In Biechow, prior to Latin Box format, circa 1797 no record of a house # exists].

#3 House numbers were assigned starting with the church and moving outwards OR starting with the first house that was built and numbering each house built after that in sequence. This means you would/will find house # 245 across the street from house #1, and next door to house #59 on one side and house #75 on the other. This type of house numbering system makes it impossible to locate a particular house. Homes and buildings in cities are numbered sequentially however. [Stanczyk: Pity. This precludes me from analyzing next door neighbors by using the house numbers.]

#4 House numbers are unique to the individual village.
#5 “They” did not stop collecting house numbers in the church records. This continues today. [Stanczyk: I meant in the church records. But I think Debbie means yes. Just not in Biechow it seems.]
#6 The only time houses/property were renumbered is  if the house burned down. Then the house rebuilt on that same property was numbered sequentially after the last house built. Example: if the number of the last house built in a village was #364, and house # 34 burned down, then when that house is rebuilt it is numbered 365. [Stanczyk: Perhaps, knowing that larger numbers are newer homes will yields some insight.]
#7 In villages where the houses were numbered as they were built, it is almost impossible to locate a particular house unless it is a very small village. If any or all of the village burned down at any time, the process becomes even more impossible (if that can be).  [Stanczyk:  Debbie went on to crush my hopes of locating a family homestead by various reasons on why the house #'s  may be different or non-existent].

Thank You Debbie G. for sharing your expertise!

More Answers …

I have verified that Biechow does not have house #’s  in the church records prior to  1797 — probably as a result of Austrian partition regulations. In MF# 936660,  I found when Fr. Dominicus Cyranski arrives he starts using what I believe are house #’s (i.e. Sub. No 27). These 1797 Church records are in Latin Paragraph format. The house numbers also appear in MF # 936665 (the Latin Box format) beginning in 1797.

Again let me remind the readers that Biechow (and Pacanow, Swiniary, etc.) are rural so they will do things differently than larger towns or cities. Oddly, I went through MF # 936662 and for the years 1836-1848 there were no  house numbers. But in 1849, the records (which were in Polish paragraph / Napoleonic form), the house numbers make a come back. So I have house numbers in 1849-1852 inclusive. In 1853, they stop again. Now there was an explanation, it appears to be by priest sentiment. In 1848, Father (Fr.) Jozef Stanky [the priest who writes likes a chicken] takes over.  In 1849 he adds house numbers back. In 1852 Fr. Michal Krolikowski shares duties with Fr. Stanky. In 1853 Fr. Michal Krolikowski [priest with the angel like handwriting] decides to stop recording house numbers. So it appears to be specific to the whims of the parish priest.

Also when I was posting about Old Tomasz Leszczynski‘s first wife Julianna  Kordos‘ brith record,  I put an image of her Latin Box church record from 1833 (Swiniary parish) and I noticed it had house #’s (hers was house #40). So the variation can be by priest within a parish or variable by different/adjoining parishes. I think that explains why Debbie G. see one thing and I see another. I am guessing that it differs by partition too (Austrian vs. Russian vs. Prussian). I think it is the differences and freak happenstances that make genealogical research so interesting (and/or frustrating).

I do accept the fact that house numbers exist in a village, irrespective of whether they exist in the church records for that village. Stanczyk is NOT thick skulled!

House Numbers – Numerus Domus – Domu Jego Pod Numerem

Stanczyk has been looking at house numbers like he is a postal worker delivering mail. These numbers have led my rather numerate mind to a new musing …

I have noticed that the Catholic Church (let me be precise/narrow, but perhaps it has wider usage) in the Russian-Poland areas, during the years 1797-1825 recorded house numbers (aka Numerus Domus -or- Domu iego pod numerem) in their records. So I am trying to tease some further knowledge from my data by analyzing these house numbers, but I have questions that need research. So here is my laundry list of questions that I will investigate and perhaps by crowd-sourcing / internet collaborating I hope that I can also receive some answers via comments or emails.

Research Questions

1. Was the column labeled ‘Numerus Domus‘ in the Latin Box format of church records required by the Codex Napoleon?
2. When did house numbers get assigned?
3. How were numbers assigned?  Did they number starting from the church (I have had that said to me.)? Did they give the lowest numbers to the “most important” members of the parish? Were houses assigned numbers in the order they were built without regard to their sequential location to another house or did they start at 1 and proceed down the street numbering each house, such that consecutive house numbers are next door neighbors?
4. Were house numbers unique to a single village or to the parish they all belonged?
5. Why did they stop collecting house numbers in the church records?
6. Did house numbers get renumbered (if so then when)? I am thinking like, in Detroit around 1920 when many/most homes were renumbered.
7. If the houses were not renumbered, then is it possible to visit the same house (assuming it still stands) and know it was that house where so-and-so lived?

Folklore About Houses or their Doors

There was a tradition in Southern Poland whereby at Christmas time, the people would inscribe the lintel above the door, with the names or initials of the three wise men from the Bible:

Gaspar(Kasper), Melchior, and Balthazar (were the wise men’s names by tradition — their names do not appear in the Bible).

Does anyone know this Christmas tradition or why Poles did such a thing ?

Does anyone know any other door or address traditions from Poland ?

– Stanczyk

From Polish paragraph form during 1797-1825 years