2. Agenda

This lecture will cover the following topics:

• History and Border Changes   (slides 3-15):
  • What is Poland?   Geographic History and Border changes over the last 300 years.
• Research in Poland   (slides 16-30):
  • Where: Locating Your Ancestral Town.
  • Who: Names -- Polish Spelling and Grammar.
• Vital Records in Poland   (slides 31-83):
  • History of Vital Records-keeping.
  • How to Access Records: 4 ways: FHL, write, visit, hire.
  • Sample Documents...
  • Writing to Poland; Visiting Poland; Hiring a Researcher.
  • Record Formats: Kingdom of Poland, Galicia, Prussia, Russian Pale.
  • FHL: Mormon microfilms, Catalog procedures.
  • JRI-Poland and Internet sources.
• Special Interest Groups (SIGs)   (slides 84-88):
  • their activities and publications.
• Other sources   (slides 89-101):
  • Marriage Supplement records, Residents' Books.
  • Business Directories.
  • Yizkor Books.
  • Landsmanshaftn.
  • Other archival material in Poland and Israel.