Links - more interesting pages

The goal of this link collection is to give a brief overview of web pages that might be of help in getting your own researches started. This choice is certainly incomplete and a result of subjective preferences.

You can find more complete genealogical link collections in directories like Cyndi's List  or Biggis List and on the pages of various genealogical societies.

Archives / Libraries / Collections

The most important sources for your research are primary sources. The pages of the Polish State Archives give a perfect overview of existing archives and their holdings. The online database PRADZIAD informs about available vital records.

The Archives of Plock and Torun along with their branches have their own pages.

The sources that have been filmed by the LDS - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are searchable in their database using the LDS Filmsearch pages. An annotation because of a frequently asked question: It is a catalog of the microfilmes that can be viewed at one of the LDS Family History Centers, not a direct access to digital church book pages.

Lutheran Church books of the former German East Territories are kept in the Evangelisches Zentralarchiv Berlin (EZA).

The German Bundesarchiv keeps historic German state records and makes them publicly available. They still have the filmed records of the Polish areas occupied in 1939 (the original records have been handed over to the Warsaw Archive of New Records).

Some German libraries are specialized on Eastern Europe. So the Herder-Institut at Marburg, the Martin Opitz Bibliothek at Herne and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at Munich.

A remarkable data collection is offered by the Odessa Projekt. The focus of this Digital Library is German-Russian genealogy. But they also provide data for Central Poland.

Genealogical Societies and Mailing Lists

The exchange of genealogical information between researchers is supported by web pages and mailing lists run by involved private researchers and some genealogical societies.

People researching the Dobriner Land can use the German-language [Dobrin_L] mailing list.

The German "Arbeitsgemeinschaft ostdeutscher Familienforscher" - AGOFF supports several regional sub organizations Among them a group covering Central Poland and Volhynia. The Volhynia team maintains a web page and a discussion board.

The Canadian "Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe" - SGGEE also covers Central Poland and Volhynia. They maintain an English discussion board and the English [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] mailing list.

Related Areas

There are several websites, which cover the settlements in the area of the Bug river: The local website Neudorf - Neubrov. The website of the newly founded society Bugholendry, the website Bugholländer as well as Günter Ratke's webpage about the villages Płatkownica-Sadoleś.

The area of Posen is covered by a website Posen and by the English-German [POSEN] mailing list.

There is an excellent website covering West Prussia. Additional information is exchanged on the German-English [OWPR] mailing list.

Information about places in Eastprussia, Westprussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia can be found on Uwe Krickhahn's Kartenmeister site.

Interesting progress is made by the Wiki projects GenWiki and Birchy Genealogy Wiki.

Maps up-to-date and online

Looking for a place in Poland? The online maps Mapquest and MapaSzukacz can help with current vector based maps. If you are looking for a very small place the use of both tools is recommended.

Extremely interesting is the Polish Geoportal, providing detailed orto photos and additional land register information.

If the spelling of a place name in Central or Eastern Europe is uncertain ShtetlSeeker will support you with a sophisticated phonetic search engine. The results are displayed using Mapquest.

Historical Maps - free download

The remarkable project Map Archive of Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny 1919 - 1939 offers of a broad range of very detailed Polish maps in great quality for download.

A similar project exists for maps of western Poland: Archiwum Map Zachodiej Polski.

The Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungaria offers 267 sheets of the Map of Central Europe as of 1910 (scale 1:200 000) for download.

An interesting map can be downloaded from the ambitious Digital Library of the University of Łódź. The Special Karte von Süedpreussen by David Gilly might be of genealogical interest. This map was published 1802-1803. But it shows the borders of South Prussia before the Third Partition of Poland.

Part of the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection held by the University of Texas at Austin covers historical maps of Europe - many of them available online.

New views on old maps - a project of the State and University Library of Bremen, Germany enables the online access to historical maps. The patient visitor is rewarded by some maps of the area of Central Poland.

Images and maps of Płock and surrounding areas

The Fotogaleria miasta Płocka offers a huge number of interesting photos showing the city of Plock and surrounding areas. Aerial photographs demonstrate the process of the construction of the new bridge. Parts of old maps and detailed satellite pictures allow a great overview and an interesting comparison.

Cemetery projects

Some very interesting projects about documentation and/or restoration of old cemeteries in Poland are introduced on the page More Cemetery Projects in our section 'Cemeteries'.

Translation Aids

Polish

Wikipedia contains some valuable general information about the Polish Language along with tips about pronunciation and handling of Polish diacritic characters.

Modern Polish words and short texts can be translated using free online translation tools like this one or Google Translator.

More sophisticated is the translation of older Polish Texts with a genealogical context. The LDS - Genealogical Word List will help with that.

Russian

Modern russian texts are translated by Google Translate in an acceptable way.

Latin

Older Roman-Catholic church records are written in Latin language. A valuable helper for these is provided by the Catholic University of Notre Dame (Indiana, US) in form of the Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid.