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Category: Genealogy Related Articles

  • How long does it take to get files from Poland and are these sent at all?!

    I’ve recently been asked a couple times to explain how I did manage to receive successfully some files from the Polish archives and how long it took to get these files. Most of the people asking me this question, had some less good experiences. Some of them even never received a response at all from these archives.
    My own general observation is that there is barely communication besides the communication relating to ordering the copies. So when I ask them for example if they could translate the file in question, there is almost never a reply (on that question).
    Someone last week told me that it could be that if the applicant of the copies lives outside Europe, or if the requests are too complicated, that you may never get a response. I am not sure if it matters whether you are from Europe or not, but the latter possibility is of course something to consider before sending your requests. Therefore you should make sure to keep it as simple as possible. I used for example the order form on this page http://www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/psa/orderform.htm as my template.
    Also make sure not to add any other questions. And if you have any other questions, ask them, but I would separate it and send another mail and may be even consider sending it on different dates.

    I put down in a table how long it took to get responses from the archive, where did I send my requests to, etc.

    Please share also your experience with the other visitors of this website. You can contact me and I’ll update the table (I hope the table with grow with the time):
    [table “16” not found /]

  • Translation of document from Tarnobrzeg Books of Residents

    I received the following document on May 27th, 2011 via e-mail from the state archive in Kielce (Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach).
    The document, as written in the mail from the Kielce statearchive, is:

    […]skan dot. Izaka Kalecha z księgi meldunkowej miasta Tarnobrzega

    Meaning the following:

    […]a scan with Izak Kalech as reported in the book of the city of Tarnobrzeg

    The scan comes from the following collection (Thanks to Mr. Moshe Steinberg [m.steinberg -at- utoronto.ca] for the tip):

    Tarnobrzeg PSA Citizen List of delayed Births ,Lwow Wojewodztwa / Rzeszow Province (records in Fond 525 in Kielce Archive Sandomierz Branch)

    This is how the contents of the file appear on the website of jri-poland:
    [table “17” not found /]

    Mr. Witold Wrzosinski (a researcher based in Poland whose website is at http://avanim.pl. He who can be contacted via e-mail: w.wrzosinski-at-avanim.pl) explained me more about this document:
    [slider title=”click here to read what Mr. Witold Wrzosinski sent mee”]

    Dear Gershon,

    this is an entry from “ksiÄ™ga meldunkowa”. It is not a census, it’s a “registration book”. Such books were introduced in various cities and towns in Poland in the second half of the XIXth century. Usually there was one for every street, with all houses and apartments listed along with their inhabitants. The house owners had to write down every birth, marriage or death in the house and the information was regularly collected. These books were official documents, kept by city clerks. They are a great source of information, but not much of them survived.

    Best regards
    Witold Wrzosinski,
    Warsaw, Poland

    As my question in which year this file was added to the book:

    Gershon,

    Such books were often kept for years and updated, but here the document does not seem to contain any updates, so it’s a little different kind of registration book. According to the Polish archives databases, there are four surviving sets of documents from Tarnobrzeg that could fit – a census from 1880 (but it is most probably in Russian, so I would exclude it), a census from 1931/32 (but it’s simply a census, not a “registration book”), a “book of migrations” from 1901-1905 (but it is also most probably in Russian) and finally my type, the “book of the Tarnobrzeg disctrict inhabitants” from 1925. Maybe they have planned to keep it updated and gave up or maybe the idea was different from the beginning – I don’t know. Anyway, all the documents are part of the Fond 525 in Kielce Archive Sandomierz Branch.

    Best regards,
    WW

    and finally regarding the 5th column with ‘Gdzie przynależny’:

    No, it means literally “belongs to” and I guess this applies to either the place he was born in Ulucz), which belonged to the larger district of Ustrzyki or maybe he was still registered in the Ustrzyki district office while living in Tarnobrzeg. Also, the year 1925 is just a guess – I would give it 75% of probability.

    Best regards,
    WW

    [/slider]
    (Please add your comments below or if you prefer, send me a personal mail via this link):

    Transcription: (more…)

  • Translation of an electors list for the the Sejm of 16 Nov 1930

    I received the following document on March 23th, 2010 via post from the State Archive in Rzeszów (Archiwum Państwowego w Rzeszowie).
    The document as written in the mail from the State Archive is about:

    […]Dawida i Chaji Grunes (zapis na liÅ›cie wyborców do Senatu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1930 r.), odszukany w zasobie naszego Archiwum w Sanoku w Aktach miasta Sanoka 1792-1950.

    Meaning the following:

    […]Dawid and Chaji Grunes (recorded on the electoral roll of the Polish Senate 1930 r.), which have been found in the Archives of Sanok in the Acts of the city of Sanok 1792-1950.

    There were 5 elections for the Sejm of the Polish Republik from 1922 to 1938. This was for the election of 16 Nov 1930:
    [table “3” not found /]

    (source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejm_%28Zweite_Republik%29).
    See also the following article elsewhere on this website: Translation request Polish – English (Grunes, State Archive in Rzeszów (Poland)
    The file with part of the electors list:

    Transcription:
    ABECADŁOWY SPIS WYBORCOW
    do Sejmu / Senatu Rzeczy pospolitej Polskiej
    z miejscowoÅ›ci ……………. gminy …………
    powiatu …………… obwodu gÅ‚osowania ………….
    OkrÄ™gu Nr. ………..
    1930
    [table “14” not found /]

    Translation:
    ALPHABETIC LIST OF VOTES
    to the Sejm / Senate of Poland
    from the village of ……………. municipality …………
    County …………… obwodu gÅ‚osowania ………….
    District no. ……….
    1930
    [table “15” not found /]

  • Translation of extract from the registry of engaged to be married Jews from Brozózow

    I received the following document on May 12th, 2011 via e-mail from the Statearchive in Rseszow (Archiwum Państwowe w Rzeszowie).
    This document is an extract from the registry of engaged Jews with an entry for Kalech-Stieber from Brozozów:

    Transcription:
    Wyciąg z matryk narzeczonych izraelitów
    1885-1937
    [table “8” not found /]

    Translation:
    Extract from the registry of engaged Jews
    1885-1937
    [table “10” not found /]

    Further details on these records: Brzozow PSA B1885-1907 Marriages/Lwow Wojewodztwa / Rzeszow Province (records in Fond 16 in Sanok Archive) (see www.jri-poland.org)

  • Translation of extract from the list of married and unmarried Jewish families

    I received the following document on May 12th, 2011 via e-mail from the Statearchive in Rseszow (Archiwum Państwowe w Rzeszowie).
    This document is an extract from the the list of married and unmarried Jewish families with an entry for Kalech-Stieber from Brozozów:

    Transcription:
    Wykaz ślubnych i nieślubnych rodzin izrael
    [table “7” not found /]

    Translation:
    List of married and unmarried Jewish families
    [table “9” not found /]

    For further details on these records: Brzozow PSA B1885-1907 Marriages/Lwow Wojewodztwa / Rzeszow Province (records in Fond 16 in Sanok Archive) (see www.jri-poland.org)

  • Translation of a document from Tarnobrzeg (possibly census but from when?)

    Update: Check this link (Translation of document from Tarnobrzeg Books of Residents)
    I received the following document on May 27th, 2011 via e-mail from the state archive in Kielce (Archiwum Państwowe w Kielcach).
    The document, as written in the mail from the Kielce statearchive, is:

    […]skan dot. Izaka Kalecha z księgi meldunkowej miasta Tarnobrzega

    Meaning the following:

    […]a scan with Izak Kalech as reported in the book of the city of Tarnobrzeg

    I am wondering whether this is a census or another document type.
    I am also wondering from which year this file is.
    (Please add your comments below or if you prefer, send me a personal mail via this link):

    Transcription: (more…)

  • Looking for help in translating 2 files from the Statearchive in Rseszow (Archiwum PaÅ„stwowe w Rzeszowie) (Kalech-Stieber)

    I received today via e-mail two files (about Kalech from Brzozów) from the Statearchive in Rseszow (Archiwum Państwowe w Rzeszowie).

    I am now trying to transcribe/translate the files and to get more details on the sources via the visitors of my website. I started already to transcribe it as far as I could.
    If you can assist me transcribing/translating, I would be very happy if you can add your comments below or if you prefer, you may contact me in private via the contact-form.


    (more…)

  • German historical street addresses

    A model of the Jewish Ghetto in the Jewish Museum in Frankurt

    I came today across an interesting post in one of the newsgroups I am subscribed to (gersig digest from May 08, 2011) regarding street addresses in Germany.
    Not all street addresses from the past stayed the same.

    I am sure that there are other places in Germany and abroad with about the same issue.

    (If you are looking for the online copies of the Berlin addressbooks, here is the link: http://adressbuch.zlb.de.)

    Subject: German historical street addresses – FACT FILE
    From: Andreas Schwab (andreas.schwab. .mcgill.ca)
    Date: Sun, 8 May 2011 09:41:24 -0400
    X-Message-Number: 1

    Many of us wish to visit the places where our ancestors lived and to take photographs of their houses. One has to consider, however, that very often, the street addresses have changed over the years. In Germany and Austria, there are two systems of numbering:
    1. The traditional German numbering, also known as horse-shoe numbering, starts at 1 on the right side of the street, with consecutive numbers on one side until the end of the street, continuing on the opposite side of the street in the opposite direction such that the highest number is opposite to the number 1.

    2. The European numbering starts with 1 at the left side and continues with odd numbers, and with 2 on the right side, then continuing with even numbers (this is the opposite of the American system where the odd numbers are on the right).

    Many, but (more…)

  • Citizenship status of Galician Jewish refugees after World War I

    Ustrzyki-Dolne in current Poland (source: wikimedia)

    I mentioned already in an earlier post (see “Where to look for old newspapers in Flemish-Belgium“) that my great-grandfather and the children were were stateless citizens before they naturalized as Belgians. The reason for their statless status was that when my great-grandfather Gerschon Lehrer was born in Ustrzyki-Dolne, it was Austrian and after the First World War it became Poland.

    My great grandfather lived since 1919 in Dresden (Germany) and Poland took away the nationalities from all citizens that were not in the country for a long time, hence my great-grandfather and grandfather automatically became stateless (source: naturalization file 21875N).

    That was a short explanation about the stateless status from my great-grandfather and his children.
    I am subscribed to a few mailinglists with an interest in genealogy. One of these lists is from the “Gesher Galicia SIG” (see http://www.jewishgen.org/galicia for more information about that group).
    Recently there was a discussion on the stateless status of Galician Jewish refugees who moved to GERMANY after WWI.
    I’d like to post these discussion in this post because I believe that the information in that discussion goes a bit deeper on the background of my ancestors’ stateless status after the First World War, then what I wrote before.

    In my opinion the last post from Rivka Schirman which you can read below, provides us with the most complete answer. It is mainly the following paragraph which interests me:

    Once the Conference of Ambassadors legally attributed East Galicia to Poland, it also based it on the articles of the Treaty of St Germain en Laye regarding nationality and citizenship (full text available at http://www.forost.ungarisches-institut.de/pdf/19230315-1.pdf). This time, those who opted for Polish citizenship, because it was possible, had, according to article 78, 12 months to move to Poland.

    I’ve got two letters (more…)

  • The meaning of the acronym A.A.C.B. in the Belgian immigration files

    During my research in the Belgian archives, I came across a few files in which a document had the following acronym “A.A.C.B.”:

    Source: Antwerp Immigration File no.175159 (Dorf Wolf – Kapelna Frieda)

    I, as curious as I am always, was wondering about the meaning of that acronym.

    During genealogy research (and I assume that this is true for each research), each small part, can have a significant meaning with implications for the outcome of research. Therefore I try to understand as much as possible of each small element. Thanks to this approach I do learn quite a lot new things about history, culture, politics, etc.

    To get back on topic; I did receive the explanation from the very helpful employees at the Antwerp archives (www.felixarchief.be).
    They told me that A.A.C.B. stands for “Ambtelijke Afschrijving College Besluit” which roughly translated into English means cancelling the citizenship by official decision of the authorities and the file was closed for the person in question.

    The reason for a A.A.C.B. can be one of the following:

    • Someone left the city without announcing to the authorities. If they later on returned after their file was closed, it became harder to get an approval for a second residence permit.
      Many Jews who fled during the World War, had to have their closed (more…)