Polish is a Western Slavic language related to Russian, Czech, and Slovak. Its native names are polski (Polish), język polski (the Polish language), or more formally, polszczyzna (Polish). Before 1918, Polish-speaking territories were divided between Russia, Germany, and Austria. You’ll encounter the Polish language in key genealogical sources throughout Poland and also for records kept in some Polish communities in the United States. Because of the period of Poland’s three partitions (Prussia, Russia, Austria), records written before 1918 may be in German, Russian, Latin, or Polish. In Russian Poland, Polish was the official language for vital records from 1808 to 1868. From 1868 to 1917, Russian was the official language. In German Poland, most records were kept in German or Latin, though some were kept in Polish. In Austrian Poland, most records were kept in Latin. Some records were kept in German and some in Polish.
Special thanks to Jonathan D. Shea for providing information in this section.
This chart shows Polish letters in alphabetical order. The letters q, v and x are used only for foreign names or words.
Note that the letter ą is a separate letter from a. Therefore, in proper Polish, ą follows a in alphabetical listings. This is most important when reading gazetteers—for example, Baz comes before Bąk. The s is sometimes written like an f in the old cursive style found in church records, as in Morofki for Moroski, or Sasfów instead of Sassów.
When looking at English or other non-Polish documents, watch for certain changes in translation. The Polish letter ł (which sounds like the English w) is transcribed into English like an l or like a w. You may find it as a t because a non-Polish speaking clerk misread it. The Polish nasal vowels ą and ę sometimes get transcribed into English simply as a and e. Or because of the sound heard by a non-Polish speaker, ą may be transcribed as an, on, am, or om. Likewise, ę may appear as en or em.
Polish pronunciation is not always intuitive for non-Polish speakers. For example, former Polish president Lech Wałęsa’s surname is pronounced Va-wen-sa. Keep this fact in mind when looking at records, as those creating official documents likely did not understand Polish pronunciation and so may have created spelling variations.
For additional help with Polish words and grammar, see the Polish Word List at <www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Poland_Language_and_Languages#Word_List>.
While it might help you in conducting Polish ancestor research, being fluent in Polish is certainly not necessary. Here are some terms you’re likely to encounter.
Both nominative (standard) and genitive (possessive) forms of the words are listed. Polish vital records frequently contain the latter.
In many genealogical records, numbers—especially in dates—are spelled out. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and ordinal (first, second, third) numbers. Dates are written in ordinal form. In dates, ordinal numbers usually end with –ego; for example: pierwszy means “the first” and pierwszego means “on the first” (of the month).
