https://i.redd.it/0kw0z9hudsge1.jpeg
created by GreatAuntCalpurniaa on 02/02/2025 at 20:35 UTC
56 upvotes, 11 top-level comments (showing 11)
Dobry wieczór, I am a British woman with Polish roots. My grandparents were born in Poland, they fled to the UK when they were about 10 years old. Neither of them have documents to prove anything.
I would like to reverse-engineer the family tree to see where my ancestors were born. My grandmother told me that her father built a house with hisw own hands, which is supposedly still standing.
My closest family doesn't want to help me, it seems as if they are ashamed of their roots. I, however, have spent time in Poland and am in love. I have started to learn the language, too.
I would like to reconstruct my family tree. I know my grandparents' birthplaces, but after a little investigation, it turns out that there could have been at least a few places with the same name. So I don't know how I could start my investigation, can anyone suggest any way to go about this?
Thank you :)
Comment by BronkyOne at 02/02/2025 at 20:55 UTC
30 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Cześć,
do you know when and where your grandparents were born? If before mid 1920's their birth certificates could be possible to find. Geneteka is free online database based on parish registers.
Comment by RoleKitchen at 02/02/2025 at 20:52 UTC
10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
You would need to contact Urząd Stanu Cywilnego, ideally in the place/gmina where they were born (gmina - the lowest administrative division). If they were born less than 100 years ago, then as a grandchild they would be able to provide their birth certificates. You would need their names and date of births/place of birth, although sometimes just names are fine.
As a Polish citizen you would do that through the system that we have (Profil Zaufany), but given you are not, then mailing/phoning Urząd is your best bet.
If your grandparents where born more than 100 years ago, then it's all in the archives, but it's in many places publicly available online, so sometimes is even easier.
Comment by Moon-In-June_767 at 02/02/2025 at 21:13 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Szczelno is a plausible misspelling of Strzelno[1] (by a Polish speaker).
1: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strzelno
Otherwise, we still have rather little data. When where the grandparents roughly born? Did they come to the UK together from the same place or do you expect their birthplaces to be unrelated?
You might give a shot using Geneteka[2]. If the family name is not too common, maybe you'll be lucky and immediately find a trace, e.g. the name occurring in one of the mentioned locations (if not exactly your known ancestors).
2: https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=se&lang=eng
Comment by ScarrLXIX at 02/02/2025 at 21:04 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hello.
I would start with documenting as much information as you can from your relatives: people names, town names, memories of places, like this info about a house (btw depending of the area and the time you are talking about the house may be there, but also could be demolished), time frame, dates etc. You are writing about grantparents' escape. What years you are talking about? Was it WW2? Children escaping to UK: was it connected with Kindertransport? Are there any data in British archives, their naturalisation documents, anything which can give you additional clues.
Then we can try to look into Polish archives and, depending on your data there are a lot of places to look into.
Depending on what you have it can be easy or difficult, as a lot of archives were destroyed or may not be easy accessible. However I wish you luck, and patience.
BTW: If you willing to give more details this place (redit) can sometimes do incredible investigations :)
Comment by Snoo_90160 at 02/02/2025 at 21:01 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Wojciechówka? Do you know which one is that? https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojciech%C3%B3wka
Comment by KlausVonLechland at 03/02/2025 at 00:58 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Do you have access to your parents' birth certificates? The names should be there, including nationality. It could help you getting Karta Polaka.
Comment by GreatAuntCalpurniaa at 02/02/2025 at 20:38 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I would also really like to get Polish citizenship, I am deeply ashamed and suffering since Brexit and would love to move to beautiful Poland :( My partner is Polish, too.
Comment by tsuzmir at 02/02/2025 at 20:54 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Might be a long shot but I took a DNA test and found a relatively (excuse the pun) close family in Canada. You never know!
Have you got any details at all? Where in Poland are they from? Anythig at all?
Comment by SeaTasks at 02/02/2025 at 21:01 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
https://www.gov.pl/web/unitedkingdom/citizenship[1][2]
1: https://www.gov.pl/web/unitedkingdom/citizenship
2: https://www.gov.pl/web/unitedkingdom/citizenship
Comment by Amandir_ at 03/02/2025 at 06:09 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
If your grandparents were born less than 100 years ago, then their birth certificates should still be stored in a USC (Urząd Stanu Cywilnego). You can try to contact one (preferably the one the closest to their place of birth) and ask. If you have their names, place and dates of birth it could be possible to find the documents. However, you might have to prove that you are a direct relative. I'm not sure how that works with foreign documents.
Comment by bebebe1 at 03/02/2025 at 10:24 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Hi! I did a lot of digging a few years ago when I wanted to reconstruct my father's family tree. Myheritage is used a lot in Poland and I also got pretty lucky and found other family trees that helped me along.
What you need is names, place names and dates. Most if not all written records are in parish books. Many of those are digitalised (mormons did a lot of that work I think already in the 60s-70s) and scans are often avalible online both in their database and different church databases. Some records from certain parishes are unfortunately lost.
The parish records themselves are also an interesting job, the newer records are in Polish, but before that you get Russian or German, and before that - Latin.
There are specialists who do this kind of digging, and knowing just the basics about this and assuming you don't speak/write Polish, I'd advice you to contact a specialist genealogist. There are also great subreddits where you can be advised on how to proceed like r/genealogy
