PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Request for Baptismal Record

Zenon — Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:17 pm

Author: Zenon

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:17 pm

wvmunza wrote:

Would the Bishop Archives respond to a personal letter written in Polish?

I have heard from other researchers, also from abroad, that in some Bishop Archives they reply to personal letters.

wvmunza wrote:

Would it be acceptable to send US currency as a donation to the church with the letter of inquiry?

In the first place I would try to find out if in any of the Archives there are the records you are interested in. I think just a phone call would be good for a start. Then, I would consider sending a few $, but there is no guarantee for you to get any information back...

wvmunza wrote:

Also, when Father Kudla sent me the census information about my grandmother and her family, he stated that she was born 3 Oct 1888 and gave me her parents, brothers and sisters names. I understand that the surname Chrzaszcz is a common name, how do I know that the information is the correct family?
Recently I was able to obtain a copy of her marriage license here in the US. She was married 13 Apr 1914 and stated on the license that she was 23 years old. This would make her year of birth in 1891. I realize there is only a three year difference between the marriage license and the census taken in Polnad. How accurate are the census taken there? Were they taken by the church? How often were they taken?

As I wrote you in previous post, the "censuses" were just local parish lists of souls prepared by priests for parish, or maybe in general, Catholic Church purposes. I haven't found any rule if they were taken in any regular periods of time. Priests just recorded what parishioners told them.
The difference of 3 years in two different documents is not that big, it happened. The only way to find out the exact date of birth is go to the original document - baptism record.

Re: Request for Baptismal Record

wvmunza — Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:28 am

Author: wvmunza

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:28 am

Would the Bishop Archives respond to a personal letter written in Polish? Would it be acceptable to send US currency as a donation to the church with the letter of inquiry?
Also, when Father Kudla sent me the census information about my grandmother and her family, he stated that she was born 3 Oct 1888 and gave me her parents, brothers and sisters names. I understand that the surname Chrzaszcz is a common name, how do I know that the information is the correct family?
Recently I was able to obtain a copy of her marriage license here in the US. She was married 13 Apr 1914 and stated on the license that she was 23 years old. This would make her year of birth in 1891. I realize there is only a three year difference between the marriage license and the census taken in Polnad. How accurate are the census taken there? Were they taken by the church? How often were they taken?
Thank you very much for your help.

Re: Request for Baptismal Record

Zenon — Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:04 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:04 am

Hello Walt,

This is what can be found in State Archives in Sanok for Bukowsko parish, click here: http://bit.ly/mRvoa . Births (urodzenia) are only for years 1893 - 1902. It seems to be consistent with what the priest responded you about missing records.

In Civil Records Offices in Poland the records are kept for 100 years only, for example in 2009 the oldest records that can be found there are from 1909 (provided that they exist).

There were no records telling about who, when and where emigrated. Sometimes priests recorded in their local parish censuses called 'spis dusz' or in Latin 'Status Animarum' ('list of souls') information that a given man or woman emigrated or lived abroad. But no more details.

The only possibility now is to try to check Bishop Archives in Rzeszow (click here: http://www.diecezja.rzeszow.pl/?q=node/2147 ) or in Przemysl (Archiwum Metropolitalne w Przemyślu, Plac Katedralny 4a, 37-700 Przemyśl, phone: +4816 6786694) for duplicates of the original records. It is not unusual that there can be found duplicates of the original records that not survived neither in local parishes nor in State Archives.

Unfortunately, Bishop Archives are not obliged and usually do not reply to e-mails, especially in foreign language. The only way to contact them is either by phone or personally.

Good luck

Request for Baptismal Record

wvmunza — Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:32 pm

Author: wvmunza

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:32 pm

I am trying to research my grandmother Victoria Chrzaszcz who was born abt. 1890 in Bukowsko, Sanok, Poland. She left Poland in 1907 on the British ship Westerland, which departed from Antwerp, Belgium.
I recently requested a baptismal record from Father Stanley Kudla in Bukowsko, Poland. He wrote back saying that they were missing the baptism records between the years 1878-1892. He stated they were "taken at the time of partition by the Austrian Government".
He was able to provide me with information from census records which gave me information about her family there in Bukowsko. Would her bapism record be kept at the Local Civil Records Office in Sanok? If so, how can I find the address to write to? Would they have a record of her leaving Poland?
Thanks for your help.