Until the late 18th century or early 19th century – depending on the area -- there were no family names used in Polish-Jewish records. As a result, it has been impractical to include the indices to such records in the Jewish Records Indexing-Poland database that is based on surname searches.

Jewish Records Indexing – Poland is now addressing the problem of these early records of Poland that do not contain family names, often referred to as "patronymic" records.

In addition to the post-1825 Jewish vital records filmed by the Mormons (LDS), there are typically mixed Catholic / Protestant / Jewish records in the 1808-1825 period for the Kingdom of Poland and earlier for areas such as the former Galician province.

Patronymic records

Because the indexes during this period contain few, if any, Jewish surnames; it is necessary to look at each registration (the entire record) in full in order to determine possible relationships. By extracting the given names of the father, mother and paternal and maternal grandfathers, researchers may be able -- through deduction – to determine if a record could possibly be for their family and perhaps even move their family search back a generation or two.

Jewish Records Indexing - Poland has Patronymic data on the following towns. Click on the town's link below to view the file. [The files are in Microsoft Excel version 5.0 format]. If you have a questions about the town's data or can derive a surname from the information provided then e-mail the town contact listed below. You may also need an Eastern Europe Roman font

To find out more about how to understand and index records without family names, click here.