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Legally, civil records were to be kept by state officials. Because there were not enough state officials, the clergy were frequently appointed as civil registrars. The clergy were required to russian marriage registration civil copies of birth, marriage, and death records.

Because the church was involved in early civil registration, it is difficult to clearly distinguish between civil registration and church records. In 1795, the old Kingdom of Poland was conquered and divided among Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Civil registration coverage varied for each part of Poland controlled by Russia, Prussia, or Austria. This article covers civil registration in the Russian-controlled part of Poland.

In 1807, Napoleon created a new Polish state, fashioned out of territories previously seized by Prussia. In 1809 Napoleon’s forces won additional Polish territory from Austria, and the enlarged Polish state was called the Duchy of Warsaw. Civil registration of births, marriages, deaths, and sometimes of marriage intentions was initiated according to the Code of Napoleon in the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw on May 1st, 1808. After the Russian government assumed control upon the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the practice of maintaining civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths continued, even after Poland became an independent republic in 1918. Civil registers in the Napoleonic format are found in all of Russian Poland, in Kraków and in parts of the Prussian province of Posen, which are all formerly part of the old Grand Duchy of Warsaw.

Catholic clergy were responsible for all civil registration from 1808 until 1825. Beginning in 1826, Jews, Evangelical Lutherans, Protestants, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc. From 1826 on, civil records were once more church records in nature, but their form remained true to that of the Napoleonic Code. From the beginning in 1808, the civil registers were kept in the Polish language. As of April 1868, they were required to be kept in Russian.

In 1918, they were again kept in Polish. Both the Polish language and Russian language records followed the format established by the Napoleonic Code during the occupation beginning in 1808. The use of the Polish civil registers is further simplified by the indexes that usually accompany them. Indexes were prepared on a yearly basis. The birth, marriage, and death records were each indexed separately. The index is usually found immediately after the records indexed. In some cases the separate birth, marriage, and death indexes are grouped together at the end of the year’s records.

In some cases they are incomplete or missing entirely. Usually they are alphabetical by surname, but in some cases, they are alphabetized by first name or they may be chronological rather than alphabetical. Spellings in the indexes may differ from those in the actual entries. You must therefore determine the town where your ancestor lived before you can find the records.

Your ancestor may have lived in a village that was part of the civil district of a nearby larger town. In large cities there may be many civil districts. Enter the town name in the “place” field in the right sidebar and click “Show”. All information will appear at the bottom of the right sidebar. If the town was in the area of Poland once controlled by Russia or Austria, look it up in Skorowidz Gazetteer Online to find the parishes of various religions. If searching for a Jewish ancestor, select the database “Jewish Records Indexing – Poland” which is a good starting point. The database has approximately four million records and can be searched in several ways, such as entering a surname and a town name.