[16] A 1954 study of the Polish population by the United States Census Bureau concluded that "in presenting the results, the Central Statistical office emphasized the central role played by the Polish ethnic group by increasing the number of minority groups, and thus reducing the size of a given group, shown in the results, Ukrainian and Ruthenian were tabulated as separate languages, although Ukrainian was simply the newer name for Ruthenian, used by the more politically conscious and nationalistic elements. [5] Statistical differences existed between Ruthenians and Ukrainians. You might be lucky enough to find some census records for your town of interest at one of the Polish digital libraries. Censuses (counts and descriptions of populations) have been taken by the various governments of Poland, primarily for population studies, taxation, or military purposes. The extent of the tampering is not known.
One might start with one’s town of interest with or without a keyword like “Spis” to help narrow the search results. The Polish census of 1921 or First General Census in Poland (Polish: Pierwszy Powszechny Spis Ludności) was the first census in the Second Polish Republic, performed on September 30, 1921 by the Main Bureau of Statistics (Główny Urząd Statystyczny). , For Poznań city there is special site with indexes for years 1870-1931 http://e-kartoteka.net/.
That question is a bit complicated. [15] Tadeusz Piotrowski called the 1931 census official but "unreliable" for determining ethnicity, saying that by using language as an indicator of ethnicity it had underestimated the number of ethnic non-Poles, and that in particular, ethnic Poles were not a majority in the [3], The number of Polish native speakers relative to the total number of Roman Catholics may be overestimated, and possibly closer 17-18 millions. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Geneteka—Baptisms, Deaths & Marriages. For this purpose some authors combined all non-Polish speakers in South-Eastern Poland (namely Ukrainians, Belarusians, Rusyns, Hutsuls, Lemkos, Boykos and Poleszuks) into one category of "Ruthenians"). The census used the concept of mother tongue and religion to classify the respondents, rather than nationality. It established that Poland's population amounted to 32 million people (over 5 million more than in the previous census of 1921). Occasionally individual researchers will create online databases for census records that they’ve obtained personally. [2], Entire categories considered essential today were absent from the questionnaires, subject to historic interpretation at any given time. If you don’t mind paying the archives or a researcher in Poland to access records for you, there is an entire database in the Polish State Archives for census records. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. [3], Data do not include: city Vilnius, county Vilnius-Trakai, Ashmyany, Švenčionys, Vilnius Region and Upper Silesia, Rusyn, Ruthenian, Carpatho-Rusyn, Lemko or Rusnak, Partial results when searching for the following keyword: Spis powszechny - Polska 1921 r, Nationalities (page 56, polish-french version), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polish_census_of_1921&oldid=979342341, Articles which use infobox templates with no data rows, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 1921 Census of Poland, vol. Change ). “Why Can’t I Find Census Records for My Ancestors in Poland?”, The Walsh family of St. Catharines in the Parish Census, 5 Places Online to Find Polish Census Records, search engine for the Federacja Bibliotek Cyfrowych, database of Spis Parafialny records from Bukowsko parish in Sanok County, https://fromshepherdsandshoemakers.wordpress.com/2016/10/08/why-cant-i-find-census-records-for-my-ancestors-in-poland/, I Found Records for my Ancestors’ Parish!
This situation created a difficulty in establishing the true number of ethnic non-Polish citizens of Poland. “Księgi Ludności Stałej,” “Spis parafian,” “spis parafialny,” “Ewidencje Ludności,” “Regestr Ludonosci,” etc., so you might try searching using several different keywords.
3 May 2020 Update: Earlier this year, the baza.archiwa.gov.pl site which permitted searching in the ELA database was shut down. Neither the Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns (or Rusnaks), nor Polesians were defined by their name. More importantly, there’s no single name under which census-type data will consistently appear, so researchers should try several different search terms.
And as always, the most imporant consideration isn’t what the records are called or whether they’re indexed — it’s whether or not any have survived and are available for one’s town or village of interest.
A list of all settlements in Poland was also prepared, but only a part related to Wilno Voivodeship was published. – From Shepherds and Shoemakers, Follow From Shepherds and Shoemakers on WordPress.com. Upper Silesia was formally assigned to Poland by the League of Nations after the census was conducted elsewhere. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. the primary language in the following categories: Polish, Ukrainian, Ruthenian (i.e.