| Tracing Your Polish Ancestors |
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| 4. COUNTY AND STATE RECORDS |
| Reference Source for county and state addresses Published by Everton Publishers |
| The Handybook of Genealogists in United States of America |
| Researching on the County Level |
| Contact the County Clerk's Office online to order birth, marriage, and death records |
| Be prepared to supply a full name, date & place of event. Fees for a search may be charged by the search year or for limited years. |
| When researching at the County Clerk's Office in your ancestor's home town, check for a surname index or check for an index in the front of each bound volume. |
| Each volume usually refers to a certain year. Begin with Death Record entries, then continue with Marriages and Births. Document and photocopy all information. |
| Researching on the State Level |
| Learn the major repositories for the state(s) in which your ancestor lived and write for pamphlets and brochures which list and/or explain their holdings and their research policies and fees. Check if your library can interlibrary loan these records on microfilm. |
| Vital Records: birth, marriage, death, cemetery |
| Probate Records: May be housed at the County Clerk's office or various courts in the city. |
| Assessors' Books, Deeds, Tax Sale Records |
| Naturalization Papers: May be housed at the County Clerk's Office or in the State Archives. They are described more fully under Federal Records. |
| Civil Law Cases, Criminal Law Cases, Plaintiff & Defendant Indexes |
| Alms House, Poor Farm Records |
| Professional Registers: Anyone required to hold a license to practice their profession; Official oaths and bonds; Business that require a license to operate: Tavern and grocery shops |
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| Begin with a death record. The date of birth may be on that record and also the cemetery information. The death record information is only as reliable as the informant. |
| The census index is available on microfilm and in published book form and are found in libraries, state archives, the National Archives, and other repositories. Finding an ancestor on an index enables the researcher to go directly to the census sheet vs. looking through rolls of microfilm. Never assume that because a name does not appear on an index that it is not in the census. There are many errors in indexes. |
| Check every census because each contains different information. The censuses enable the researcher to put together families back through time. Begin with 1930 and work backwards. |
| Check City Directories: arranged by year in a format similar to a telephone directory, these directories list an address and occupation. Large libraries are a good source for them. |
| Research genealogical societies. |
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| Additional Records on the County Level |
| U.S. Federal Census Records |