Our Expertise.
Poland, Germany, & Lithuania.
These countries produced millions of emigrants to the United States, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Border changes over the past two centuries can make tracing your ancestors back to the ‘old county’ seem impossible. If your ancestors have roots in East Prussia, West Prussia, Poland (including Austra-Hungry and Russia-Poland), or Lithuania, you have come to the right place. Owen has over 20 years of research experience in these geographies helping clients find out where their ancestors were from, what their lives were like, and who they left behind.
Don’t have ancestors from these places? We may still be able to help!
Context & Resources.
Finding the relevant records—births, marriages, deaths, property records, naturalizations—that’s the easy part. Being able to read them, interpret them, and pull out the right information that will push your tree back further and further—that is the hard part. We can overcome the many challenges that come with making the most out of the paper trail your family left behind.
Language also plays an important part. Did you know that records from northeast Poland and southwest Lithuania (formerly part of the Russian Empire) can be written in Latin, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian, German, Yiddish, or a combination of several different languages? The shifting borders and policies meant the languages of the records changed frequently, too.
Were your ancestors from West Prussia? Records were often written in an old German script called Kurrentschrift. Reading this script requires a lot of practice and skill. Another example of the complexity of researching in this part of the word. We have the experience to help!
Polish Genealogy
Poland was once split between three empires: Prussia, Russia, and Austria-Hungry. Research strategies can be vastly different depending on which part of Poland your ancestors lived. Saleker & Co. knows how to navigate research for success.
Prussian-Poland
Much of Northern Poland was partitioned by Prussia—the largest state in what would become the German Empire in 1871. You may have heard of the names Westpreußen (West Prussia) and Ostpreußen (East Prussia) both of which were part of the Prussian partition of Poland and much of which is part of Poland today (execpt for much of East Prussia.) Before the end of WWII, this area of Poland wasn’t just home to Poles but also Germans (Protestants). We have particular experience in the areas around Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Pożnan, and Olsztyn.
Austria-Hungry & Galicia
The Austrian-Hungarian Empire was massive and once included the countries of the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungry, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and southwestern Poland. You may be familiar with the term “Galicia” which included much of southeastern Poland and is both a geographic and ethnic region. We have particular experience in researching this area which included those who belonged to Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical faiths.
Russian-Poland (Congress Poland)
Geographically speaking, the Russian Empire was one of the largest empires that received a partition of Poland, specifically the northeastern part which included not just modern-day Poland but also southwest Lithuania. If you have Polish ancestors who stated they came from “Russia” or “Russian Poland” they may have been from this part of Poland. Although Congress Poland was a defined territory, it bordered other parts of the Russian Empire, including what is today Belarus and Ukraine. Records were kept (starting in 1815) in Russian Cyrillic—which can be of the most difficult aspects of the research. Several branches of Owen’s family comes from this part of Poland and it is one of the regions he is most experienced in.
Deutsche aus Litauen (Germans from Lithuania)
The Germans from Lithuania (Deutsche aus Litauen) were a group of individuals who lived in what is today southwestern Lithuania but, before WW1, was part of the Russian Empire (Congress Poland.) Most of them originated in neighbouring East Prussia and also had roots in Salzburg as many descended from the so-called Salzburg Exulanten that came to East Prussia in 1732. The Germans from Lithuania lived all over the country, but were mainly concentrated in the southwestern part, which belonged to the Suwalki Gubernia of the Russian Empire. Owen is one of the worlds few research experts on this group and can provide unparalleled research assistance to those who need genealogical research on their German family from Lithuania.