The Saint Joseph County INGenWeb Site

Polish Immigrants to the Midwest

This continuing work began in 1995 as an endeavor to document the roots of my ancestors from the various partitions of 18th century Poland to St Joseph County, Indiana. I enjoyed theinitial discovery of my own roots so much and the many kind souls who helped me along the way; that I decided to document the migration of any Polish family to the area as a “Thank You”, to those who helped me. Since I descended from a typical Polish family of 12 and 14 children on either side, I soon discovered myself related to most of “South Bend Polonia”. In addition many of my Immediate and Great generations married into the multitude of multi ethnic families that made up early 1900 industrial South Bend. Therefore the user of this data will find German, Pole, Hungarian, Belgian and Italian families traced as near to their European origins as possible. Many good people have taken the time to send me extensions to the many families identified and have corrected my work when necessary. They are all credited for their contributions and I encourage any user to contribute and correct “as the spirit moves you”. New data is updated monthly and the current file contains more than 29,000 unique entries from nearly every mid-western state and most of European origins.

Polish Immigrants to the Midwest

James F. Piechorowski

[email protected]

Researched, written and used with the permission of Margaret Odrowaz -Sypniewski B.F.A.

This is a detailed, yet simply devised picture of a nation and people. Well Done!

This is one of the best historical sites for beginners I have run across ...its accurate

Thank you, Margaret for your permission to add your sites to our web site (08/13/2005)

A description of terms used to describe the societal class of Poles in various Church and Civil records

Index of Polish Parish Records
This is an index to names in Polish parish records which have been microfilmed by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Some American parishes are also included. This database allows you to search for a Polish ancestor and receive information about which microfilm contains the filmed record. Microfilm rolls can be requested on a loan basis for a nominal processing fee from all Family History Centers or through their affiliate library program. Brighton District Library is pleased to be one of the Family Search affiliate libraries through which these microfilms may be ordered. Information on ordering FamilySearch microfilms may be obtained at Brighton District Library's Reference Desk.

If you have further information on Polish Immigration that you would like placed here or have photo’s of St. Joseph County; land, people, etc.

Poland’s Flag