Poland

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Poland, located in Central Europe, has a rich and tumultuous history marked by periods of great prosperity and cultural achievements, as well as devastating wars and occupations. The nation's origins can be traced back to the Piast dynasty, which was founded by Mieszko I in 966 CE. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, formed in 1386, was a powerful and influential state until its decline and eventual partitioning by Austria, Prussia, and Russia in the late 18th century. Famous figures from Polish history include astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who developed the heliocentric model of the solar system, composer Frédéric Chopin, who is renowned for his piano compositions, and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie, who made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of radioactivity.

The administrative divisions of Poland

Poland is divided into 16 administrative divisions, or voivodeships (województwa, singular - województwo):

Each voivodeship is governed by a Voivode (Governor) appointed by the Polish Prime Minister, and has its own elected regional assembly (sejmik) and executive chosen by that assembly.

Polish history

Poland’s history is one of great peaks and valleys. Polonia, as it was known to the Romans, lay outside of the ambit of the more advanced civilizations of the Mediterranean and Western Europe in ancient times. Yet it became a major staging ground for the vast Asiatic and Germanic tribes which between the third and fifth centuries largely destroyed the Western Roman Empire. The empire of the Huns under their foremost ruler Atilla extended across much of southern Poland in the early fifth century.^[1]

In medieval times Poland was gradually absorbed into the ambit of Western Christendom as efforts were made by Germanic crusaders from the tenth century onwards. Mieszko I became the first Polish ruler to be baptized and thereafter the Slavic people who had settled across much of Poland since the sixth and seventh centuries began to absorb the new faith. In time Roman Catholicism became absolutely central to Polish identity and the country remains one of the most religious in Europe today.^[2]

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Poland reached its peak as a European power during the era of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At this time the monarchs of Poland ruled a vast territory covering much of modern-day Poland, the Baltic States region, Ukraine and Belarussia. This was also a time of great cultural flowering in Poland as thinkers like Nicolaus Copernicus made great contributions to the European Renaissance.^[3]

By the eighteenth century, though, Poland was in precipitous decline and in the course of the 1770s and the 1790s its’ more powerful neighbors, Prussia, Russia and Austria, partitioned Poland three times. With this the Polish state ceased to exist by the mid-1790s. Despite a brief-lived Duchy of Warsaw being created by Napoleon Bonaparte in the late 1800s, no Polish state would fully emerge again until after the First World War when the victorious powers recreated Poland out of the lands of the defeated powers.^[4]

The invasion of Poland in September 1939 was the spark which finally ignited the Second World War. Poland was the theatre in which the Nazis carried out the Holocaust for the most part. The country’s woes continued in the aftermath of the conflict as it was occupied by the Soviet Union and became part of the Warsaw Pact. Yet, since the end of the Cold War, the country had flourished, with membership of the European Union in 2004 accelerating economic development.^[5]

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Polish history

Polish geography

Poland is one of the largest countries in Europe, one which extends from the Baltic Sea in the north south to Czechia, Slovakia and Ukraine. Belarus lies directly to the east and Germany to the west, making Poland in many ways the crossroads between Central and Eastern Europe. The River Vistula is an important part of the country’s geography and the two foremost cities of the country, Warsaw and Krakow, are located along its course. In the north Gdansk emerged in medieval times as one of the most important ports of Europe (named Danzig for centuries) and remains Poland’s most important port today and a hub of economic activity.^[6] Poland is one of the least urbanized countries in Europe for its size, with 40% of the population still living outside of the main urban centers.^[7]

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Polish geography

Researching family history in Poland

Family history and genealogical studies in Poland are complex owing to the manner in which the country was divided up and ruled by Prussia, Austria and Russia between the late eighteenth century and the end of the First World War. As a result, many of the earliest censuses and other demographic records for the country were produced at different times. For instance, census records for the east of the country were determined by when censuses were ordered by the Russian government, while those for the west and south were dictated by governments in Berlin and Vienna. Such records or copies thereof are located in a number of different archives in Poland today, notably the Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie, or Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw.^[8] However, Polish state records are heavily decentralized with many records held as well in the Archives of Modern Records (these are particularly useful for the post-1918 period) and the National Digital Archives.^[9]

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Polish ethnicity

Poland is predominantly ethnically homogeneous, with the vast majority of the population comprising ethnic Poles. However, there are several minority groups residing in the country, such as Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans, and Lithuanians. Other smaller ethnic communities include Russians, Armenians, and Tatars, each contributing to the cultural diversity of the nation.

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Polish surnames

Polish surnames can provide valuable insights when researching family history, as they often reveal information about an individual's ancestry, occupation, or geographic origin. Understanding the meaning and structure of Polish surnames, which may include suffixes such as -ski, -icz, or -owicz, can help genealogists identify family connections, trace migration patterns, and uncover the historical context of their ancestors' lives. For example, the surname "Kowalski" means "son of a blacksmith," and the surname "Nowak" means "newcomer".

Examples of different Polish surnames: Kowalski, Nowak, Wojcik, Kaczmarek, Wozniak, Jankowski, Krawczyk, and Mazur.

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Explore more about Poland

Polish historical records on MyHeritage
Beginning Polish Genealogy at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
Hidden Photo Reveals a Secret Past and Reunites a Family on the MyHeritage Blog
Using MyHeritage to research Polish family history and to find living relatives in Poland at Legacy Family Tree Webinars

References

[1] ttps://www.history.com/topics/ancient-china/huns

[2] ttps://www.jstor.org/stable/20147704

[3] ttps://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/p/Polish-Lithuanian_Commonwealth.htm

[4] ttps://www.britannica.com/event/Partitions-of-Poland

[5] ttps://guides.loc.gov/poland-manuscripts/timeline

[6] ttps://www.countryreports.org/country/Poland/geography.htm

[7] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_countries_by_percentage_of_urban_population

[8] ttp://agad.gov.pl/

[9] ttps://archiwa.gov.pl/en/

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