I am trying to find out some history of my family. My fathers mom was born in P

Question:

I am trying to find out some history of my family. My fathers mom was born in Poland and is Jewish. How can?

I find out more about her. My father does not know much. I have checked a few websites and nothing comes up for her. My fathers says that they destroyed the Jewish records during WW2. Can someone tell me where to go???

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You don't allow email, so, I will do the best I can to help you on this with limited information

My mom, also, figured the towns our relatives came from no longer existed nor that there were any records. WRONG! I have now been to some of those towns in Poland.

Although one route is to go to a local LDS Family History Center, this is not necessarily going to be of assistance. Although there is microfilm for Polish Jewish Records, there is not much microfilm for folks who lived in Galicia (southeastern Poland/ western Ukraine). This would be where my relatives were from.

Do not despair, however. There is a project called JRI-Poland and its database is located at http://www.jewishgen.org (check at the top under "Hosted Organizations"). This database has close to 2 million Jewish records online for free!

If you know which area of Poland they were from or the town/towns this will help us direct you to the most appropriate source. If you don't, the ship manifest is your friend. If you edit your question to include some additonal information, perhaps, someone can locate a relative's name on a ship manifest. The last town of residence is listed and sometime the place of birth...this varies depending on when they arrived.

Bottom line - your family information could be as simple as ordering some microfilm from the LDS or exploring the JRI-Poland site.

Also, it would be in your interest to get a researcher number/password at the JewishGen site (free) and check out its "Family Finder". See who is researching your surnames. You might find a relative who already has this information. If you do this, make sure to add your surnames. You never know when someone will look and find you.

Oh, and regarding locating Jewish records within church records as mentioned by "Shirley T" in the first response - this does occur. In fact a cyber-friend located a few names within the Spis of a local church. Generally, though and in this case, too, they were very early records. Poland did use separate b/m/d registers for Jews for quite a long time. Since you will have to work from the present backwards, exploring church records would not be your first plan of attack. From what I hear parish priests do not necessarily make it a priority to go through the record books. It took my friend a few trips to Poland and many years before she was given permission to look at the records.(I don't know if this is a common experience or not.)

Another route (albeit sad) is to explore the Pages of Testimony at Yad Vashem. People filled out one page forms on relatives/friends who were victims of the Holocaust. If your surname is somewhat unusual, you might find some possible relatives listed. These forms are online. Go to: http://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/iy_h...

I would be more than happy to check for info. for you, but you need to supply a bit more to go on.

Good luck...:-)