Now What?: Polish Town Name Changes

Q. I’ve been trying to research a town in Poland that had a name change. (I seem to remember a Family Tree Magazine article on this topic.) I have two different spellings for this town and just can’t seem to find the new name.

A. The June 2004 Family Tree Magazine had a Now What? Q&A about Prussian place-name changes including once-German towns that are now in Poland due to fluctuating national boundaries.

If that’s true of your mystery town, you’ll need to “translate” the old German name into the modern Polish name. Use the 1912 Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs- Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs (also called Meyers Gazetteer) to confirm the old name. Look for it at large genealogy libraries and on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library (FSL).

Then, says Jim Beidler in the aforementioned Family Tree Magazine article, “For towns that became Polish after World War I, consult Deutsch-Fremdsprachiges Ortsnamenverzeichnis. For territories ceded after World War II, use Amtliches Gemeinde- und Ortsnamenverzeichnis der Deutschen Ostgebiete unter Fremder Verwaltung.” Both of these gazetteers also are available on FSL microfilm.

Also see the online index at ATSNotes.com, which contains names of localities in Poland and Russia, along with their previous German names, and search the JewishGen Gazetteer, an online index of places in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Then you can use historical maps and gazetteers to trace the town’s name changes. Do a Google search for gazetteer or map plus poland, and check map sites such as Map History / History of Cartography, Polish Genealogical Society of America and the University of Texas’ Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.

Last updated August 2024.