As previously mentioned, both Ancestry and FamilySearch provide adequate resources, and with due time will have an online arsenal of material which was once only maintained on microfilm. But what happens when you need to look further?
Something called “OrtsfamilienbĂ¼cher,” or local heritage books, provide a look into families and places with decent accuracy. These are akin to OrtssippenbĂ¼cher, for those who are more familiar with that German term. Both FamilySearch’s Family Tree Search and their Genealogy Search provide secondary data sets to compare with those found through Genealogy.net’s OFB section. One can go through each OFB and browse by surname or place. Both Pommern and Neumark should be of interest to the genealogist, as parts of Neumark have been included in Pomeranian territories.
The Meta Search function of CompGen is also another favorite for quickly browsing through multiple categories of records quickly. This quickly searches through many databases quickly, providing listings from GEDBAS, historical address books, researcher contacts (FoKo)–which allows one to search for other researchers for the same surname, OFBs, gravestones, World War I casualty lists of wounded or dead soldiers, Bremer passenger lists, immigrants from Oldenburg, and several more.
For address books, one can search through Pommerndatenbank, which is a comprehensive search of all older address books that were indexed. It does not appear that any newer entries have been made since 2011, but it is a good place to start nonetheless. Using this search may allow for a greater insight into where family names were concentrated and providing a starting place to look for civil records to correspond with what you already know. Similarly, Pommernkontakte provides a place for researchers researching the same surname to post their contact information. If you are trying to make new contacts, it is advisable to post your contact information on Pommernkontakte, but also on Meyers Gazetteer as well. Meyers Gazetteer is becoming even more popular as a place to view old maps of Pomerania and also make connections with others doing research.
To search through church and civil records, one may use the PTG’s search or browse through records on Metryki.Genbaza.pl. For a complete list of instructions on how to register to view these records, please see our article on registration. To find which church books exist for a given place or time period, or to see the listings for surviving civil registers, the Pommerscher Greif has compiled an extensive list of both.
The official site for searching Polish archival material is Szukajwarchiwach. Digital scans from the Köslin (Koszalin) State Archives provide detailed information on digitized Standesamt (civil registry) and church books, in addition to maps and files pertaining to city documents. Digital material from Stettin (Szczecin) can be found on their digital portal, spanning repatriation documents, church and civil records, police and property tax information, and other documents relating to the city. Many documents pertaining to Danzig (Gdansk) can also be found on Metryki.Genbaza.pl rather than on the state archive website.
Other Kreis databases exist and provide more information than some of the other searches above. These would include Stolp’s Globalindex, Kolberg-Körlin’s Familienforschung search, Belgard-Schivelbein’s many lists, and Neumark’s database.
