Record Atlas
8 eras · 1200–2026 · 17 places

Posen — Prussian Poland

Szubin (Schubin), Bydgoszcz (Bromberg), Poznań (Posen). Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1945–2026 — The German place names are gone, and the catalogues are in Polish. Schubin is SZUBIN, Bromberg is BYDGOSZCZ, Posen is POZNAŃ. The registers mostly stayed where they were and are held by the Polish state archives — but they are catalogued under the Polish name, so a search for Schubin returns nothing while the books sit in Bydgoszcz.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1200–1793 Poland — the Crown lands Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD) · FamilySearch

Catholic parish registers in Latin, kept by the parish.
1793–1807 Prussia — South Prussia Szukaj w Archiwach · Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD)
1807–1815 Duchy of Warsaw Szukaj w Archiwach

Napoleonic civil registration, kept by the parish priest acting as registrar — in Polish, and in a standard narrative form.
1815–1871 Prussia — Grand Duchy of Posen Szukaj w Archiwach · Archion · FamilySearch

Three parallel series and a family can be in more than one: Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, each kept by its own congregation.
1871–1918 German Empire — Province of Posen Szukaj w Archiwach · Archion · Bundesarchiv · FamilySearch

Civil registration by Standesamt from 1 OCTOBER 1874 — the date to remember for anywhere in Prussia. From then there is a state record for everyone regardless of religion, and the Polish state archives hold it.
1918–1939 Poland — Second Republic Szukaj w Archiwach · Geneteka
1939–1945 German occupation — Reichsgau Wartheland Arolsen Archives · Bundesarchiv

Arolsen holds the deportation, forced-labour and displaced-persons records of these years.
1945–2026 Poland — Wielkopolska and Kujawy-Pomerania Szukaj w Archiwach · Geneteka

THE TRAP. The German place names are gone, and the catalogues are in Polish. Schubin is SZUBIN, Bromberg is BYDGOSZCZ, Posen is POZNAŃ. The registers mostly stayed where they were and are held by the Polish state archives — but they are catalogued under the Polish name, so a search for Schubin returns nothing while the books sit in Bydgoszcz.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1200–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

17 places on this ground

7 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

All record regions · The map