Genealogy  of      
        Halychyna /
              Eastern Galicia
www.halgal.com





Home About Galicia Vital Records Gazetteers Finding Your Village
Halgal Links           Disclaimer         Contact Photos Bilyi Kamin / Biały Kamień parish
Repatriation and Resettlement of Ethnic Poles Maps Immigration to Ellis Island from Czeremosznia and Usznia
Greek Catholic Records of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, Lviv Emigration from Bialy Kamien through the Port of Hamburg
Roman Catholic Records of the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine,  Lwów / Lviv   Bielawa Family (of Poznan region, not Galicia)
Great Books: Ukrainian Genealogy: A Beginner's Guide                                                              -Older Bielawa Generations    -Newer Bielawa Generations
Going Home: A Guide to Polish American Family History Research
 
 
 

Repatriation and Resettlement
of Ethnic Poles

 

As World War II was coming to a close, the leaders of the Allied Powers met to discuss redrawing the map of Europe.

It was decided that Poland's borders would move approximately 200 kilometers to the west.  Poland would lose about 178,000 sq. km. to the USSR in the east...and acquire about 101,000 sq. km. from Germany in the west.

The result of this historic resettlement greatly affected family history and genealogical research of ethnic Poles originating in Eastern Galicia / Halychyna.   The result was staggering.  Over one million ethnic Poles moved from what was eastern Poland (sometimes referred to as the Kresy, or Eastern Borderlands) to what came to be called the Recovered Territories in western and northern Poland (which is the dark shaded regions in the above map).

  • Understand why your Polish relatives no longer live where they did before World War II.
  • Locate records regarding the Resettlement.
  • Find relatives who moved to different regions of Poland.
  • Understand how your relatives were born in Lwów, but died in Wrocław, hundreds of kilometers to the west.

Although these pages are geared toward the Repatriation and Resettlement of ethnic Poles from Eastern Galicia, the information is extremely useful to others:

  • Researching ethnic Polish roots from territories now located in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
  • Researching ethnic Polish migration within Poland during the tumultuous years immediately following WWII.
  • Researching Ukrainian ancestors and relatives forcibly removed from their homeland during the ethnic cleansing campaign known as Akcja Wisła.

 

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Repatriation and Resettlement of Ethnic Poles and the PUR Collection
Value of the Genealogical Documents of PUR (Państwowy Urząd Repatriacyjny.  State Office of Repatriation)
    (documents to assist genealogical research)
History of Repatriation and Resettlement
The PUR Collection and genealogical research
     Examples of Records from the PUR Collection
           Registration Lists of Repatriates and Resettlers
           Village/Town Records (Ewidencje) of Repatriates and Resettlers
               Sample of Record: Village of Kurznie, Opole powiat
Finding the Records of the PUR Collection for your own research
Finding the Location of Resettlement
Maps
            General Maps
            Central Europe throughout the last 4 centuries
            Maps of Ethnic Groups
Works cited in these web pages and bibliography for further research
Terminology regarding Repatriation, Resettlement, and the PUR Collection
     German-Polish Place Names
            Examples for Brzeg powiat (brzeski powiat)

 

For an excellent article on population exchanges in Poland  during the period of 1939 to 1948 (covering Polish, German, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Jews), please read Piotr Eberhardt's English language article Political Migrations in Poland, 1939-1948.

 

 

www.halgal.com            Questions and Comments to Matthew Bielawa
Copyright
©2002     All rights reserved