Find a BMD image online at the Polish State Archives

In Poland, a birth, marriage, or death record is called an akt. Akts are nearly always in paragraph form and are numbered sequentially. A year of records typically appears in a single book, with a set of index pages following each of the three types of records.

A book of records begins with all of the birth akts for the year, usually with two or three births per page. Then, an index to the births usually appears.

All the marriage akts for the year appear next. Because they are longer, each marriage akt usually takes up an entire page. Then, you will see an index to the marriages. The index is typically in two columns: the left column for the grooms, the right column for the brides.

Finally, all the death akts appear, two or three per page, followed by an index to the deaths.

At the beginning of each section of a book of birth, marriage, and death akts, you might see one of these headers:

Urodzenia [Births]

Małżeństwa or Zaślubienia [Marriages]

Zgony or Zeyścia or Zejścia [Deaths]

A hands-on example

• Volunteer to help type!
• Read other topics regarding Polish Jewish genealogy.