Opportunities for finding references to your family's records in the Jewish Records Indexing-Poland database have dramatically increased over the last year, as the database reached 1.5 million records just as 2001 drew to a close.

This is breathtaking – even for the board of JRI-Poland – because the searchable database of indices to Polish Jewish records (primarily those in the Polish State Archives and those microfilmed by the Mormons) was less than one million at the end of 2000.

This phenomenal growth reflects effort by hundreds of volunteers who participate in Shtetl CO-OPs and researchers who support JRI-Poland's PSA project to enable records for their towns in the Polish State Archives to be indexed. We also owe a debt of gratitude to the management and staff of the Polish State Archives, all of whom have provided exemplary cooperation and support to the project.

As the records for more and more towns are indexed and the mass of data grows for many groups of towns, researchers are not only finding records for their families in towns where they knew their families lived, but also in many towns and villages both near and far. Often these places were long forgotten by our parents and grandparents or, as many have us have learned, they are towns that had never even been mentioned in any family stories.

In the last few weeks, data has been added for seventy-three towns. For many towns, it is the first time that indices have appeared in the JRI-Poland database.

New for first time, data is available for the following Galician towns in the AGAD Archives project:

Gologory, Kopyczynce, Kudrynce, Mikulince, Mostiska, Podhajce, Podwoloczyska, Rozdul, Sokolowka, Strzeliska Nowe, Szczerzec, Tarnopol, Uscie Biskupie, Zablotow, and Zbaraz

New or first time data is also now available for the following towns (either indexed from the LDS microfilms by Shtetl CO-OPs or by the JRI-Poland / Polish State Archives project for records not filmed by the LDS):

Belchatow, Bialystok, Bielsk, Bodzanow, Brzeziny, Bytom, Chelm, Ilza, Komarow, Koniecpol, Lublin, Lubraniec, Nowe Miasto, Nysa, Oleszyce, Pajeczno, Poddebice, Przasnysz, Rzeszow, Stopnica, Tykocin, Warszawa, Wegrow, Wyszogrod, Zgierz, and Zychlin

For some of the towns in the list above, new and first time data from certain years and types are searchable while other years and types have not yet been made "live."

For details about the types of records (births, marriages, deaths) and the years they cover, go to the "Contents of the Database" page, which is linked from the home page at www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl.

For information about how you can participate in efforts to make this data fully searchable in the JRI-Poland database, go to the "Project Status Page" of the Polish State Archives project at: www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/psa/psastat1.htm and click on the "Project Information" link for the archive that holds your town's records.

In addition, new or first time data from the towns in the following list are in the final processes and are not currently searchable. Check the "Project Status" page as outlined above to find out how you can participate in helping to make data from these towns searchable.

Aleksandrow Lodzki, Busko Zdroj, Chmielnik, Dzialoszyce, Dubienka, Grojec, Kalisz, Klobuck, Kolo, Konin, Kosow Lacki, Kozminek, Krzepice, Lask, Lubartow, Mikulince, Mogielnica, Mstow, Oleszyce, Pacanow, Piaseczno, Podwoloczyska, Praszka, Przemysl, Radomsko, Siedlce, Skulsk, Sokolow Podlaski, Stanislawow, Szadek, Szczekociny, Tarczyn, Warka, Wieruszow, and Zuromin

Data is arriving regularly from Shtetl CO-OPs (indexing records in LDS microfilms), from the JRI-Poland data entry team in Warsaw (working on records not filmed by the LDS), and from the many archivists in branches in AGAD, Bialystok, Krakow, Przemysl and Rzeszow (indexing records for which there are no indices to photocopy). Then there are also projects at the Jewish Historical Institute, the 1929 Polish Business Directory project and other special projects to be announced.

As we continue to grow and as we embark on a new year, JRI-Poland asks each of you to consider what you can do to help your own research while - at the same time - helping your fellow researchers today and future generations in the years to come. Please take a fresh look at the JRI-Poland web site think about how you can contribute. Or contact one of the members of the JRI-Poland board listed below.

With our warmest wishes for a healthy and happy year,

The Board of Jewish Records Indexing - Poland, Inc.

Judy Baston, JRBaston@aol.com
Stanley Diamond, SMSDiamond@aol.com
Shirley Flaum, Seflaum@aol.com
Peter Jassem, jassep@tdbank.ca
Mark Halpern, Willie46@aol.com
Barbara Khait, Bkhait@aol.com
Roni Liebowitz, Ronisl@aol.com
Hadassah Lipsius, Kesher@lipsiusgroup.com
Stuart Richler, stuart@gtrdata.com
Michael Richman, Mbresq@aol.com
Wlodzimierz Rozenbaum, vlady.rita@verizon.net
Sheila Salo, ssalo@CapAccess.org
Michael Tobias, Michael@tobias.org.uk
Steven Zedeck, saz25@mediaone.net

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