How to write to a European archive and get a reply

Many of the records a family history needs have never been put online. They are held by state archives and registry offices across Europe, and by Jewish institutions, and the way to reach them from home is a written request. The Polish State Archives, which hold the older registers of most towns in Poland, accept such requests from families abroad, as do the archives of Germany, Lithuania and Ukraine.

A good request gets an answer more often than a long one. This guide explains how to find the archive that holds your town's records, what to ask for, a letter you can adapt with lines in Polish and German, how fees are paid, how long replies take, and how to keep track of it all.

How to request records from a European archive

1. Search the archive's own catalog and the indexes for the town, and read any register that is already online.
2. Find which archive holds the town's registers for the years you need, and read its own page on genealogical requests.
3. Write one short request for one person or one record, with every spelling of the name, the dates, the places, the parents and any index reference.
4. Add a few lines in the archive's language, and ask what the search and the copies will cost and how to pay.
5. Pay by bank transfer when the archive sends its fee, and keep the receipt with the archive's reference.
6. Record the request in your log, and write again politely after about three months if nothing has come.
7. Have the reply and the record read and translated in full, and note where the original is kept.

Search what is online before you write

An archive may simply point you to its own catalog. The Polish State Archives publish their catalog, with scans of many Jewish and civil registers, on Szukaj w Archiwach, Search the Archives, where a register can be read page by page once you know the town, the year and the archive that holds it. JRI-Poland indexes Jewish births, marriages and deaths in Poland and gives the year and entry number of each, which is exactly what an archive needs. FamilySearch holds films of many registers from across the region.

If the record is online, read it there and save the image. Write for what is not: a register never published, a missing year, an unindexed file, or a certified copy.

Finding the right archive

A town's older registers are usually held in the country where it lies today, by the regional archive for its district, while records of the last century stay with the local civil registry office. How to find the town your family came from explains how to fix the town and its country first.

From FamilySearch's Research Wiki on the archives of Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Ukraine, and Gesher Galicia. Rules and addresses change, so read the archive's own page before writing.

Jewish institutions

Some records of Jewish life are held by Jewish institutions, and they answer written questions too. The YIVO Archives in New York hold about 1,900 collections, among them papers of more than 1,000 landsmanshaftn and record books of Jewish communities in Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania. The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem hold records of Jewish communities from many countries. The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw has a genealogy department and holds the registrations of Jews in Poland made after the war, until 1951. For relatives who were in Europe through the war years, the Arolsen Archives take inquiries through a form on their own site.

What to ask for

Archives answer specific questions. A request for "everything about the Goldberg family" may be refused, or answered with a large fee for a long search. A request for one birth entry, with the town, the year and the parents' names, is far easier to answer, and far more likely to be answered.

• One person or one record. Send separate requests for separate people, so that one difficult search does not hold up the rest.
• Every spelling. Give the name in its Polish, German, Russian or Yiddish form, and the given name as it would appear in the register, such as Chaim, Chaim Josek or Hersz.
• Dates and places. Give the year, or a range of no more than a few years, and the town, with its district.
• The parents. Give both parents' names, the mother's with her maiden name, since registers are searched and checked by them.
• The reference. If an index gives the year and the entry number, quote them exactly.
• What you want. Ask for a scan or copy of the full original entry. A short extract leaves out the witnesses, the address and the notes in the margin.
• Who you are. Say how you are related. Registry offices release recent records only to close relatives, and may ask for proof.

A request letter you can adapt

Write the letter in English, with the key lines also in the archive's language. Keep it to one page. Send it by email to the address on the archive's own page, or through its form if it has one, since FamilySearch's guide to writing to Poland notes that email is the fastest way to reach the state archives there.

Subject: Genealogical request: birth record of [full name], [town], [year]
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am researching the history of my family, and I ask for a search of the Jewish birth registers of [town], [district], for the year [year].

I am looking for the birth record of [given name and surname, with every spelling], born about [date] in [town], son of [father's name] and [mother's name, born mother's maiden name].
An index lists this entry as: births, [town], [year], entry [number].

Please send a scan or copy of the full original entry, and tell me the fee and how I can pay it. I will pay by bank transfer.
I am a [great-grandchild] of the person named.
Yours faithfully,
[Your name, postal address and email]

Key lines in Polish

For the Polish State Archives or a Polish registry office, use the subject line Kwerenda genealogiczna, a genealogical query, and open with Szanowni Państwo, Dear Sir or Madam. Then: "Uprzejmie proszę o wyszukanie aktu urodzenia [name], urodzonego w [town] w [year] r." (Please search for the birth record of [name], born in [town] in [year]; for a woman, write urodzonej.) "Proszę o przesłanie skanu lub kserokopii pełnego aktu." (Please send a scan or photocopy of the full record.) "Proszę o informację, ile się należy za pomoc i w jaki sposób mogę za nią zapłacić." (Please tell me what I owe for your help and how I can pay.) Close with Z poważaniem, Yours faithfully.

Key lines in German

For a German registry office or archive, use the subject line Anfrage zur Familienforschung and open with Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren. Then: "Könnten Sie bitte eine Kopie der Geburtsurkunde von [name], geboren am [date] in [town], machen und mir zuschicken?" (Could you please make a copy of the birth record of [name], born on [date] in [town], and send it to me?) "Bitte lassen Sie mich wissen, was ich Ihnen für Ihre Hilfe schuldig bin und wie ich bezahlen kann." (Please let me know what I owe you for your help and how I can pay.) Close with Mit freundlichen Grüßen.

FamilySearch's Polish and German letter-writing guides give many more sentences, with their English meanings, for records of marriage and death and for questions about fees.

Which language to write in

National archives usually read English. Local offices, such as a Polish civil registry office or a German Standesamt, answer most readily in their own language, which is why the key lines matter. Expect the reply in the archive's language, and expect the record itself to be in another: the Jewish registers of Russian Poland were kept in Russian from 1868, Galician registers in Polish or German, and Catholic registers often in Latin, while Jewish entries may carry names or signatures in Hebrew letters. Have the record read in full before deciding what it says; how to get old letters read and translated explains how to find a translator.

Fees and payment

Most archives charge for searches and copies, and the amounts vary widely, from nothing at some institutions to large sums for a long search. Many reply first with what they found and what it costs, and send the copies once the fee arrives; others ask for payment in advance. Payment is almost always by bank transfer in the archive's own currency, and your bank may add a charge. Some families ask a relative in the country to make the transfer. Quote the archive's reference on every payment.

How long replies take

Archives answer on their own schedules. A small archive with a simple question may reply in a few weeks; a large one with a long queue may take many months; and some never answer at all. The Arolsen Archives publish their own figures: an average of five months for an inquiry, and up to thirteen. No one outside an archive can make it answer sooner.

If nothing has come after about three months, write again, briefly and politely, quoting the date of your first letter and any reference the archive gave. If there is still no answer, look for another way to the same record, such as a second archive that holds a copy. Meanwhile carry on with the rest of the research, and add the late reply when it comes.

Keep a log of every letter

After a few months of letters it is easy to lose track. A simple log shows which questions are still waiting on which archive, and later becomes the list of sources when the history is written.

Keep the replies, receipts and copies together, filed under the archive and the date.

When the letters are more than a family can manage

One request to one archive is within any family's reach. A family history usually needs many: registers in several countries, letters in Polish, German and Russian, fees paid abroad, and months of follow-up while replies come back in other languages and old hands. That is the work families most often hand over. A genealogist can take on particular requests, and how much a genealogist costs explains how that work is priced.

At Zichronos the letters to archives are part of every commission. We request records in writing and work from the copies archives send. Every message and reply is logged, and what comes back is read and translated in full. Requests go out at the start, and records that arrive after the book is printed go into an updated edition. Commissions begin at $10,000. Archive, copy and translation fees are included. How the example was researched shows that work from the first letters to the printed volumes, the examples page shows what a finished book holds, and How we work sets out the steps.

Sources: FamilySearch's Research Wiki on the archives of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Israel, on German civil registration, and its Polish and German letter-writing guides; the Polish State Archives; Gesher Galicia; the YIVO Archives; the Jewish Historical Institute; the Arolsen Archives. Checked October 2026.