Our May meeting featured Polish genealogist, Tadeusz Pilat, MLIS, AG®, who presented the lecture, “Using Online Map Resources and Cadastral maps of Poland.” Tadeusz provided a brief history of the Josephinian and Franciscan land surveys on which the tax system in 19th century Galicia was based. Tadeusz explained the kinds of documents (operaty) and maps that were created as a result of these land surveys, and used examples to highlight the collections within the operaty that contain the most value for genealogists. Tadeusz demonstrated the use of the Alphabetische Verzeichniss (Alphabetical list of landowners) to connect house numbers (found in vital records from Galicia) with plot numbers on the map. He also provided information on where to locate maps and documents from land surveys, and introduced some additional map resources that go beyond cadastral maps.

Some of our attendees commented,

“My search is just beginning, but today’s presentation has inspired me to continue as far as I can go.”

“[I] love maps and look forward to using your info.”

“[The] speaker was very knowledgeable and entertaining (even humorous at times)!”

“Tadeusz is easy to listen to and he explains so much!”

“Loved this presentation! Learned a lot!”

The lecture recording and handout are now available on our Meeting Recordings page for members to access.