Krakow Censuses 1900, 1910 online (instructions)

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logan
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Krakow Censuses 1900, 1910 online (instructions)

Post by logan »

The Krakow Census of 1910 and part of the Krakow Census of 1900 are now viewable online for free, with (handwritten) name indices, thanks to the Malopolska Digital Library and the Polish State Archive in Krakow. The purpose of this message is to explain how to find people using the name indices. If you are looking for the 1890 census, which was posted online earlier, please click here for the slightly different instructions for that year.

Step 1: The census images are displayed online in the .DjVu file format, which your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.) probably cannot view by default. To view the images, you will need to install (once) a .DjVu plugin for your web browser. The plugin I use is available for free at http://www.caminova.net/en/downloads/download.aspx?id=1. Some Mac users have reported problems with this plugin, and might want to Google for other plugin options. If you have already installed a .DjVu plugin (e.g., to view images found here on genealogyindexer.org), you can skip this step.

Step 2: The census images are split into many groups, which are listed at (1910) http://mbc.malopolska.pl/dlibra/publica ... 4941&tab=3 and (1900) http://mbc.malopolska.pl/dlibra/publica ... 2489&tab=3. You might find it helpful to bookmark these pages. For a year that interests you, scroll to the bottom of the corresponding page, where you will see a list of items like:

Indeks do ksiąg spisu ludności miasta Krakowa z r. 1910, Litery A - B
Indeks do ksiąg spisu ludności miasta Krakowa z r. 1910, Litery C - D
...
Indeks do ksiąg spisu ludności miasta Krakowa z r. 1910, Litery X - Z

These are parts of the name index, divided alphabetically by the surname of the head of the household. To the left of each is a blue book icon and an orange square icon. The icons are (blue) links to images of the name index and (orange) links to library catalog data about each item. To start looking at the name index, click on the blue icon next to one of the index parts that includes a surname you are researching. For example, I am researching DEICHES in 1910, so I click on the blue icon next to "Indeks do ksiąg spisu ludności miasta Krakowa z r. 1910, Litery C - D."

An orange window may appear asking, "How to display content of this publication?" Make sure that the option "I have appropriate browser plugin (Let My browser handle publication's content)" is selected. Check the box marked "Remember my choice," and then click the "Show content" button.

Another orange window may appear saying, "To view this document you will need DjVu browser plugin..." Check the box at the bottom marked "Don't show this message again," and click the "Browse publication" link below it.

If your .DjVu plugin is working properly, you should see an image of a book cover, and, above it, a gray menu bar containing, among other things, a dropdown menu reading 1/X, where X is a number. For the part of the name index I opened looking for DEICHES, X=399, which means I am viewing image 1 out of 399 in this file. The images are roughly alphabetical, so guess where in the range 1-X your surname will appear and change the dropdown menu to that number to jump to the image. For DEICHES, I guessed 250, but that took me to an image beginning with DILLER. Refine your guess and/or use the arrow buttons next to the dropdown menu to move forward or backward to the correct image. On image 229, I found 15 DEICHES entries.

To the right of each line in the index are two columns containing numbers, "tom" and "liczba." The column "tom" indicates the volume of the census where the person/people in that line can be found in the entry numbered "liczba." For example, for the first line, DEICHES Aron and Franciszka, the numbers are 13 (tom) and 2098 (liczba). Write down both numbers for each name you want to find in the census.

Step 3: Return to the link in Step 2 that lists all the census images by group and, at the bottom, the parts of the index. Except for the index items, each item has a title beginning "Spis ludności miasta Krakowa" and ending with "T." followed by a number. For each name you are researching, find the item where the number after the "T." is the same as the "tom" number you wrote down in Step 2. For example, for DEICHES Aron and Franciszka in 1910, "tom" is 13 and the corresponding item is "Spis ludności miasta Krakowa z r. 1910, Dz. VII, T. 13." Click on the blue icon next to that item to begin viewing the census images. (Sometimes, the "remember my choice" options you selected when viewing the name index won't be saved, and you'll have to proceed through the orange windows again to get to the first image.)

For the 1900 census, not all volumes are online at the time of this message, so it is possible that you will not find a corresponding "T." item and will be unable to view the actual census images. Hopefully, these missing census volumes will be added in the near future.

The census images usually look like spreadsheets, with 10 rows below the headings. Some of the "spreadsheets" will be entirely empty, some will be partly empty, and some will be entirely full and include typewritten numbers on the left. You are looking for a page with typewritten numbers on the left, specifically the page containing the "liczba" number you recorded. In the DEICHES example, "liczba" is 2098, which appears at the bottom of image 442 (out of 752 in this volume). Since the images are ordered by "liczba" number, this should be a quick process. Also, you can make a good initial guess of the image number on which your "liczba" number appears by dividing the "liczba" number by 5 (2098/5=420). This is because each page with typewritten "liczba" numbers typically includes 10 numbers, and each of those pages is followed by a second page with additional census details, and there are relatively few empty pages or other types of pages.

Don't forget to turn to the next page to see the additional census details for your entry of interest.

Step 4: What next? Hopefully, someone else will post an explanation of the meaning of the census fields and other details about the census images. I am sorry that I do not have the time to do this myself. Please do not ask me to interpret census records or for help finding any individuals.

Please share any information about the censuses that might be of general interest, especially solutions to any problems you encounter.

Best regards,

Logan
logan
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Re: Krakow Censuses 1900, 1910 online (instructions)

Post by logan »

In case the Malopolska Digital Library links above are not working, you can also view these census images on another website:

1900: https://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/29/89/0 ... bJednostki
1910: https://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/29/90/0 ... bJednostki

Logan
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