How to Hire a Polish Genealogist: What to Look For, What to Ask, What to Expect

If you’re ready to hire a Polish genealogist, you’re probably past the stage of browsing Ancestry.com and hitting dead ends. You know your family came from Poland — or from what is now Ukraine, Lithuania, or Belarus — and you want someone who can actually find them in the archives.

What a Polish Genealogist Actually Does (That You Can’t Do Yourself)

The biggest misconception Americans have about Polish genealogy research is that it’s just a matter of searching the right database. It isn’t.

Polish historical records span three completely different archival systems — Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Prussian — depending on which partition your ancestors lived in. Documents are written in Polish, Russian, Latin, German, and Ukrainian, often in 19th-century handwriting styles that require specialized training to read. Many records have never been digitized and exist only in physical archives across Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus.

A professional genealogist in Poland:

• Knows which archive holds records for your specific village and time period
• Can read original handwritten documents in multiple languages and scripts (including Cyrillic and Gothic German)
• Has access to records that are not available online — and in some cases, not available to foreign individuals at all
• Provides proper source citations, so every fact can be verified

This is not research you can replicate from a laptop in America, regardless of how many hours you spend on FamilySearch.

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The Difference Between a Researcher and a Professional Genealogist

Not everyone who calls themselves a genealogist offers the same level of service. Here’s what distinguishes a professional:

• Comprehensive project approach. A professional genealogist conducts research from scratch, building your family tree through original archival sources. This is fundamentally different from transcribing a record you already found, or helping you navigate a database. If you’re looking for someone to click through FamilySearch for you, that’s a different — and much cheaper — service.
• Written documentation. Every discovery should be supported by a copy of the original document, with a translation and explanation. A verbal report with no documentation is not professional genealogy research.
• Honest assessment of what’s possible. Good genealogists tell you upfront what records exist for your area and time period — including which records have been lost, destroyed, or are currently unavailable. If someone guarantees results without knowing your family’s specific village and religion, be cautious.
• Clear scope and pricing. Professional research is scoped before it begins. You should know roughly how many generations, which family lines, and what the cost will be before anyone starts working.

Questions to Ask Before You Hire

Before committing to a genealogist, ask these questions:

• What geographic areas do you specialize in? Polish genealogy is regional. Research in Galicia (southwestern Poland and western Ukraine) is very different from research in the former Congress Kingdom (central Poland) or the Polish-Lithuanian borderlands. Make sure the researcher has direct experience with your specific region.
• What languages and scripts can you read? If your ancestors lived in the Russian partition, records are in Russian Cyrillic. Austrian partition records are in Latin and German Gothic. A researcher who can only read Polish won’t get far with 19th-century documents from Vilnius or Lviv.
• What do I actually receive at the end? The deliverables matter. At minimum, expect: copies of original documents, translations, a family tree showing the discovered relationships, and a written narrative explaining what was found — and what wasn’t.
• What happens if records don’t exist or can’t be found? This is an important question. Records were destroyed in wars, fires, and occupations. A professional will tell you this upfront and adjust the scope and cost accordingly.
• What is your timeline and payment structure? Reputable genealogists work in stages, with payment divided across milestones. Be cautious of anyone asking for full payment upfront with no clear deliverables.

What Polish Genealogy Research Realistically Costs

Comprehensive Polish genealogy research — tracing one family line through original archival sources — typically costs between $1,500 and $4,000 USD for a first research phase, depending on:

• How many generations you want to research
• How many family lines (one grandfather’s line vs. all four grandparents)
• Whether the research involves archives outside Poland (Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus)
• The condition and accessibility of surviving records

This is not a small investment. But consider what you’re getting: access to records that most Americans have no ability to reach on their own, read in languages they don’t know, held in archives they can’t visit. The result is a documented family history that can be passed down for generations.

Researchers offering to trace your entire ancestry for $200 are not doing the same thing.

A Note on Geographic Scope: It’s Not Just Poland

Many Americans of Polish descent have ancestors who came from territories that are no longer part of Poland today. The village your great-grandmother called “Poland” may now be in:

• Lithuania — particularly for families from the Vilnius region
• Ukraine — for families from Galicia, Volhynia, or Podolia
• Belarus — for families from the eastern borderlands

This matters for genealogy research because archives in these countries are separate from Polish archives, may require different access procedures, and often require on-site researchers with local connections. Make sure your genealogist has experience — and working relationships — in these regions, not just in Poland proper.

Why It’s Worth Doing Right

The records you’re looking for are not getting more accessible with time. Some archives limit access to foreign researchers. Others are in the process of digitization that may take decades to complete. Oral family histories — grandparents who remember stories from the old country — disappear with every generation.

The right time to do this research is now, while the records still exist and the context can be properly documented.

When you’re ready to take that step, I’m here to help.

I’m Alan Jakman, a professional genealogist based in Poland with 10 years of experience researching families from Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. Every project I take on results in a complete, documented Family Chronicle — a narrative family history supported by original archival sources.