Citizenship by Descent in Poland

This turns on one date: whether your ancestor was still in Poland on 31 January 1920. Find the year they left from ship manifests, arrival records or their naturalisation file, then retake this quiz.

If they were still on Polish territory on that day, when the first Citizenship Act came into force, they became a Polish citizen and there is something to inherit. If they had already gone for good, in the ordinary case they never held it.

On the Polish side, parish registers, residence registers and military records also help. A departure before 1920 is not always the end, because the Act reached some people through their right to be registered rather than where they were living.

If the family left well before independence, our diaspora route is likely to be the better one: it asks about Polish ancestry rather than Polish citizenship.

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