The 'Kataster' Records
The Kataster is the most comprehensive set of information on the inhabitants of
Krakow for the period between approx. 1850 and 1945. The Kataster is a complete registration
of all people in Krakow. It is similar to a census, but was done continuously, and
corrections and updates were periodically made to the Kataster. After the war, it was
replaced by the 'address registration' or 'urzad meldunkowy'.
The database comprises about 100 boxes of record cards, arranged alphabetically. Each
box contains about 1,000 cards. There are thus about 100,000 records in total and we estimate the
Kataster to contain about 50,000 to 60,000 Jewish records. The records include not only BMD
information, but also professions, addresses, birth places, places of marriage,
and many other comments (e.g.. 'ritual wife of etc'), and comments about
children. In many cases, one can find the data of three generations back in the
'remarks section' for the given person. Such information, especially in cases
where the city of origin is mentioned, might be the only source available. Take a look
at this example of a typical Kataster record.
This database is certainly the largest and most comprehensive database on Krakow Jewry, and
it is of vital importance since it shows the development of the Jewish families in Krakow for
almost a century, where they came from, and where they went. There are several other, smaller,
sets of records for this 100-year period, but this comprehensive Kataster database will probably
make these other smaller record sets redundant.
The fields available to Shoreshim members are:
Archives Reference: (Sig.)
Document Number: (Names with the same number appear on the same document) This number is generated by Shoreshim and has nothing to do with the Krakow Archives.
Status: (H = head, W = wife, C = child, S = single)
First name & last name
Maiden name (or previous name)
Birth date
Birth place
Marriage date and place
Profession
Address
Comments
The original documents often contain additional information. Check our FAQ utility to see how to obtain copies of the original document - and hence ALL of the information.
