Dear Philip:

As you probably know, JRI - Poland has indexed many of the Jewish vital
records housed at the AGAD Archives. ALL of these Jewish vital records are
part of Fond 300, so identifying that Fond will not help the Archivists
prepare for you. I do not know what is included in Fond 424, but read on for
more information.

There is a sub-category of identification that will be helpful to the
Archivists in preparing for you. This is Sygnatura or Signature. This is a
unique number applied to a collection of a specific town's record. However,
each town's total collection will contain numerous Sygnatura. For AGAD
records that have been indexed, the Sygnatura/Signature is shown in a column
of the search results. Searching the JRI-Poland database will help you find
and copy the records you desire.

There are some Jewish vital records at AGAD that have not been indexed.
These are identified on our website at
http://www.jri-poland.org/agad/index.htm. You can search the AGAD Archives
web inventory for Fond 300 (sorry only in Polish) at
http://www.agad.archiwa.gov.pl/pomoce/Moj300.xml. Jewish records are
identified as "mojzeszowe." Births = urodzenia, marriages = malzenstwa,
deaths = zgony.

AGAD Fond 424 inventory is at
http://www.agad.archiwa.gov.pl/pomoce/am424.xml. Most of these are
identified as "akta luzne," which means loose records. Maybe a person fluent
in Polish can help us understand the contents of Fond 424.

You should write to AGAD a few weeks before your trip with the records you
want to research or obtain copies for (provide the town, year, type of
record, signature, and AKT). Most AGAD records have been microfilmed and
personal research is performed using those microfilms to protect the
original registers. Therefore, most, if not all, of the records you request
will be on site. There are Archivists at AGAD who speak English, but it
still might be beneficial to have a local interpreter to help you.

Mark Halpern
AGAD Archive Coordinator