Registration of Civil Status in the Second Polish Republic (1918 – 1939)
Registration of Civil Status in the Second Polish Republic (1918 – 1939)

Summary/Abstract: After years of non-existence the Polish country has regained its independence in 1918. The Second Polish Republic consisted of territories taken back from the three past invaders, which resulted in huge differences in law in each of the new districts. One of the best examples of such heterogeneity was the registration of civil status. Apart from varying Prussian, Russian and Austrian regulations, we could also distinguish separate provisions in the lands of the former Kingdom of Poland and the little area of Spis and Orava, what created the mosaic of five different legal orders in that field in one state. Only two of them were fully secular, the other three based to a greater or lesser extent on the religious parish records of births, marriages and deaths. The author outlines the five registration systems by presenting the provisions of the basic legal acts that were functioning in each of the five specified regions.

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