Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The records found in JRI-Poland’s database vary considerably in their level of detail:
- Indices, sometimes transcribed directly from the indices prepared by clerks in the 19th to early 20th century, may include only the names of infants, brides and grooms, and deceased persons, along with the year, record type, and sequential number (the akt number).
- Extractions may contain far more detail, such as the names of parents, spouses, and witnesses, ages, occupations, towns, and dates of recordation and events.
- In the earliest years of Congress Poland’s Napoleonic format vital records (1808-1825), the witnesses on birth, marriage, and death records were sometimes family members, whose relationship to the child, the bride and groom, or the deceased may – or may not – be stated on the records. In later years (1826 and later), the witnesses were generally community members, without any identified relationship to the child, the bride and groom, or the deceased.
- Information concerning occupations can be useful in towns where multiple men have the same or similar given names and surnames.
- Note, however, that the same person may be identified as having different occupations on different records over the years.
- The actual original records will contain far more information than that provided in the indices, and they typically will provide information in addition to that provided in the extractions.