For Birth Name of person born in Poland, should I use the Latin name or the Polish name?

Question

So if a person born in Poland is listed in church records with the given name "Adalbertus", should I use that name or the Polish "Wojciech" as their birth name in Wikitree? I specifically want to know what the Poland Project wants. Thank you.

Answer 1

For given names, use Polish.  It is the name your ancestor likely used.

In metrical records, priests used Latin for given names on birth and death events.  For marriage events, the priests used Polish names.  This was to facilitate marriage banns I assume.

Some Polish villages were Josephine Colonies setup by Joseph II and the settlers were typically German using Germanic given names.  Their children sometimes used Polish variants.  In metrical records, priests often identified these German settlers as "settler".

For surnames, follow Kevin's advice.  Be mindful of feminine forms of surnames.

Good luck.  It is all reparable.  Good for you to check for advice.

Comments

Thank you for your straight forward answer.  Before I edited profiles of my Polish ancestors, I wanted to know the correct thing to do, and now I know!  Great help!

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I thought about my quick answer and I think I should clarify.  The standard is to use the name that the subject of the profile would have likely used to formally identify themselves before marriage.  This applies to all profiles in Wikitree.

How is this applied in Poland?

It is very unlikely to be a Latin name unless maybe they were a member of the clergy.  I think using a Latin name out in the wider local community would be very unusual. (Example: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wojtyla-13)

So we are trying to identify what ethnic group the subject belonged to in order to translate a metrical record Latin name.

I typically research in Galicia.  My best clue as to the ethnicity of a profile subject is a marriage record for that subject or an immediate family member.  Frequently these will be Polish names and that's what I use.

Second best clue is probably surname.  If it is a Polish surname, I would use a Polish given name.  If it was a German surname, I would verify whether the village was a Josephine Colony and might use a German given name if I believed the subject was ethnically German.

The upshot is that the given name will likely be Polish, but there are exceptions.  In my experience it will be VERY unlikely to be a Latin name.

Answer 2

Please see this question and answer

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1497753/standard-for-polish-surnames

Comments

Thanks for the link.  I did a search of G2G questions, but did not find this one, since it is about surnames.  But the answer does address the given name issue that I needed answered. This was helpful!