NPRH

Between 2012 and 2018, as part of a grant awarded by the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities, a research project entitled The Population of the Historical Lublin County, 1594–1900, in the Light of Parish Register Records (grant no. 11H 12 0505 81) was carried out.
The research team consisted of:

• Dr. habil. Piotr Rachwał, Associate Professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) – Project Director;
• Dr. Dorota Bród (Rzeszów University of Technology);
• Dr. Janina Gawrysiakowa (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin);
• Rev. Dr. habil. Jarosław Marczewski (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; Archdiocesan Archive of Lublin);
• Dr. habil. Bogumił Szady, Associate Professor at KUL (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences);
• Dr. Dominik Szulc (Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences).

The research project pursued two primary objectives. The first was the cataloguing and digitization of early modern parish registers (created before 1797) preserved in parish archives across the Lublin region. The second was the use of data extracted from parish registers — specifically, figures on natural population movements — for research into the historical population of Eastern Poland. The creation of digital copies of parish registers and their online dissemination not only safeguarded these valuable sources from loss or deterioration but also made them accessible to a broader community of researchers.

The territorial scope of the study was determined by the boundaries of Lublin County as established around 1564. At that time, the area was served by 54 parishes, a number that had grown to 62 by the end of the 19th century. Given that the historical boundaries of Lublin County — as published by the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences (The Lublin Voivodeship in the Second Half of the 16th Century, ed. S. Wojciechowski, Warsaw 1966) — have been subject to scholarly debate, the designated research area should be regarded as approximate. Controversies primarily concern the division between Lublin County and Urzędów County, whereas the remaining borders were defined by natural features (the Vistula, Tyśmienica, and Wieprz Rivers, as well as the uplands of Western Roztocze).

The chronological scope of the research was framed by the earliest surviving parish registers (the oldest dating from Lublin, 1582) and extended to the year 1900. This terminal date reflects both source-related and demographic considerations: in 1897, the first and only general census of the Kingdom of Poland was conducted, and at the turn of the 20th century, significant demographic changes occurred, leading to a sustained decline in birth and death rates.

The research into the demographic past of the broader Lublin region enabled the estimation of key demographic indicators, including mortality rates and the reconstruction of the population’s age structure.
As a result, unique data were obtained, useful for constructing models describing the relationships between demographic systems, the environment, and economic organization. The published findings offer a foundation for further inquiry into Poland’s demographic past. The largest group of beneficiaries of the completed project comprises amateur genealogists and regional researchers, for whom the digital copies of parish registers constitute a primary source for discovering family histories, strengthening interpersonal ties, and fostering a sense of national and cultural identity and belonging.