State archives hold various records of their historical values (category A.) in opposite to other records without or with infinitesimal searching values (category B.) Those records, which has been qualified to category B and being out of time, are getting for destruction.

There are different types of records qualified to category A, i.a. cartographic collections with plans and maps, records of the highest authorities and central offices, records of institutes and social, financial or cooperative organizations. Roman-catholic records and records of non-catholic denominations are also gathered (Important note! Birth records for the last 100 years and marriage and death records from the last 80 years should be preserved in particular Public Registry Offices). Furthermore, there may be found records of school and educational institutes, court files, notary deeds and books of the land property, as well as a private collection.

After destroying most of the archival records, the process of City Archive resurrection and reconstruction was started. In the beginning, collecting of all preserved historical records avoided the war destruction started. It was impossible to reconstruct most of the city records from XIX and XX c. (the oldest records up to the end of XIX c. which refer to Warsaw history currently are stored in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw), but with the help of different gifts and purchases, it was allowed to fill many historical lacks using various archival sources.

Most interesting and precious documents belong to Russian administrative units of various ranks (including records of Warsaw Government, Chancellery of Warsaw Governor, records of Empire Warsaw University, Polytechnic Institute, the office of the Head of Police in Warsaw). Books of the land property and notary deeds seem to be another important historical source (i.a. will of Hugo Kollataj and prince Jozef Poniatowski), which can determine also the ownership status of various mortgages. More than 2500 books of civil records bring a lot of information about old Warsaw residents and contain main database for genealogy research. Very precious is another collection of Warsaw plans and maps starting from 1762, including spectacular Lindley’s plans.

From the debris of the old town hall, some part of the commissary Warsaw mayor’s files from the period of the German occupation were recovered. Finally, priceless for the world heritage are the records of Biuro Odbudowy Stolicy (Warsaw Rebuild Office,) which report the whole process of Warsaw reconstruction.
Branches of the State Archive of Warsaw have also a lot of interesting archival records as important sources for various regional research.

The State Archive in Warsaw (with branches) in numbers (date is actual for the end of December 2015):
7919 archival funds;
2 628 805 archival units;
46 492,58 running meters.