Web Wednesday - Prudential Insurance

A few weeks ago I was looking on the Prudential Insurance website for a contact address when I came across an interesting find.

created by Julie Goucher Jan 2015 using Wordle

The Prudential PLC, one of the leading Insurance providers here in the UK had a rather substantial business in Poland before World War Two through a subsidiary company called Przezornosc of which Prudential had a controlling interest which had been acquired in 1927.

Przezornosc continued to issue life insurance policies in Poland until the end of December 1936 and Prudential Assurance continued to do the same between January 1933 and December 1936. From January 1937 both companies ceased to accept new life business and the administration for both of those branches merged.

Under the Nazi regime, the assets of Prudiential were ceased and they did not operate during this time. At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War there were more than 4,500 policies in existence, of which around half were settled during the early 1950's despite there being significant gaps in records due to destruction of documents under the Nazi regime.

Prudential has made some files available which might be of interest to genealogists and these can be access via the following links, all of which are on the Prudential website

• Policy Holders relating to Pre World War Two business
• Staff believed to have been employed by either the Prudential or Przezornosc in Dec 1936

The Prudential site which is specifically related to the Polish records can be accessed HERE with a link to contact the company if you have a potential claim (subject to documentation) or you were employed by the company.

Whilst none of my family surnames can be found on these lists, these are quite a unusual find for genealogists. The reality is that there could be policy holders, staff members or their descendants across the globe.

(Links accessed and checked January 2015)