Ukraine Church Records

Ukraine

Church Records

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For information about records for non-Christian religions in the Ukraine, go to the Religious Records page. Also, see Ukraine Jewish Records.

Online Resources and Websites

• 1784-1879 - Ukraine, Births and Baptisms, 1784-1879 at FamilySearch Index. Incomplete.
• 1784-1879 - Ukraine, Select Births and Baptisms, 1784-1879 at Ancestry.com, ($). Index. Incomplete.
• 1784-1879 - Ukraine, Births and Baptisms, 1784-1879 at MyHeritage.com, ($). Index. Incomplete.
• 1650-1920 - Ukrainian Citizens Database Births 1650-1920, index, incomplete. Birth registers, fiscal and parish censuses, lists of nobility, voters, the military, and victims of repressions, address directories.
• 1600-1937 - Ukraine, Western Ukraine Catholic Church Book Duplicates, 1600-1937 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1734-1930 - Ukraine, Kyiv Orthodox Consistory Church Book Duplicates, 1734-1920 at FamilySearch — index and images
• 1840-1845 - Ukraine, Kyiv Orthodox Consistory Church Book Duplicates, 1840-1845 at MyHeritage.com, ($). Index. Incomplete.
• 1799-1911 - Ukraine, Kiev Confession Lists, 1799-1911 at FamilySearch — partial index and images
• Volhynia Vital Records, Index. Incomplete.
• 1703-1953 - Virtual Archives of Polish Armenians -- index and images of Armenian Catholic church records from Chernivtsi, Horodenka, Kuty, Sniatyn, Stanisławów, Suceava, Tyśmienica, and Zolochiv.
• Some Greek Orthodox and and Roman Catholic Church records are online at: Genealogy of Halychyna.
• Genealogy of Halychyna/Eastern Galicia, gateway to Galician vital records. Many of the records of Polish, Lutheran and Jewish records from localities now located in Ukraine were moved westward to Polish archives following the border changes occurring at the end of the Second World War.

• Raduraksti: Evangelical Lutheran Parishes ouside the Latvian territory  (Includes some records for Lviv, Ukraine. Requires free registration to Raduraksti.)
• Ukraine, Donetsk Church Books, 1809-1928 at FamilySearch — partial index and images
• Volkynia, Kiev, and Podolia Lutheran Parish Registers. Index. Includes several other parishes in the region.
• Polish “Archival resources online”. Instructions. Includes records from Polish regions now in Ukraine.

• Germans from Russia Indexing: St. Petersburg Lutheran records - St. Petersburg Lutheran records specifically applicable to Ukraine and Moldova regions of today.

• British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms at FindMyPast.com, index and images, ($)
• British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, at FindMyPast.com, index and images, ($)
• British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials at FindMyPast.com, index and images, ($)

Availability of Records

Vast holdings of church records for Ukraine are preserved in archives today. The church records are primarily from 1721 to 1917. Contrary to popular belief, church records were not systematically destroyed in the former Soviet Union, but they were centralized and preserved in government archives.

Many Christian churches existed in Ukraine for which records exist today, including Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic (Uniate), Lutheran, Mennonite, Armenian Catholic, and some others.

Church records for many areas have been microfilmed by FamilySearch and some have been digitized. Many other websites have also published indexes of church records. See below for links to selected online resources for church records and church records indexes. For information about microfilm records available from FamilySearch, search by place in the FamilySearch Catalog.

Metrical Books (Parish Registers)

These records can be used to uniquely identify individuals and link multiple generations over time. Transcripts are difficult to research because generally all parishes in a district are filed together for each year. Consequently, a researcher must refer to many volumes to identify the entries for a single parish.

These church records were kept by parish priests of births/baptisms, marriages, and deaths/burials. The term is also used to refer to the records of denominations that had jurisdictions other than parishes. The Church acted as both a religious and civil agent in recording vital events and church sacraments such as baptism and burial. Peter the Great mandated the keeping of Orthodox church registers in 1722. The format was standardized in 1724. Printed forms were introduced in 1806. In 1838 a format was introduced that prevailed until 1920 when civil registration began. Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran books may exist for earlier dates than Orthodox records. The priest made a transcript for the ecclesiastical court (dukhovnaia konsistoriia) having jurisdiction. Jewish transcripts were filed with the local town council (gorodskaia duma). Old Believer and Baptist transcripts were sent to the provincial administration (gubernskoe upravlenie). The distinction between the original and the transcript is often ignored by Ukrainian record keepers.

In general, records begin approximately at these times: Orthodox, 1722; Greek Catholic, 1607; Roman Catholic, 1563 (transcripts begin in 1826); Evangelical/other Protestant, 1641 (transcripts begin in 1833); Muslim, 1828; Jews, 1835; Old Believers, 1874; Baptists, 1879–all to about 1930.

Records can be found at the state archives and civil registration offices. Population coverage varies by time and cultural group. Earliest records cover about 70% of the population, 90% from about 1830 through the destruction of most churches in the 1930s, 50% among minority religions and dissident groups such as Old Believers and Baptists.

In 1825 the Holy Synod, the governmental body over the Orthodox Church, ordered bishops to eradicate bribery of priests to falsify the books, suggesting that this problem existed. Ethnic minorities avoided registration to avert military service later in life.

Confession Lists

These records contain lists of members of orthodox parishes attending Easter confession. Attendance at confession and communion was required of the family members over the age of seven. These records can be used to identify family groups and person's ages. They are easier to use than the revision lists because they include all classes of society. They are also a metrical book substitute. Sometimes they are interfiled with metrical books in a record group or collection. Records begin in approximately 1723 and were kept until about 1930. Records can be found at the state archives.

The lists contain the name of the head of household, family members (including children not attending confession), their ages and relationship to head of household, residence (number of house or other identification), and whether or not they attended confession.

Information Recorded in the Records

Different denominations, different time periods, and practices of different record keepers will effect how much information can be found in the records. This outline will show the types of details which might be found (best case scenario):

Baptisms

In Catholic and Anglican records, children were usually baptized a few days after birth, and therefore, the baptism record proves date of birth. Other religions, such as Baptists, baptized at other points in the member's life. Baptism registers might give:

baptism date the infant's name parents' names father's occupation

status of legitimacy occasionally, names of grandparents names of witnesses or godparents, who may be relatives

birth date and place the family's place of residence death information, as an added note or signified by a cross

How to Find Records

Digital Copies of Church Records in the FamilySearch Catalog

Watch for digitized copies of church records to be added to the collection of the FamilySearch Library. Some records might have viewing restrictions, and can only be viewed at a Family History Center near you, and/or by members of supporting organizations. To find records:

a. Click on the records of Ukraine.

b. Click on Places within Ukraine and a list of towns will appear.

c. Click on your town if it appears, or the location which you believe was the parish which served your town or village.

d. Click on the "Church records" topic. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.

e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the listing for the record. . The magnifying glass indicates that the record is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the records.

Writing for Records

You will probably need to write to or email the national archives, the diocese, or local parish priests to find records. See Russian Letter Writing Guide for help with composing letters.

• Maps.me Church Listings for Ukraine
• Google Maps search results for churches in Ukraine Be sure to scroll through all the pages. There will be several pages with 20 entries each.

Marriages

Marriage registers can give:

the marriage date the names of the bride and groom indicate whether the bride and groom were single or widowed their ages

birth dates and places for the bride and groom their residences their occupations

birthplaces of the bride and groom parents' names (after 1800) the names of previous spouses and their death dates names of witnesses, who might be relatives.

Burials

Burial registers may give:

the name of the deceased the date and place of death or burial the deceased's age place of residence

cause of death the names of survivors, especially a widow or widower deceased's birth date and place parents' names, or at least the father's name

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