Ukraine Beginning Research: Difference between revisions

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Understand the historical context, become acquainted with the best sources for genealogical research, the arrangement of records in an archive, and learn options to acquire information from the sources.  

To download this article in the pdf format click [https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/images/f/fa/Ukraine_Genealogical_Primer.pdf here].  

'''ShtetlSeeker''' provides variants spellings and historical jurisdictions for places with Jewish populations which covers many places for all ethnic groups. URL: <http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker>.  

''Transcarpathia''<br>Dvorzsák, János, comp. '''Magyarország Helységnévtára''' [Gazetteer of Hungary]. Budapest: “Havi Füzetek,” 1877. Identifies religious jurisdictions. URL: &lt;http://www.lib.byu.edu/fhc/index.php&gt;.  

Austrian pre-WWI maps for western Ukraine. '''Generalkarte von Mitteleuropa''' [General Maps of Central Europe]. Vienna, 1898-1967. 249 maps. Scale 1:200,000. Cover southern Belarus, western Ukraine, and Moldova. This map set uses Ferro as the Prime Meridian, which is 17˚ 39' 44"degrees west of Greenwich. URL: &lt;http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/digkonyv/topo/3felmeres.htm&gt;.  

Modern Soviet military maps, 1:100,000 are found at &lt; http://mana.com.ua/&gt;.  

The majority begin of these begin in the middle 18th century. Normally two copies were made, one local and the other a transcript sent annually to a central ecclesiastical or civil office. Metrical books consist of forms filled out annually, filed, and then bound into books. Over time they were filed in any order imaginable. Quite often the records of churches in a district for a single year are bound in the same volume. Most metrical books are found in state archives but ZAHS (civil registration) offices often have metrical books back to the beginning of the 20th century. These are normally the local copy of the metrical book. They are supposed to be transferred to state archives after 75 years.  

'''Baptist.''' Civil registration was mandated in 1879. Two copies were created, one for the provincial administration and the other for the regional police headquarters.  

The quickest way to identify families is revision lists, kept between 1719-1858 to support a national poll tax established by Peter I to change the basis of taxation from households to individuals. Encountering, opposition, it still took several years for the returns to come in. The 2nd revision (1743-1747) began after the ascension of Tsarina Elizabeth. The 4th revision, 1778-1787 was the first conducted by a local institution, the region fiscal chamber (''kazionnaia palata''). Revisions 5-10 were conducted during: (5) 1794-1808, (6) 1811-1812, (7) 1815-1825, (8) 1833-1835, (9) 1850-1852, (10) 1857-1859. The last three revisions noted familial changes between revisions. Separate vols. were kept for the different social classes: merchant (''kupchestvo''), urban citizen (''meshchane''), peasant (''krest'iane''), etc. Nobility, clergy, officialdom, army, and higher strata of the urban population were exempt–5 to 10% in the 19th century. Family lists and local census records 1860-1917, later equivalents of the revision lists, occur sparsely in archives.  

The 1897 census was the only universal census in imperial Russia, including Ukraine. It was conducted in the middle of the winter because this was the time when the populace was least mobile. The census tabulated information on name, age, sex, relationship, social class, occupation, religion, native tongue, literacy, birthplace, residence, registration site, military status, and disabilities. A copy was sent to St. Petersburg and was destroyed. Local copies have survived in Ukraine only for Kiev Province and for the Odessa City.  

The government instituted conscription 1874-1918. The drafting of selected groups began earlier but as of January 1, 1874, all 21 year-old males were subject to military service. Conscription occurred each year in October. The term of service varied from 3-5 years. Less than 50 percent of the draftees were inducted  

The gentry nobility assembly (''deputatskoe dvorianskoe sobranie'') was established in 1785 by Catherine the Great as the local governing body of the nobility. These books were compiled and turned into the assembly to confirm their hereditary status as nobles. They normally identify males only and relationships from father to son.  

During the period of Soviet rule, archives centralized and preserved a vast holding of genealogical sources dating primarily from 1721-1917. Since 1992, the Family History has acquired a substantial collection of these sources on microfilm and as digital images.  

Ukrainian genealogical records are filed by record group (''fond''); the records of a specific organization, portion of an organization, or individual. Archives also create collections in which records of different organizations or individuals are filed together on a thematic basis. Thus, vital records of different religions can be filed together. A single volume, file, or even a single sheet of paper is an item (''sprava''). Each item is given a title based upon the record type and contents. Items are usually filed chronologically by the earliest year of information found in that item. An inventory (''opis'') is a list of items in a record group or collection. The inventory identifies the title assigned to each item, the sequential number, and information on inclusive dates and number of pages. There may be multiple inventories for a record group, reflecting different types of material or different accessions of records for the same institution. As a result, each item is defined by three numbers: ''fond'', ''opis'', and ''sprava''. Later insertions are given an alpha designation after the number such as 21a, 21b, etc.