Lithuania Genealogy

Europe Lithuania

Guide to Lithuania ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

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Getting started with Lithuania research

Lithuania existed as a state for more than five centuries until the Russian Empire absorbed it in 1795. Oriented toward the West, the Lithuanians fought tsarist repression for over a century, clinging firmly to their Roman Catholic faith, their language, and their cultural heritage. In 1918, after the Bolshevik revolution, Lithuania proclaimed its independence and the restoration of its statehood. The Soviet Union ended the brief period of independence when it occupied Lithuania in 1940 and retained its control after World War II. Lithuania proclaimed itself a free and independent state in 1991.

Jurisdictions

During the 14th century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe: present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1569 Poland and Lithuania formed a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772 to 1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania's territory.

Research Tools

• Baltic Genealogical Profile
• Online Vital Records
• Research Guide for Eastern Europe (Lithuania) by BYU
• Websites

Featured Content

Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the southwest. Its capital and the largest city is Vilnius (Vilna). Formerly, Vilnius was a seat of the Vilna Governorate or Government of Vilna, a governorate (guberniya) of the Russian Empire created after the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795.