Belarus Compiled Genealogies

Belarusian Genealogy Tips

If you are starting out with very little family information, you may definitely be in for a challenge. As you begin your search, below are some tips that you may find helpful as you search for your Belarusian ancestors.

Consult other the pages in this Wiki and FamilySearch for specific references for help with maps, governates and voivodeships, church records, shtetls, gazetteers etc.

Helpful article from Ancestry Magazine- entitled "Research in Russia" covers some Belarusian genealogical research ideas.

Civil Records

To find civil records you need to know the Administrative Divisions of your ancestor's:

Voivodeship>Powiat>Gmina>Wies (Province>District>Town>Village)

or

Gubernia>Uezd>Gmina>Wies (Province>District>Town>Village)

Ecclesiastical Church and Synagogue Records

Jewish Synagogue Records 

To find records you need to know the name of your ancestor's shtetl (town).

Records for shtetls have been well documented and can be found on line through various sources.

Roman Catholic Church Records

To find church records you need to know the name of your ancestor's nearest large town where their parish church was located, the diocese and deanery.

Diocese>Deanery>Town where Parish Church was/is located> Parish Church Name*

The church ecclesiastical divisions are unlikely to be the same as the civil Administrative Divisions.*

The Chuch records page of Wiki FamilySearch Belarus has some links that may help you determine the correct diocese and deanery.

Orthodox Church Records 

see Belarus Church Records page

Changing Borders

Genealogical investigations can be challenging enough without the addition of the ever-changing political boundaries.There are many maps of Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and the Ukraine that can help in the understanding of how to locate the Voivodeship>Powiat>Gmina>Wies (Province>District>Town>Village) you need for civil records or for church records the shtetl or Diocese>Deanery> ParishTown.

Languages 

Belarus has areas that were once a part of Poland, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine. So, create a key to use that has the name of towns and villages that you are seeking written in Belarusian, Russian, Polish and English.-An online translator that will translate from and to cyrillic text will help with Belarusian and Russian translaions.

If you are a shtetl seeker, translate your towns into Yiddish.

Maps

Many maps that you will need for your research will be in Belarusian or Russian

Reference Texts

Helpful reference text will likely not be found in English. The most helpful texts that I found were written in Polish, Russian and Belarusian. An online translator and a lot of patience is essential. Also, several references were availabe in a pdf or djvu format which allowed text searches.

Church Records

Most of the records that you find will be in Russian, Polish or Belarusian. So, create a key with the spelling of the surname and given name (and all the variants) that you are researching. The names for your key should be in Cyrillic for Russian and Belarusian and in Polish using the Polish alphabet.

Janenowak 00:41, 3 January 2015 (UTC)