Ukraine Beginning Research
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Finding the Town of Origin[edit | edit source]
In order to research your family in Ukraine, it is essential that you have identified the place where they came from. You must know the city, or town that they came from. In addition, the church where they worshipped, which might be in another nearby town, must be determined.
Important Tips[edit | edit source]
You must also know enough about the ancestor to positively identify him in the records. Dates (even if they are approximate), places, and familial connections are key to helping you decide if a person you find, who has the same name as your ancestor, really is your ancestor.
- Do you know the name of his/her parents?
- Do you know his/her birth, marriage, or death date or can you calculate an approximate range of years to search for his/her birth, marriage, or death?
- Do you know the name of the spouse? Did they marry before or after coming to the United States?
- Do you know the names of any of his/her siblings?
- Do you know the names of any children born in before the family emigrated?
Search Home Sources[edit | edit source]
Thoroughly go over all home sources available to you, including family history papers, copies of records, pictures, old letters (i.e. with an old address), family bibles, journals/diaries, copies of vital record certificates and church records, memorabilia etc. Interview extended family and close relatives as well as former neighbors--all of which may prove very helpful in gathering as much knowledge about an ancestor as possible.
- Collecting Previous Research by Others Part One: Home and Relative Sources
- Gather Family Information
Emigration Questions to Ask Relatives[edit | edit source]
Find the oldest living relatives that you can and ask them:
- What do you know about our first ancestor to come from Ukraine? (open-ended)
- Have you ever heard mention of towns in Ukraine where the family lived?
- Do you have contact with any relatives in Ukraine?
- Do you have contact with other branches of the family in other countries?
- When _____________ came from Ukraine, did he travel with other family members?
- Do you know when _________________ arrived and which port city?
- Did _______________ever become a citizen?
- Did_________________fight in World War I or II?
- When they first came, were there already family members here who they joined?
- Did_______________ever mention their parents in Ukraine?
- Were they Catholic or some other religion?
- Do you have any old letters or postcards from Ukraine family?
- Do you have any pictures of family members in Ukraine?
Search Genealogies Compiled by Others[edit | edit source]
- Collecting Previous Research by Others Part Two: Online Family Tree Collections
- Collecting Previous Research by Others Part Three: Digitized Books
- Collecting Previous Research by Others Part Four: FamilySearch Wiki Tools
Using Gazetteers and Maps[edit | edit source]
Once you find out the town or village where your ancestors lived, you will use gazetteers and maps to locate it. You will need to know the province and diocese where the town was located. There may be more than one town by that name. Your ancestors may have attended a Catholic church nearby but not in the exact town. Or the Greek Orthodox Church they attended is in yet a different nearby town. All of these situations can be resolved by studying gazetteers and maps. For help with this step, see the Wiki article, Ukraine Gazetteers and the tutorial, Using Maps and Gazetteers to Locate the Hometown (Ukraine Maps and Gazetteers, Ukrainian Research Series)
Before 1920: Church Records[edit | edit source]
Once you verify at least the region, and hopefully the exact town and parish, where your ancestors lived, you are ready to search church records, known as parish registers or metrical books (metriki). For instructions and links to records, you will now use the Wiki article Ukraine Church Records. The baptism, marriage, and burial records kept by churches are the major source of family information before 1920 when civil registration started.
Since 1929: Civil Registration[edit | edit source]
The government began keeping birth, marriage, and death records in 1920. For instructions and the application process, see Ukraine Civil Registration.
Research Procedures[edit | edit source]
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.
A film print is not always in the collection of the FamilySearch Library and you may need to wait a day or more to receive a copy. However, you order films in advance. Obtain call numbers from the Library catalog at FamilySearch. Russian is the primary language of the records but other languages are Polish, German and Latin. If the researcher identifies locations with the same name, he will need to track down the one in the appropriate jurisdiction.
When it is not in the FS Library collection, you must determine in what archive the records are housed. Besides Route to Roots, there is a key site for Ukraine is Archives of Ukraine.
Other websites are:
- Ukrainian Genealogical Research Bureau
- Lemkos
- Indexes Germans in Ukrainian records
- Genealogy of Eastern Galicia
- Genealab.com (Genealogy Research in Ukraine)
When visiting an archive, success depends largely on making prior arrangements so they know your purpose. Even then access is controlled by the disposition or mood of the archivist. Travel conditions and facilities are usually below Western standards. You may need a local guide/interpreter.
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
A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:
Ukraine Births and Baptisms - FamilySearch Historical Records
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