Free guide · 8 min read
Ukraine
Church registers are kept in the state archive of each region, with second copies in Kyiv. A growing share is online, free.
Where the records are
Each region (oblast) has its state archive, and it holds the church registers of its territory, often from the 18th century to 1920. A second copy of most Orthodox registers was sent to the diocese (the consistory), so when a parish copy is lost, the consistory copy may survive. The Central State Historical Archives in Kyiv (TsDIAK) hold the records of central institutions and many consistory copies for the provinces west of the Dnipro. Western Ukraine, Austrian until 1918, has Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic registers in Lviv.
What is online
- Ridni: union catalogue of metric books. A society of Ukrainian genealogists lists which church register, yearly household list and tax census is kept in which archive, and which are digitised. Search by village, written in Ukrainian.
- ARCHIUM. Several state archives publish scanned files on their own ARCHIUM sites, free and without an account. Open the inventory, then the file, then page through it:
- Dnipro regional archive: catalogue of metric books. The Yekaterinoslav province registers from 1770 to 1934, with a digitised section. It shows a short browser check first.
- FamilySearch. Microfilms of many Ukrainian registers, among them consistory copies from TsDIAK, found by place in the catalogue. Several Ukrainian collections are indexed by name. Viewing images needs a free FamilySearch account.
How to order
Write to the regional archive with the place, the faith, the years and what you need. Archives answer requests from abroad, usually for a fee, and a search request is easier to answer when it names the collection and file numbers (fond and case).
Traps
- An Orthodox and a Catholic family of one village are in different registers, often kept in different towns.
- Village names were changed in the Soviet period and again after 2016: search the old name.
- Registers from 1918 to the 1920s are often in the civil registration archive, not with the church registers.
By country
- Start hereFind the place before the name, and six more steps. A 15 minute read.
- MoldovaBessarabian registers from 1812 to 1918 are in Chisinau.
- BelarusMinsk and Grodno hold most registers. Part is in Lithuania.
- LithuaniaMany registers are published online for free.
- PolandFor lands that were Polish between the wars. Many scans are online.
- RussiaRegional archives. Some sites do not open from outside Russia.