Places, settlements, border changes
Administrative borders in Ukraine changed many times, so the documents of one family lie in different archives and even states. Always determine the place at the date of the event, not by the modern region. The modern region says nothing about where the books are kept.
What to establish before searching
- The historical name of the village and its variants (Polish, Russian, Latin forms; villages were renamed and merged).
- The state and administrative unit for that year (table below).
- The parish (all parishes that could have served the village) and the family's religion.
- The archive and fond where the books are kept (archives).
- Neighbouring villages and parishes — the family could marry, baptize children or live beyond the parish boundary.
Who ruled the territory
| Territory | States and periods (abridged) | Administrative division seen in documents |
|---|---|---|
| Kyiv region, Volyn, Podolia, Left Bank, South | Russian Empire until 1917 | governorate → uyezd → volost → village; parish in a diocese |
| Galicia | Austria and Austria-Hungary until 1918, Poland 1919–1939 | crown land → district (Bezirk) → commune; court district; Greek or Roman Catholic parish |
| Bukovyna | Austria and Austria-Hungary until 1918, Romania 1918–1940 | district, commune |
| Zakarpattia | Hungary until 1918, Czechoslovakia 1919–1938/39, Hungary 1939–1944 | county (comitat), district, commune |
| Western Volyn and Polissia | Russian Empire, Poland 1921–1939 | Volyn Voivodeship (created 19.02.1921) → powiat → gmina |
| Soviet period | Ukrainian SSR | governorates abolished, okruhas in 1923–1925, oblasts from 1932; 1939–1945 Western Ukraine, Northern Bukovyna, Zakarpattia annexed |
Do not confuse: a voivodeship of interwar Poland is not the same as a modern state — some powiats of the former Lviv Voivodeship are now in Poland; and Zakerzonnia lost its population through the expulsions of 1944–1947, and the books of those parishes could end up in Polish archives.
An overview of the administrative division of modern Ukraine and its history is in Wikipedia.
Search rules by region
In more detail — in the regional overviews: Volyn, Galicia, Bukovyna, Zakarpattia, Centre and South.
- East and Centre: books of the Russian Empire and USSR: Orthodox metric books, revisions, Soviet records. Search by governorate, uyezd, parish.
- Galicia: look for a Ukrainian first in Greek Catholic books, then in Roman Catholic ones. Records in Latin books are written in Polish spelling (Wasyl instead of Василь, -czuk instead of -чук): search in the Latin alphabet too.
- Bukovyna: start with Orthodox books.
- Zakarpattia: Greek Catholic and Reformed books, Hungarian documents.
Where to find old names and borders
| Reference | Purpose | Link |
|---|---|---|
Predok: place and nearby |
parish, volost, uyezd, governorate of a village, its historical names, neighbouring villages and churches, the list of sources | Predok |
| Gemeindelexikon of Galicia (vol. XII) and Bukovyna (vol. XIII), census of 1900 | communes, districts, parishes and religious composition | GenWiki |
| Skorowidz miejscowości Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (1921–1923) | settlements of Poland by voivodeship, Polish and Ukrainian names | Volyn Voivodeship, Lviv |
| Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego | description of villages and parishes of the 19th century | article, digital version |
| Ukrainian SSR: Administrative-territorial division as of 1.09.1946 | all villages of the Ukrainian SSR in 1946, an index of new and old names | PDF, description |
| Schubert's map (Special Map of Western Russia, 1860s) | villages and uyezds of Volyn, Podolia, Kyiv region | scans in the Estonian archive, settlements layer |
| Maps of the Habsburg Empire | Galicia, Bukovyna, Zakarpattia of the 19th century | Mapire |
| Old maps | combined search of historical maps | Old Maps Online |
| A lesson on maps and gazetteers | how to find the home village | FamilySearch |
How to establish a village's parish
- Find the village in a reference for the needed year and see which parish it belonged to (Gemeindelexikon, diocesan reference books, Predok).
- Check the parish map: ua-parishes.
- List all churches that could have served the village, and also neighbouring parishes: a new church could take part of the parishioners, and a village parish sometimes did not coincide with the nearest church.
- Write the name of the village in all forms found in the reference books.
How Predok helps
Ask: "Which parish and uyezd did Oleske belong to in 1890? What does Predok have for this village?" or "Which parishes are near this village, and what sources does each have?". Predok distinguishes units of different periods: a 19th-century uyezd and a 20th-century raion are separate places, not one. Names and borders that are not in the database can be proposed for adding.