Sources
Each source shows a person at one moment and from one side. That is why sources are compared: a metric record gives the date of an event, a confession list the composition of a family in a particular year, a revision the family and age over several decades.
Overview
| Source | Approximate years | What it gives | Where to look |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metric books | from the end of the 18th century, in Galicia in places from the 1600s, to the 1930s–40s | births (baptisms), marriages, deaths (burials): names, parents, godparents, witnesses | archives: fonds of spiritual consistories |
| Confession lists | 18th — early 20th century | all parishioners by house: family composition and age in a particular year | the same fonds, often next to metrics |
| Revision lists | 1719–1858 | poll-tax censuses: family, age, estate, affiliation | regional and central historical archives |
| RAGS (DRAGS) records | from 1919 | civil registration of births, marriages, deaths | DRAGS departments (up to 75 years), state archives (older than 75 years) |
| Other documents | various | military, land, court, repressed persons, emigration | archives, memory databases, diaspora |
The choice of source depends on three things: the place (the state at the time of the event — places), the religion (each confession kept its own books) and the years.
How to understand a source's call number
Each book in an archive is identified by a call number "fond — inventory — file". How to find and record it is in the section archives.
Languages and scripts
Documents are written in Cyrillic (pre-reform spelling), Polish, Latin, German. FamilySearch learning materials are freely available for reading:
- Russian alphabet and reading Russian documents
- Latin handwriting
- German paleography
- Ukrainian genealogical word list and Russian
Rules for transcription: names and places — as in the document, with an explanation in a note; mark an illegible word [illegible], do not skip it; learn the scribe's hand from repeated letters.
How Predok helps
Predok collects a list of files with call numbers for a place and years. Ask: "Which sources exist for the village of Oleske? Are scans online?" — and you get a list of files by year with links.