Search for Birth, Marriage, and Death Records
The primary documents (from 16 November 1918 to the present day) certifying a birth, marriage, or death are the state acts of registration. These were compiled by ZAGS (Offices of Civil Status Records) and are currently handled by RATsS (Civil Status Registration Offices).
All such documents created more than 75 years ago are required to be transferred to regional archives. Unfortunately, only a small portion of this vast collection has actually formed archival funds. This was caused not only by wartime events or natural disasters but also by the Soviet state’s interest in concealing the true scale of the Holodomor (the Great Famine) of the 1930s.
Post-war civil status records are stored in RATsS archives. All information from these documents has been entered into an electronic database; therefore, a simple enquiry to the RATsS is sufficient to discover if they hold the information you require. Subsequently, one can obtain certificates of birth, marriage, or death. Upon request, we can assist in obtaining the necessary certificates from both archival institutions and RATsS offices.
Searching for Records in Parish Registers
From the 17th and early 18th centuries until 16 November 1918, the registration of births, marriages, and deaths was the responsibility of religious institutions—including Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, and Muslim denominations.
In 1724, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved a unified format for keeping parish registers (metrychni knyhy). This format was mandatory for all religious denominations operating within the Russian Empire, which included a portion of Ukrainian lands. At the same time, other parts of our territory belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Hungary. Later, in 1772–1775, Galicia and Bukovina (and in 1795, the Chelm region) became part of Austro-Hungary. In 1793, the Kyiv region, Eastern Volhynia, Podolia, and the Bratslav region—and in 1795, Western Volhynia—passed to the Russian Empire.
These historical events resulted in the territory of Ukraine being divided between these states. Each region had its own specific characteristics for maintaining registers, differing in the language used (Russian, Polish, Latin, German, or Ukrainian) and the volume of information recorded. Generally, a characteristic feature of registers in both the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires was that they consisted of three parts: records of births, marriages, and deaths.
Information that can be found in them:
- Precise dates of births, marriages, and deaths;
- Identification of the parents of a newborn child (in Greek Catholic registers, a single entry can also identify grandparents);
- Identification of the parents (though not always) and the age of the bride and groom;
- Identification of godparents and wedding witnesses;
- Information regarding the social status of families;
- Details on the causes of death and the age of the deceased;
- The specific settlements from which individuals originated.
If the exact date (or at least the year) and the location of the event are known, a written request can be submitted to the archive. Most archives refuse to conduct more complex searches beyond this.
We are ready to assist in the search for the required data, provided that the sources are available in the archives and there are no restrictions on access. Such difficulties may arise due to document restoration or limited archival operating hours. We work with parish registers written in Russian (Jewish books were also duplicated in Russian), German, Polish, Latin, and Ukrainian.
Once the required information has been found (or if it is determined to be unavailable), an official certificate from the archive and a copy of the transcript can be obtained.
Searching for Families in Confession Scrolls, Revision Lists, and Population Censuses
Confession scrolls, revision lists, and population censuses are auxiliary genealogical sources used to supplement information found in parish registers (or as the primary source for lineage research if the parish registers are missing).
A characteristic feature of these documents is that they contain entire lists of families for a specific year, including the social status and age of every family member.
As a rule, confession scrolls (spovidni rozpysy) were compiled annually during Great Lent. Revision censuses (revizki kazky) were conducted from the 18th century until the first half of the 19th century, while the first and only census of the entire Russian Empire took place in 1897.