Ukraine Civil Registration

Online Records
*1784-1879 - Ukraine, Select Births and Baptisms, 1784-1879 - Ancestry.com ($)

Offices to Contact
Civil registration offices exist at the local and regional levels. Copies of local registrations are sent to regional offices.

"Determine address of local Civil Registry Office. Ukraine is divided into 24 "oblast" (provinces), the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol. These are further divided into 490 secondary administrative units called "raion" (district) and "misto" (city). Each of these has its own Civil Registry Office, known by their acronyms "RATS" in Ukrainian and "ZAGS" in Russian." The Ministry of Justice provides links to the websites of all these offices on its website.

Ministry of Justice of Ukraine 13, Gorodetskogo Str. Kiev, Ukraine 01001 Telephone: +38 (044) 278-37-23 Fax: +38 (044) 271-17-83 E-mail: [mailto:themis@minjust.gov.ua themis@minjust.gov.ua] Application form

List of civil registry offices

Historical Background
The Bureau of Civil Status Acts (ZAGS) creates and maintains civil registration. The bureau is subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and is separate from the national archive system.

Registration of births must be done within two months of birth and deaths within three days.

Registration offices are collocated with "marriage palaces" permitting the registration and performance of weddings to occur at the same place and time.

Coverage and Compliance
Time period: 1920-present.

Population coverage: Low for the first decade of registration, then 85% thereafter. The civil war of the early Soviet period inhibited registration. For two years it was not enforced. The system was established first in urban and later in rural areas. Gaps persisted through 1926. Civil registration broke down in the occupied areas during World War II, and some registers were burned.

Information Recorded in the Records
Births


 * Date of birth, including time of day
 * Names of principal and parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Name of informant
 * Place of residence for parents

Marriages


 * Date of marriage
 * Names of principal and parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Names of witnesses for marriages
 * Places of residences of the groom and bride

Deaths


 * Date of death
 * Names of principal and parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Place of residence of the deceased
 * Age at death
 * Cause of death
 * Place of burial

In the Moscow regional office there is a card index to the registers. This suggests the possibility of other indexes existing in other registration bureaus.