Ukraine, Western Ukraine Catholic Church Book Duplicates - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Record
Україна, Західна Україна, Дублікати метричних книг католицької церкви

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, ultimate rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. The Ukraine, Western Ukraine Catholic Church Book Duplicates collection is available to the Family History Library, FamilySearch Centers, and to members of the supporting organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The images can be viewed at a FamilySearch Center near you.

Record Description
This collection of church records for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (as well as smaller segments for the Armenian and Roman Catholic Church) covers the years 1600-1937.

This collection includes indexes of baptisms and images of baptisms, marriages, and deaths for Catholics living in the parishes of Eastern Galicia (Galizien), a province of the Austrian Empire, now located in western Ukraine. The records are duplicates created by priests for the civil authorities. Austrian place names are used in the browse because the records pre-date the period when the area belonged to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the largest Eastern Catholic Church of its own law. The name Greek Catholic Church was introduced by Empress Maria Theresa in 1774 in order to distinguish it from the Roman Catholic and Armenian Catholic Churches.

Church registers were created by authorized church priests in order to record important events, such as baptisms, marriages, and deaths or burials in the life of its members.

For a list of records by religion, document type, and dates currently published in this collection, select the Browse link from the collection landing page.

Record Content
Baptismal/christening records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism/christening
 * Name and gender of child
 * Date and place of child's birth
 * Catholic or non-Catholic
 * Legitimate or illegitimate
 * Names of parents and their occupation
 * Names of godparents and their occupation

Birth records of the Russian church usually have the following additions:


 * Name, patronymic and surnames of parents
 * Parents' religion and occupation
 * Name, patronymic and surnames of godparents
 * Godparents' religion and occupation
 * Name of person performing the ceremony
 * Names of witnesses

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and month of marriage
 * Place of marriage
 * Name, patronymic, surname and age of groom
 * Groom's religion and occupation
 * Name, patronymic, surname and age of bride
 * Names of witnesses
 * Name of person performing marriage ceremony

Burial/death records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and month of death/burial
 * Name and age of deceased
 * Cause of death
 * Sometimes, parents names if deceased is a minor
 * Sometimes, name of spouse, if deceased was married
 * Name of person who administered confession/communion
 * Name of person who performed burial ceremony
 * Place of burial of deceased

Search the Collection
To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒ Select the "Religion" category ⇒ Select the "Place, Parish name" category ⇒ Select the "Event, year range (volume)" category which takes you to the images

Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes to baptisms, marriages, and death or burials make it possible to access a specific record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

When searching, the index it is helpful to know the following:


 * The place where the event occurred
 * The name and surname of the person
 * The approximate date of the event
 * The name of the parents or spouse

Use the locator information found in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to locate your ancestors in the records. Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

Using the Information
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family.

For example:


 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.
 * Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Keep in Mind

 * The information in church records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following:


 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Check for a different index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

For Help Reading These Records
These records are in Russian and Latin. For help reading the records, see the following wiki articles:


 * Russian Genealogical Word List
 * Russia Languages
 * Latin Genealogical Word List

Related Websites

 * Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
 * Ukrainian Catholic Church

Related Wiki Articles
Ukraine Church Records

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher, and archive for the original records.

The originals are in the L'viv State Historical Archive, Record group 201; series 4A; files 1-6081, 6083, 6085-6089, 6091-6126, 6128-7421.