Ukraine Beginning Research

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Purpose
Understand the historical context, become acquainted with the best sources for genealogical research, the arrangement of records in an archive, and learn options to acquire information from the sources.

Gazetteers
ShtetlSeeker provides variants spellings and historical jurisdictions for places with Jewish populations which covers many places for all ethnic groups. URL: .

The basic gazetteer for historical Ukraine are selected volumes from Russian Empire postal directories: Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii [List of Populated Places in Imperial Russia]. S. Peterburg: Tsentralnyi Statisticheskii Komitet Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del, 1861-1885. 62 vols. (Fiche 6,002,224 / 420 microfiches). Identifies religious congregations.

One gazetteer for modern Ukraine is Ukrains'ka RSR admynystrativno-teritoryal'nii podyl [Ukrainian Republic Administrative Territorial Divisions]. Kiev, 1973. (Book 947.71 E5u). While published for other years, the 1973 edition is the basis for places in the FHL catalog.

An encyclopedia that provides historical details and names changes for places is Istoriia Mist i Sil USSR [History of Towns and Villages in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]. Kiev, 1969-1974. 26 v. (Book 947.71 E5i).

Galicia & Bukovina (Western Ukraine) Lenius, Brian J. Genealogical Gazetteer of Galicia. 3rd ed. Anola, Manitoba, 1999. (Book 943.86 E5L). Identifies religious jurisdictions.

German, Polish and Romanian versions of places names are provided by Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder ... vom 31. Dezember 1900 [Locality Dictionary for the Crownlands and Territories Represented in the Imperial Council]. Wien, 1905-1908. Bd. 12: Galizien, Bd. 13. Bukowina [Vol. 12: Galicia, Vol. 13. Identifies religious jurisdictions. URL: .

Polish places names and jurisdictios are provided by Skorowidz miejscowosci rzeczypospolitej polskiej [Listing of Localities of the Polish Republic] Bystrzycki, Tadeusz. Przemysl, 1934, 2 volumes. URL: . Need to download a viewer (called DJVu Browser) to see the images.

Transcarpathia Dvorzsák, János, comp. Magyarország Helységnévtára [Gazetteer of Hungary]. Budapest: “Havi Füzetek,” 1877. Identifies religious jurisdictions. URL: .

Maps
Austrian pre-WWI maps for western Ukraine. Generalkarte von Mitteleuropa [General Maps of Central Europe]. Vienna, 1898-1967. 249 maps. Scale 1:200,000. Cover southern Belarus, western Ukraine, and Moldova. This map set uses Ferro as the Prime Meridian, which is 17˚ 39' 44"degrees west of Greenwich. URL: .

Modern Soviet military maps, 1:100,000 are found at < http://mana.com.ua/>.