While archives are closed to public due to the current quarantine, there are some positive developments in Ukrainian genealogy. I would like to highlight one of them, #CovidScansharing project, launched by Ukrainian genealogist Serhiy Fazulianov (СергійФазульянов). Its scope is to share digital copies of genealogy-related documents from researchers' private collections. Most of these records are not available online elsewhere.
The website is in Ukrainian language, but it is fairly simple and can be used with an online translator or basic knowledge of Cyrillic script.
The website features links to useful social network accounts and archive-related projects. But there are three most useful folders, which can be found just below the blue #CovidScansharing button:
ДРАЦС (Abbreviation of “Державна реєстрація актів цивільного стану”, Ukrainian for “Public civil registry”). This folder contains correspondence with civil registry offices concerning their holding of vital records, that are older than 75 years. The reason this is important is that many records that have exceeded their privacy restriction period are still held by civil registry offices of Western Ukraine (Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Volyn oblasts/provinces). Some of them have responded with a list of such records, clarifying the situation for researchers.
Описи (Ukrainian for “Inventory”) folder contains various catalogs/inventories of Ukrainian archives. This is an important resource, especially in Ukraine, where historically there have been many administrative changes, and thus, it is sometimes a non-trivial task to locate the needed documents. Unfortunately, not all archives have their inventories online on the websites, so having them available save a lot of time and energy.
Фонди (Ukrainian for “Archival collections”) contains scans of records, primarily vital records, as well as other types of documents. For example, from Vinnytsia regional archive it includes so-called “filtration cases” of the forced laborers in Nazi Germany and victims of 1930s Soviet repressions (I wrote about this type of records in this post). Also, I am particularly excited about the 1921 Census for Transcarpathia (Ukrainian: Закарпаття). This collection is not complete, but it covers a large part of this area. Inside this folder, the scans are organized by repositories, where they have been made. Among those, Central Sate archives of Ukraine in Kyiv and in Lviv, various state regional archives and others.
Although the collection is not large at the moment, I think this is a good start and I hope the project will continue to grow. Anyone can contribute to the project with their scans, by filling out a form here.
Hi! This resources looks very useful. I am researching Lyuta, Zakarpatska, Ukraine. Other than the 1921 Census (via the official link in your later blog post), have you seen anything from that village? Many researchers have told me that all records prior to 1895 are lost, but I am holding out hope!
ReplyDeleteHi Christine! It depends on the time frame you are looking for, your family's religion etc. There is a 1869 census at Uzhhorod archive, which is partly preserved, so it needs to be checked whether it is available for Lyuta. As for ecclesiastic records, Lyuta did not have its own churches in late 19th century. Its residents were registered in the neighboring parishes, depending on the confession. I can look it up for you if you send me the details at kinship@epoint.org.
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