Records for a citizenship case
My ancestor came from the Kresy. Records from Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine
Before 1939 the eastern lands of Poland, the Kresy, reached Vilnius, Grodno and Lviv. Today those towns are in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Most of their parish registers are there too.
We know the Vilnius region best. We have read registers of the Podbrzezie, Święciany, Mielegiany and Komaje parishes in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (LVIA) in Vilnius. The oldest Komaje register we have read, baptisms from 1715 to 1746, is kept in the National Library of Belarus in Minsk.
Where the records are
- Lithuania: parish registers and their yearly transcripts in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius. Many of them are scanned and can be viewed on epaveldas.
- Belarus and Ukraine: registers in the state archives in Minsk, Grodno, Lviv and Kyiv. Part of them is scanned, mainly on FamilySearch. Part can be seen only in the reading room.
- Poland: some registers from these lands were brought west after 1945 and are kept in Warsaw.
Languages and place names
Registers from these lands are in Latin, Polish and Russian, sometimes on the same page. A place can have a Polish, a Lithuanian, a Belarusian or a Ukrainian name. Old maps use yet another form. We give every place under its old name and its present one, as on our parish pages.
What we can do from here
Where the scans are online we read them ourselves and deliver the record with a clipping, the original text, a translation and the archive reference. Where a register can be seen only in the reading room, we tell you so at the free assessment, before you pay.
What a record looks like in our report
Baptism of Rachela Antonina Markowicz, 23 September 1787
Original text (Latin)
Niemęczynka. 78. Die 23 7bris Ego idem qui supra Baptizavi Infantem nomine Rachaelem Antoninam natam die 20 huius Patris Bartholomaei Markowicz et Matris Annae Baniewiczowna Legit. Con. Lev. de Sacr. fonte Carolus Miecichowski cum Constantia Jurewiczowa.
In English
Village of Niemenczynka. Record 78. On the 23rd of September I, the same priest as above, baptised a child named Rachela Antonina, born on the 20th of this month, daughter of the lawful spouses: the father Bartłomiej Markowicz with the mother Anna Baniewicz. The godparents at the holy font were Karol Miecichowski with Konstancja Jurewicz.
Archive reference
LVIA, fond 3007, inventory 15, file 1, record 78 of 1787.
More about this parish: Podbrzezie (Paberžė) parish near Vilnius
Tell us where in the Kresy your family lived
Send the ancestor's name, the parish or village as your family remembers it and the approximate years. The first assessment is free.