How to Search for Long-lost Ukrainian Roots in Ukraine

There are two approaches to searching for your long-lost roots in Ukraine:

1. Finding Ukrainian ancestry and sites in urban centers, such as Lviv, Chernivtsi, Drohobych.
2. Finding Ukrainian family roots in smaller rural communities of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Ancestry in Urban Areas of Western Ukraine

Looking for Ukrainian roots in larger cities of Western Ukraine has several important issues to consider. In terms of complexity, the task can be comparable to searching for Jewish and Polish ancestry in Galicia. Ukrainian urban population of Galicia made up less than one-third of the total city population of the region before WW2. Following the war, a large percentage of Ukrainian urban middle class left of its own will, was forcefully resettled or perished because of efforts by the Soviet authorities to stop resistance to the new Soviet order of life after the inclusion of Galicia, Bukovina, and Volhynia into the Soviet Ukraine. Consequently, chances of finding living relatives among today’s Ukrainian urban dwellers are low.

Ukrainian Ancestry in Rural Ukraine

If your ancestry is located in a rural town or village of Ukraine, finding your roots could be less complicated. Since rural population, as a poorer social class, was subject to fewer repressions from the Soviet government and remained less mobile, being attached to land, the chances of finding ancestry in Ukrainian countryside stand much higher. Often residents in smaller communities provide essential help in pointing you to the right house or sharing family history. The link to ancestry through living rural residents is gradually disappearing as the village population ages while younger generations move out in search of work.

Archival Records in Western Ukraine

Ukrainian ancestral records are comprised of Ukrainian Church vital records, school records and cadastral papers for communities in Western Ukraine. They can be found at the State Archives of Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi. The records are not always complete or may be split between various archives. A sizable portion of Ukrainian vital records was scanned and is available through English language ancestral websites or on microfilm.

Please also consider using our GENEALOGY SERVICES for assistance in finding your ancestry in Western Ukraine.