Ukrainian State Archives

There are four state archives in western Ukraine with useful material for researchers. These are:

• the Central State Historical Archives in Lviv [Централний Державний Історичний Архів України м. Львів] (TsDIAL)
• the State Archive of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast [Державний Архів Івано-Франківської Області] (DAIFO)
• the State Archive of Ternopil Oblast [Державний Архів Тернопільської Області] (DATO)
• the State Archive of Lviv Oblast  [Державний Архів Львівської Області] (DALO)

There is useful information from a Jewish genealogical viewpoint in all these archives, including community records, correspondence, and information on the Holocaust-period in eastern Galicia.

Most of the bound volumes of vital records and censuses, including index books and loose vital records, though, are held at TsDIAL, in their Fond 701, Series 1. A few vital record books (largely duplicate books) are held at DAIFO, and a single set of Tarnopol Jewish marriage records from the mid-19th century, as well as the 1910 Jewish census of Tarnopol, are to be found at DATO in Ternopil.

There are 65 localities with Jewish Galician vital records in the Ukrainian archives, all but three from the eastern part of the former Galicia. The records from many of these towns have been indexed and put online now, as is indicated in the online inventory.

The earliest Jewish Galician vital record in the Ukrainian archives dates from 1789, and can be found in Fond 701, Series 1, File 305, Stanisławów Jewish marriages, 1789-1871. The latest record from a Jewish vital record book in the Ukrainian archives is a death record from Zbaraż, of September 30, 1942 (Fond 701/1/68). The Lwów cemetery burial register (Fond 701/1/376), though, has records to the end of December 1942.

The DALO archive contains a large collection of records from Lwów/Lemberg/Lviv and other towns in the former eastern Galicia. The records cover: the period before September 1939; the Soviet period (1939-1941), including vital records from this period (Fond P-3321); and archival material from the former Communist Party. Fonds 1-1262 from the pre-Soviet period include municipal, judicial, school, and other administrative records. In particular, Fonds 26 and 27 contain records from Lwów University and Lwów Polytechnic.

For Gesher Galicia’s inventory of Galician Jewish vital records and other types of records held in Ukrainian State Archives listed above, click here.