Eastward Bound

As in many places, vital records form the backbone of genealogy research in Eastern Europe. Once you’ve got an immigrant ancestor’s original name and place of origin, your next step is to check for births, marriages and deaths in church and civil registration records.

But your search should not end there, especially if these records are missing or incomplete. Many archives, libraries and volunteer organizations have other genealogically rich documents—some even digitized and available online—to help fill in the gaps in your family tree. Here are 13 overlooked resources you might be missing.

Since records (including those discussed here) are typically organized by location, you’ll need to know the county or province and administrative district. Be sure to check all parishes and archives, as well as the local registrar or mayor’s office in the ancestral town or village.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll define Eastern Europe as Belarus, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. Some of the resources listed here can also help with research in other parts of the former Austro-Hungarian and German Empires.

1 CENSUSES

In Eastern Europe, censuses were primarily taken for tax and military-conscription purposes. When present, they can reveal name, rough place of residence, and possibly age and income.

However, your search will be “hit or miss” depending on what region you’re researching in. Because of shifting borders, record destruction, and the general chaos of war, census records may have >. Select a country, then find the link for Census under Record Types.