Record Atlas
6 eras · 1200–2026 · 563 places

Galicia

Kraków, Tarnów, Przemyśl, Lwów (Lviv), Tarnopol (Ternopil). Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1772–1918 — THE TRAP, AND IT IS A THREEFOLD ONE. From 1784 Austria made the parish priest the civil registrar and required THREE PARALLEL SERIES — Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Jewish — each kept by its own congregation. A family can appear in more than one and searching only the Roman Catholic books misses half of eastern Galicia. The Jewish series is JewishGen's ground, not the Catholic archives'.

1945–2026 — THE SECOND TRAP. The border of 1945 cut Galicia in half and its archives with it. Records west of the San are at Przemyśl and Kraków; east of it they are at Lviv and Ternopil, in Ukraine, catalogued in another language under another system. One province, two countries, two catalogues, and no cross-reference between them.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1200–1340 Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia no registers survive

Before registers anywhere.
1340–1772 Poland — the Crown lands Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD) · FamilySearch

Roman Catholic registers in Latin, Greek Catholic in Cyrillic, kept by each parish.
1772–1918 Austria — Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD) · Szukaj w Archiwach · FamilySearch · ANNO — Austrian Newspapers Online · JewishGen

THE TRAP, AND IT IS A THREEFOLD ONE. From 1784 Austria made the parish priest the civil registrar and required THREE PARALLEL SERIES — Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Jewish — each kept by its own congregation. A family can appear in more than one and searching only the Roman Catholic books misses half of eastern Galicia. The Jewish series is JewishGen's ground, not the Catholic archives'.
1918–1939 Poland — Second Republic Szukaj w Archiwach · Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD) · Geneteka
1939–1945 German and Soviet occupation Arolsen Archives · Yad Vashem — Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names

Galician Jewry is destroyed in these years. Arolsen and Yad Vashem hold what the parish registers stopped recording.
1945–2026 Poland west of the San; Ukraine east of it Szukaj w Archiwach · Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (AGAD) · FamilySearch

THE SECOND TRAP. The border of 1945 cut Galicia in half and its archives with it. Records west of the San are at Przemyśl and Kraków; east of it they are at Lviv and Ternopil, in Ukraine, catalogued in another language under another system. One province, two countries, two catalogues, and no cross-reference between them.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1200–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

563 places on this ground

The 200 carrying the most collections are listed; 363 more stand on this ground. Every place has them all.

43 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

All record regions · The map