What was Galicia?
Galicia (officially the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) was a province of the Austrian Empire, later Austria-Hungary, from the first partition of Poland in 1772 until 1918. Today its territory lies mostly in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. It had Polish, Ukrainian (Ruthenian), and Jewish populations, among others. Because the area was ruled from Vienna, its records follow the Austrian system, even though they are now held in Poland and Ukraine. This Galicia is not the Spanish region of the same name.
When did birth records begin?
Parish registers existed earlier in many places, but Habsburg rules in the 1780s standardized how clergy kept birth, marriage and death registers, and records in a form recognizable today are often found from that period. Jewish records exist as well, with the earliest generally appearing in the early 19th century and some indexes reaching back further. Survival differs by town, so a missing early book is not unusual.
Records were kept by religion
Birth records were organized by faith:
- Roman Catholic
- Greek Catholic (Ukrainian)
- Orthodox, in smaller numbers
- Jewish (metrical books)
Jewish births were in many places recorded in registers tied to the local Catholic parish for periods, so a family may appear in more than one place. Search the register of your family’s religion, then consider neighboring registers.
Find the town first
Use the Austrian-era name of the town when searching historical databases, not only today’s Polish or Ukrainian spelling. Many towns have German, Polish, Ukrainian and Yiddish names. Sources that name the town include passenger lists, naturalization papers, military records and death certificates. A gazetteer can help you find the parish and the district. For the Polish side of the same region, see our Polish genealogy research guide, and for the Ukrainian side see Ternopil Ukraine birth records.
Where to search online
- Gesher Galicia’s All Galicia Database is a free database with a large number of indexed records, including Jewish and other vital records.
- FamilySearch has catalog entries and digitized collections for Galicia.
- Ancestry and MyHeritage offer collections of Galician Jewish vital records.
- Polish archive portals, including Szukajwarchiwach, make scanned registers from State Archives available.
- JewishGen hosts databases that include Galician records.
Indexes are partial and spellings vary, so try different forms of surnames.
Archives in Poland and Ukraine
Which archive holds a register depends on where the town is today.
- Poland: Older records are generally held by State Archives, such as in Krakow, Rzeszow, and Przemysl, and by the central archive AGAD in Warsaw, while newer ones are held by local civil registry offices.
- Ukraine: The Central State Historical Archive in Lviv and regional archives hold older registers, and local offices hold recent ones.
Time limits for restricted records differ and change, so check with the archive before making a request. Provide the town, year, names and religion.
Census and cadastral records
Census records can supplement a missing birth entry. Austria took censuses in Galicia starting in 1857, with later rounds in the following decades. Surviving returns are scattered and incomplete. The forms asked for birth year, birthplace, religion, language, and occupation, so they are useful for confirming relationships. Land (cadastral) records can also place a family in a village.
Getting an Austrian birth certificate
People sometimes ask how to get a birth certificate in Austria. That is a different task from historical research: modern certificates are issued by Austrian local registry offices (Standesamt) to entitled applicants. Historical Galician records are for the most part not held in Austria; they are held in Poland and Ukraine, with some indexes online.
Where were Galician Jews from?
Galician Jews lived in the towns and villages of the province, which is now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. Many emigrated to the U.S. and elsewhere in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Look for specific town names in family documents, and use JewishGen and Gesher Galicia resources. DNA can add clues too; see the best DNA test for Jewish ancestry.
Common problems
- Town name differences across languages.
- Registers split by religion.
- Handwriting in Latin, German or Polish.
- Gaps and losses in records.
Related guides
For another Austrian crown land, see our guide to Bohemian birth records. For Prussian-era German records, see Posen birth records and Pommern birth records.
FAQ
Where do I find Galicia birth records?
Search the Gesher Galicia database, FamilySearch and Ancestry first, then the archives in Poland or Ukraine that hold the original registers.
Why are records divided by religion?
Austrian law made each religious community responsible for its own registers.