Belarus Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources
See also: Russia Emigration and Immigration, Poland Emigration and Immigration, Lithuania Emigration and Immigration. Belarussians can be listed as from one of those countries in the records.
 * 1850-1934 Auswandererlisten, 1850-1934 (Hamburg passenger lists) at FamilySearch, images.
 * 1850-1934 Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 at Ancestry ($) index and images.
 * 1855-1924 Hamburg Passenger Lists, Handwritten Indexes, 1855-1934 at Ancestry ($) images.
 * Hamburg, Germany Emigrants at Findmypast ($) index.
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at Findmypast; index & images ($)
 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.
 * United States Immigration Online Genealogy Records

British Overseas Subjects

 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Malta, index and images ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, Malta, index and images ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials, Malta, index and images ($)

Finding the Town of Origin in Belarus
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in Belarus, see Belarus Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

Belarus Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration into Belarus

 * In 1242, modern-day Belarus joined the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania resulted in an economic, political and ethno-cultural unification of Belarusian lands. Of the principalities held by the Duchy, nine of them were settled by a population that would eventually become the Belarusians. On 2 February 1386, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland were joined.
 * The union between Poland and Lithuania ended in 1795 with the Third Partition of Poland by Imperial Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Belarusian territories acquired by the Russian Empire held until their occupation by the German Empire during World War I.
 * On 25 March 1918, Belarus first declared independence under German occupation, forming the Belarusian People's Republic. Immediately afterwards, the Polish–Soviet War ignited, and the territory of Belarus was divided between Poland and Soviet Russia.
 * The German occupation in 1941–1944 and war on the Eastern Front devastated Belarus. During that time, 209 out of 290 towns and cities were destroyed, 85% of the republic's industry, and more than one million buildings. After the war, it was estimated that 2.2-2.7 million local inhabitants had died. This figure represented a staggering quarter of the prewar population. The Jewish population of Belarus was devastated during the Holocaust and never recovered.

Emigration From Belarus

 * White Russian diaspora is named for the Russians and Belarusians who left Russia (the USSR 1918–91) in the wake of the 1917 October Revolution and Russian Civil War, seeking to preserve pre-Soviet Russian culture, the Orthodox Christian faith, It includes exiled former Communist party members.
 * The millions of Russian émigré and refugees found live in North America (the U.S. and Canada), Latin America with a sect of Pryguny or Molokans settled in Guadalupe Valley, Baja California in Mexico, even more went to Europe (The UK, Austria, Belgium, former Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Scandinavia, Switzerland and former Yugoslavia), some to east Asia (China and Japan), south Asia (India and Iran) and the Middle East (Egypt and Türkiye).
 * KNOMAD Statistics: Emigrants: 1,646,080. Top destination countries: Russian Federation, Ukraine, Poland, Uzbekistan, United States, Lithuania, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Italy, Moldova