Ukraine Civil Registration

Online Records

 * Some civil registration records are available through FamilySearch. Check the Catalog first, then Images for your ancestors' location.
 * 1784-1879 Ukraine Births and Baptisms, 1784-1879 - free
 * 1784-1879 Ukraine, Select Births and Baptisms, 1784-1879 - Ancestry.com ($)
 * 1789-1905 Galicia, Ukraine, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1789-1905 - Ancestry.com ($)
 * 1918-1922 Ukraine, Sumy Civil Registers, 1918-1922 - free, images only
 * 1942 Rovno, Ukraine, Victims Killed in the Kostopol Forest, 1942 - Ancestry.com ($)

Offices
Civil registration offices exist at the local and regional levels. Copies of local registrations are sent to regional offices.

Determine address of local Civil Registry Office. Ukraine is divided into 24 oblast(provinces), the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol. These are further divided into 490 secondary administrative units called raion (district) and misto (city). Each of these has its own Civil Registry Office, known by their acronyms RATS in Ukrainian and ZAGS in Russian. The Ministry of Justice is organized along regional lines and provides links to the websites of all these offices on its website.

Ministry of Justice of Ukraine 13, Gorodetskogo Str. Kiev, Ukraine 01001 Telephone: +38 (044) 278-37-23 Fax: +38 (044) 271-17-83 E-mail: [mailto:themis@minjust.gov.ua themis@minjust.gov.ua]
 * Application form
 * List of regional judicial offices

Historical Background
The Bureau of Civil Status Acts (ZAGS) creates and maintains civil registration. The bureau is subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and is separate from the national archive system. Registration of births must be done within two months of birth and deaths within three days. Registration offices are collocated with "marriage palaces" permitting the registration and performance of weddings to occur at the same place and time.

Coverage and Compliance
Records begin in 1920. During the first decade of registration compliance was very low, but reached about 85% thereafter. The civil war of the early Soviet period inhibited registration and for two years it was not enforced. The system was established first in urban and later in rural areas. Gaps persisted through 1926. Civil registration broke down in the occupied areas during World War II, and some registers were burned.

Information Recorded in the Records
The following information may be found in these records:

Births
 * Date of birth, including time of day
 * Names of principal and parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Name of informant
 * Place of residence for parents

Marriages
 * Date of marriage
 * Names of principal and parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Names of witnesses for marriages
 * Places of residences of the groom and bride

Deaths
 * Date of death
 * Names of principal and parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Place of residence of the deceased
 * Age at death
 * Cause of death
 * Place of burial

The Moscow regional office has a card index to the registers. This suggests the possibility of other indexes existing in other registration bureaus.