Bukovina, Austro-Hungarian Empire Genealogy

Guide to Bukovina  ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Historical Geography
Bukovina (Bukowina) is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains. It was the easternmost crown land of the Austrian empire from 1775 to 1918. Bukovina became part of Romania after World War I. The region north of the Sereth River was occupied by Soviet forces in 1940 and is now under Ukrainian administration. Southern Bukovina remains within Romanian jurisdiction. It is called Bukowina or Buchenland in German, Bukowina in Polish, Bucovina in Romanian, and Bukovyna in Ukrainian. It is currently split between Romania and Ukraine.

The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became Austrian Empire in 1804, and Austria-Hungary in 1867. Its population grew rapidly as people of various ethnic backgrounds were attracted to the Austrian Empire by its relative religious tolerance and relaxed feudal obligations.

Nowadays in Ukraine the name is unofficial, but is common when referring to the Chernivtsi Oblast as over 2/3 of the oblast is the northern part of Bukovina. In Romania the term Northern Bucovina is sometimes synonymous to the entire Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine, and (Southern) Bucovina to Suceava County of Romania. (Bukovina, Wikipedia)

Research Help
To identify historical civil and religious jurisdictions for this area, use volume 13 of the Austrian Empire Gemeindelexikon (1900) or the 1914 list of places for Bukovina (starts on image 230).

For help with genealogy in this region, see Romania Genealogy and Ukraine Genealogy.

Online Records
Romania Online Genealogy Records Ukraine Online Genealogy Records Ask the Community

For Austria-Hungary Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Town

 * To begin using the records of the countries formerly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, just knowing that your family came from the country will not be enough. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know the town they lived in.
 * Details about the town will also help:
 * the county of that town,
 * where the closest Evangelical Lutheran, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc. parish church was (depending on their religion),
 * where the civil registration office was, and
 * if you have only a village name, you will need the name of the larger town it was part of.

Research to Find the Town
If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.
 * Use Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin as a guide in exhausting every possible record to find what you need. It was written for Germany, but the same methods apply.

Microfilm Copies of Records at a FamilySearch Center
If the locality and time period you need are not included in the online records, the next step is to check for them in the microfilm collection of the FamilySearch Library. To find a microfilm:
 * a. Click on Places within Austria, Bukowina.
 * b. Select your record type: Church records and civil registration are the most important.
 * c. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * d. Choose the correct record type and time period for your ancestor.
 * e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the microfilm.

Immigration to Bukovina
The ethnic composition in the 19th century consisted of Romanians, Ukrainians, Germans constituted 10% of all immigrants (from Bohemia, Palatinate and Wurttemberg, Zipsers from the Zips or Spis county of Hungary, Germans from other parts of the Austrian empire), Hungarian farmers from Transylvania, Poles from Galicia as well as Polish priests, Slovaks, Raskolniki-members of an Eastern Orthodox denomination, Jews from neighboring provinces, Armenians who sought to escape Turkish oppression.

Emmigration from Bukovina
The Canadian province Saskatchewan, the United States, especially Ellis, Kansas; Yuma, Colorado; Lewis County, Washington; Naperville, Illinois, the Parana district in Brazil, Moldavia, Bessarabia, the Dobrudscha, Bosnia and Germany.

Helpful Information

 * Bukovina Church Records
 * Bukovina Directories

Online Resources

 * Bukovina Genealogy Resources by FEEFHS
 * The Bukovina Society of the Americas