Belarus Gazetteers

Gazetters are invaluable resources for finding out about your ancestor's town/village. Often, this is the place to find out the name of the church deaney/deaconate. -You need the deanry/deaconate name to find church records.

Belarus was created from five imperial provinces: Minsk, Vilno, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Grodno.

Słownik Geograficzny Available Online
The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and Other Slavonic Countries (in Polish) Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i Innych Krajów Słowiańskich is available by book, microfilm, CD and now online. It is very useful resource for the period 1864-1918. The Slownik includes descriptions of villages,towns and cities in what is now Belarus and Lithuania as well as Poland. A searchable version is available at Domena Internetowych Repozytoriów Wiedzy

Polish Roots - Tips on how to access and use the ''Słownik Geograficzny. This page also has a list of towns for which the Słownik Geograficzny has already been translated from Polish into English.''

Belarus was created from five imperial provinces: Minsk, Vilno, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Grodno.
Gazetteers were published for all of these provinces except Grodno. The references are below:

Minsk. Yarmolovich, V. S. Spisok naselennykh mest Minskoi gubernii [Populated places in Minsk Province]. Minsk, 1909. (Film 1,923,576 item 1)

Mogilev. Pozharov, G. P. Spisok naselennykh mest Mogilevskoi gubernii [Populated places in Mogilev Province]. Mogilev, 1910. (Film 1,923,576 item 2)

Vitebsk. Spisok naselennykh mest Vitebskoi gubernii [Populated places in Vitebsk Province]. Vitebsk, 1906. (Film 1,923,576 item 3)

Vilno. Spisok volostei i sel'skikh obshchestv po mirovym uchastkom Vilenskoi gubernii [List of volosts &amp; towns by court district, Vilnius Prov.]. Vilnius, 1873. (Film 2,268,932 item 3)

Administrativno-territorial'noe ustroistvo B.S.S.R. (2 Vol.) FHL INTL Reference book 947.8 Ea.

Tsentral'noe Statisticheskoe Biuro B.S.S.R. Spisok naselennykh miest B.S.S.R. (b. Minskoi gubernii). FHL INTL film 2044163, item 1.

Additional Geographic Resources
Gazetteers for Belarus, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania links to many villages

More information about how to access and use the Słownik is available from Steve's Genealogy Blog

Janenowak 01:31, 3 January 2015 (UTC)