Ternopil region · 15th century
Our Archive Discoveries
Towns and villages of the Ternopil region that are older than their encyclopedia entries. Each date below comes from a court record we read on the page itself, and the page is shown.
Research and text: Vadym Ratynskyi
Latest finds
Shybalyn · Szybalin · 9 December 1448
Shybalyn: a boundary dispute in 1448, 27 years before its “first mention”
Its name is written “Sibalin” in a boundary ruling of the Halych land court.
Usually given: 1475 (1457 on Wikipedia) → 27 years earlier
Burkaniv · Burkanów · 22 May 1497
Burkaniv had its name in 1497, 67 years before its “first mention”
Half of “Burkanów” secures a family debt of the heiresses of Zolotnyky.
Usually given: 1564, as “Kut” → 67 years earlier
Khorostkiv · Chorostków · 16 July 1449
Khorostkiv is 115 years older: a division of estates in 1449
Named among the villages that three brothers received in a division of estates.
Usually given: 1564 → 115 years earlier
Petrykiv · Petryków · 30 January 1441
Petrykiv near Ternopil: 1441, not 1458
Security for a hundred marks, in a surety one brother gave for another.
Usually given: 1458 → 17 years earlier
How we decide it is a discovery
A place goes on this list only when the record is older than the date given both by the encyclopedias and by the community's own history. A date local historians already knew does not count, however old it is.
Every record is read from the printed page of the edition, not from a search index, and the page is reproduced here. Where another village of the same name existed, we say how we told the two apart.
These are records about land and the people who owned it. They rarely name peasant families. For those, the place to look is the parish registers, which begin centuries later.
© 2026 Vadym Ratynskyi. All rights reserved. The research, text and translations on this page may be copied or republished only with the author's permission. To ask for permission, write to hello@ukrainianhomecoming.com.
Start with a request. It costs nothing.
You write us the family name and whatever you know. We write back honestly: what can be found, what cannot, and what it would cost in your case. No payment, no obligation.