Service 03 · $290 a day · larger research from $900
The parish books are still there. Most of them, anyway.
Between the 1780s and the 1930s every birth, marriage and death in your family was written into a bound register. Where those books survived, they are readable — in Latin, Polish, German, Church Slavonic and, once Soviet clerks take over the pen, Russian. This is the work of reading them.
What a day in the archive gives you
One working day in the reading room, spent on the files that matter for your family — and a written account of all of it.
- The files ordered in advance, so the day is spent reading rather than waiting
- Photographs of every page relevant to your family, and of the entries themselves, cropped and legible
- Each entry naming your family transcribed and translated, with what every column of the register means
- A written account of what was checked and what it showed, including the books where your family is not
- If you already know the file references, the files you name photographed in full
How it is done
- First we know which books to order
- If it is not yet clear which registers survive for your village and years, that is the records check. If you already hold the references — some experienced researchers do — the day can be booked straight away.
- Then the files are ordered and the day is booked
- Archives bring files to the reading room on their own schedule, usually one to three weeks after the order. The day goes into the calendar once the payment arrives, and the order is placed from there.
- Then the pages are read, not just photographed
- A register is read page by page for your surnames, both spellings and both rites, and every relevant entry is photographed and cropped so that you can check the reading with your own eyes. Nothing is handed over as a claim without the page behind it.
- When the family did not leave
- Parish books stop where the Soviet state begins: from 1919 births, marriages and deaths were entered by the village council, and those volumes sit in the oblast archive. If somebody was taken to Germany as forced labour, their return left files of its own, and those are often the richest single document in a search.
Price: $290 a day — and larger research
- $290 for one working day in one archive, with the photographs and the written account
- Larger research — several family lines, several archives, four to six generations — is several such days, typically from $900, with the price fixed in writing after the records check
- Archive fees for copying or per-page charges are not included; if an archive charges anything, you hear the sum before anything is paid
- Photographing complete files you name, rather than reading for surnames, is the same day and the same price
Paid in advance, in full — the day is booked and the files ordered once the payment arrives, and the invoice comes by email with the payment details on it. What you are buying is a working day in the reading room rather than a guaranteed find: you receive the full written account of what was checked and what it showed, whether or not your family's entries are there.
See what a report looks like
A real report from two days in the archive, exactly as the client received it. Only the family's names, the client, house addresses and archive references are hidden.
This is the right step if
- The village and parish are known, and you want the documents themselves, not a summary
- The records check has shown that the books for your years survive
- You are an experienced researcher and know exactly which files you need photographed
- You want something a grandchild can inherit: the pages, the readings and the sources
It is the wrong step if
- You do not know whether the books survive — start with the $140 records check
- You want a DNA interpretation rather than documents: we work with paper, and say so
Questions about archive research
How much does Ukrainian genealogy research cost?
$290 for a working day in the reading room, with every relevant page photographed, the entries read and translated, and a written account. Larger research across several lines and archives is several such days, typically from $900, and its price is fixed in writing after a $140 records check shows what survives.
How far back can you actually go?
In Galicia, parish registers commonly run to the 1780s, when the Austrian administration made them systematic. Four to six generations is the normal outcome where the books survive. Earlier is possible, but nobody honest promises it in advance.
My family was Jewish / Polish / Roman Catholic. Can you still help?
Yes. Galician records are organised by parish and confession, and each community kept its own books — Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish. Mixed families are ordinary here, not an obstacle.
What if my family is not in the books?
Then the written account says exactly which books and years were read and that the family is not in them — which closes that line and usually points to where it went instead. The day is paid for the reading, not for the find, and we tell you that before you pay.
I already have the file numbers. Can you just photograph them?
Yes. Send the references in your request; the files are ordered once the day is paid, and photographed in full. It is the same $290 day.
Before you commission anything, check what you may already own: The 7 documents that reveal your Ukrainian village
The rest of the ladder
You can start anywhere on it, and stop after any step.
The books are readable now. That has not always been true, and will not always be.
Send us the family name, the village, and whatever documents you hold. We reply in writing within two business days with what can be found and what it would cost.