Service 02 · from $900 · 6–10 weeks
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 by a parish priest. Those books survived two wars and one occupation unevenly — and where they survived, they are readable. This is the work of reading them.
What arrives
A bound digital dossier: the tree, the documents behind every line of it, and a plain-language explanation of what each record actually says, because they are written in Latin, German, Polish and Church Slavonic by turns.
- Birth, marriage and death records from the parish books, with photographs of the original pages
- A family tree four to six generations deep, with every claim tied to the document that supports it
- Transcription and translation of each record, including the parts that are hard to read
- The emigration trail: ship manifests, border records, arrival and naturalisation documents
- A search for living relatives in the village and district, conducted on the ground
- A written account of what could not be found, and why
How it is done
- The parish books first
- Work starts in the registers of the parish your family belonged to — in the Lviv historical archive, the regional archive, or wherever the books went. Generation by generation backwards, each name confirmed by a record rather than a resemblance.
- Then the records around them
- Cadastral maps show which house was whose. Military and school records catch people the church books missed. Where a line crosses a confession or a border, the search follows it into Polish or Austrian holdings.
- Then the village itself
- The last stage is not in an archive. We go to the village, ask at the council, and knock on doors. It is not rare that someone with your family name still lives on the same street and does not know you exist.
Price: from $900 — and what moves it
- How many family lines you want traced — one surname, or all four grandparents
- How far back you want to go: four generations is straightforward, seven is a different job
- Whether the records sit in one archive or are scattered across three countries
- Whether the parish books survive continuously or have gaps that need working around
- Whether you want the search for living relatives included
Typically twelve to twenty hours of archival work over six to ten weeks. Most cases land between $900 and $2,500. You receive a fixed written quote after the free assessment, and pay half on commissioning, half on delivery. If the research delivers substantially less than promised, part of the fee returns to you — that is in the contract, not left to goodwill.
This is the right step if
- The village and parish are already identified — by us or by you
- You want documents and dates, not a summary: copies of the originals, with sources
- You are hoping to find relatives who are still alive
- You want something a grandchild can inherit and continue
It is the wrong step if
- You do not yet know the village — start with the Village Report, it costs less and comes first
- You want a DNA interpretation rather than documents: we work with paper, and say so
Questions about archival research
How much does Ukrainian genealogy research cost?
From $900, with most cases landing between $900 and $2,500 depending on how many family lines are traced, how far back you want to go and how scattered the archives are. That is typically twelve to twenty hours of archival work over six to ten weeks, and you get a fixed quote before anything starts.
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. Earlier than that is possible where a parish kept good books and they survived, 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. We know which archives hold which. Mixed families are ordinary here, not an obstacle.
What are the chances of finding living relatives?
It varies too much to quote a number honestly. Where a branch of the family stayed in the district, we often find them. Where the village was resettled or emptied, we may not. What we never do is promise relatives in order to make a sale — you get our real assessment in the first written reply.
What if the archives have nothing?
Then we say so — ideally in the free assessment, before you have paid anything. Roughly one case in ten ends there. If paid research hits an unexpected wall, the contract returns part of the fee, and we tell you exactly which years burned and where.
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.