Updated April 2, 2023
It takes more than databases to take on Russian and Ukrainian genealogy. Here are important resources that will make the searches easier.
Free searches for records on victims of WWII:
Arolsen Archives- International Center on Nazi Persecution (formerly International Tracing Service)– This organization, based in Germany, has an unbelievable amount of records on victims and survivors of Nazi persecution. The organization will search its records for free but many records have been posted online at this free database.
Displaced persons camps:
Dpcamps.org– A wealth of information on camps that existed throughout the Europe. The website has expanded with information on POW and slave labor camps.
General information on displaced persons camps by Yad Vashem
Archives:
Ukrainian archives– The official English website for archives in Ukraine.
Russian archives– The official website for archives in Russia.
ArcheoBiblioBase– An English website that provides a wealth of information on archives in Russia.
Polish archives– The official English website for archives in Poland. Due to border changes, some archives for areas formerly of Russia and Ukraine are in Poland.
U.S. archives:
Genealogy program of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services– This program has a great collection of immigration records. Searches and record retrieval are fee-based.
National Archives database– Worth searching to see if records can be found on relatives and ancestors with the free search engine.
FamilySearch.org:
Resources and records on Ukraine
Resources and records on Russia
Resources and records on Belarus
Phone directories:
CIS White Pages
Postal codes:
Postal codes for all regions of Ukraine
Postal codes for all regions of Russia
Maps of Ukraine:
Current maps of Ukraine
Historical maps of Ukraine
Old maps of Ukraine
Free old maps of Ukraine
The Gesher Galicia Map Room– helpful for those researching ancestors from Galicia (now in Poland and Ukraine)
Historical maps around Ukraine– interactive map that shows how Ukraine’s borders have changed from 1400-2000
Jewish communities on maps:
JewishGen Communities Database
Shtetls in Ukraine
Virtual Shtetl Project
MyShtetl
History of Communities in Ukraine:
History of Cities and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR
History of Jewish Communities in Ukraine
Maps of Russia:
Oldmapsonline
Edmaps
Etomesto
Military topographic map of the Russian Empire 1846-1863
Maps of the former USSR and other areas:
Clubklad– includes Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, in addition to Russia
Gazetteers:
Russia
Ukraine
Germans from Russia
Renaming of towns:
Ukraine
Russia
Online encyclopedia:
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
Cultural centers:
The Ukrainian History and Education Center
Ukrainian Diaspora:
Diaspora.ua– in Ukrainian. Download Google Translate web browser translator app or a similar app
Social networks for the former USSR:
VKontakte
Odnoklassniki
Online keyboards for typing:
Russian, Ukrainian from Typeit
Russian, Ukrainian, Hebrew and Yiddish from Lexilogos
Online language translation helpers:
Google
Promt
Yandex
DeepL
Videos on learning Ukrainian online:
How to Read the Ukrainian Alphabet. Cyrillic Letters. Part I
How to Read the Ukrainian Alphabet. Part II
Ukrainian: Handwritten Cyrillic Alphabet
How to Pronounce Ukrainian Cities Correctly
Money converter:
Xe– Use this tool to understand how much money to send abroad when asked to pay in Rubles, Hryvnia or Euros.
Useful tools:
Transliterating English to Russian in One Step
Transliterating Russian to English in One Step
Converting between Julian and Gregorian Calendar in One Step
Converting Hebrew to Gregorian Calendar Dates
Searching the Russian Phone/Military Books in One Step
Converting between Russian Print and Cursive in One Step
Official transliteration of Ukrainian names
Resource links:
WorldGenWeb-Ukraine
WorldGenWeb-Russia
Find Lost Russian & Ukrainian Family 
It’s in point of fact a great and helpful piece of information. I am glad that you just shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you for visiting.
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hi,
we are looking for grandmother in Ukraine, her name is Lena Ohatnicova, how can I get some info, please let us know if you can help?
thanks
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Please send me a private message at bepa.miller at mail.ru with everything you know about her. I’ll try to help you as much as I can.
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My father was Joseph Garfincle and my grandparents were from Russia but I don’t know much more maybe you can help me!
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Is your father or his siblings alive to tell you more?
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My Granmother maiden name is
Vera pavlitchkova
married name is
Vera Bacsik
Russian who was born in ukraine “stalino city”
Russian orthodox.
She was a prisoner of war.
Married to “Bila or Bela” Bacsik a Hungarian Musician who played bass.
Ended up in Canada, Toronto
My dad, Paul Bacsik was born 13 oct 1949 Germany, Heidelberg
My grandmother and father who was 6 at the time came to Australia in 1955
I don’t know of any family or if I have any at all but I’m hoping for the best and hoping me and dad aren’t alone
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If your grandmother was a prisoner of war of the Germans, I highly recommend making a free search request here- https://www.its-arolsen.org/en/information/request-for-information-on-victims-of-nazi-persecution/ Also have you contacted Australian archives for your grandmother’s immigration records? I will be happy to help with your search for free. Contact me at bepa. miller at mail. ru.
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I’m looking for family of motenko and rudenko in russia or Austria my parents imagrate from austria to new york by boat in 1942
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Have you had much luck on Ancestry.com to find relatives?
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I’m hoping to get back in touch with family that we lost contact with a couple of decades ago.
I know the surname and I remember a few people’s first names in the family.
Unless they have moved, I know that they come from Nowostawce (Новоставці) near the city of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine.
Any tips?
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If you send me the info at bepa. miller at mail. ru, I can see if I can find anyone for you. No charge.
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Hi!
I am looking for my uncle. He was born to my grandmother in Siberia, after their whole family was deported from Estonia. My grandmother got married in Siberia and got my uncle. They lived at Cherepanov. My grandma then moved back to Estonia with my uncle, but left her husband behind. However, my uncle decided to move back to Russia and no one knows about his whereabouts now.. Would you be able to help me?
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I will be happy to help. You’ll need to send all known information to bepa.miller at mail.ru.
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Hi. This might be a hard one – on my mother’s side, her dad was a Russian Officer in WW1, I believe a Lieutenant. He fought in the Civil War, with the White Army, was captured, and sent to a camp. He escaped, and went to St Petersburg (Leningrad), found his family all shot, then crossed the German lines and made his way to Morocco, where he died. Somewhere along the line, he marries, had 2 children, my mum, and uncle (d.2003). Mum says the name he used was a fake name, so as mum is quite old (73 yrs) I would like to maybe find out who her dad was, his real name, where he was from, and are there any living relatives? I am hoping to visit Russia late 2018/early 2019, to show my son where his roots lay. We live in Australia. Is there any hope here?
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I don’t know if you’ll be able to find information that quickly. I highly recommend your mother DNA test with Family Tree DNA and then 23andme. Have you tried collecting documents on her father from his death record and immigration records? Also collect records on the uncle to see if there is a difference in information. I hope that helps. Good luck!
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I’m adopted from Arkhangelsk Russia. I know my parents information if you could help find them in some way. Email me at pamelafarrell93@gmail.com
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I sent you a message. Check your spam box if you don’t see a message from me.
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I am looking for any living relatives for my father. He was born in Ukraine surname Samilenko. We are planning a trip to Ukraine in September. Supposedly he lived in either KREMENCHUK or KHMELNYTSKY. I am hopeful we can locate someone. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Tricia
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I didn’t have any luck finding anything but I recommend posting here- https://www.ukraine.com/forums/forum/personals/genealogy, https://www.facebook.com/groups/UkrainianGenealogy/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/NashiPredky/ Have a wonderful trip and take lots of pictures! I highly recommend visiting the local cemeteries, besides the local people.
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Thank you!
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Yad Vashem, together with its partners, has collected and recorded the names and biographical details of millions of victims of systematic anti-Jewish persecution during the Holocaust (Shoah) period.
https://yvng.yadvashem.org/
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Thanks for the link. I will consider it for the Free Databases page, which has two databases on anti-Jewish persecution.
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Hola mi nombre es mirta y estoy buscando familiares en el oblast ivano-frankivsk : hrusca, oblast ternopil: humnyska, mis raices son de alla de ucrania. Antes estuvo bajo el imperio autro-hungaro. Gracias
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Únase a mi grupo en Facebook para obtener más ayuda: https://www.facebook.com/groups/findlostussrfamily/
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Apellidos krujoski, o kruchowski
Apellidos mazur
Apellidos jaskiw
Apellidos scromeda
Apellidos kosteski o kocteski
O apellidos parecidos, cualquiera de ellos.gracias
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Hello is there a resource about births in Alaska in 1790s-1810s? I’am a Alaskan Native who descend from Russian colonists who came to the Aleutians in the 18th century Alaska, I do have names, they were fur traders i’m searching two families in Alaska. Bushkovskii(Бушковский) and Olgin(Ольгин).
I found out Semeon Bushkovskii(The first Bushkovskii) arrived in Kodiak in 1783 when Shelikov colonized the island, he had a creole son Platon who’s born in 1797 according to a book by Andrei Val’terovich Grinev (The author) Platon’s daughter is Irina Platonova Bushkovskii who I can’t find her birth year neither Platon’s or Semeon, she married an artist, who’s name is Aleksandr Valisievich Olgin who maybe made art of sitka(Novo-Arkgenglsk) in 1837 I couldn’t find his birth he’s probably born in 1810 due to he died at 1860 at age 50.
I can only find Chruch Records (Metric books on what Russians call them) on FamilySearch that only extends back to 1827 so I can find their descendants births, and deaths, etc. However, I can find Aleksandr Olgin and Irina Platonova Bushkovskii’s marriage, so did I with Platon’s marriage too, thanks to Genealogy group called Familo, which is a Russian community for genealogy, however we can’t find records at time of 1790s to 1810s, so any suggestions?
I may have another Russian-creole family I’m researching, but probably not going mention now just focusing on Bushkovskii and Olgin for now.
I forgot to mention I think Semeon’s birth is probably in Russia somewhere since he came to Alaska in 1780s or maybe further back, as far I know he was in Alaska in 1783, I can’t find his death which probably somewhere in 1800s i think his son Platon died around 1850s-1860s since he had child in 1840s and he had another child in 1848.
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Hello Chris, This is quite the story for your Russian genealogy. I have heard about the early Russian immigration to current-day Alaska but I am not familiar with sources. Maybe you can post here for help- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1264391277335810/. Have you contacted the National Archives in Seattle, which covers Alaska records, for more help? This link gives more info on that archive. https://www.archives.gov/seattle.You can also join my Facebook group for more help- https://www.facebook.com/groups/findlostussrfamily. I hope this helps and good luck on your search! Vera
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