Finding a Village in Galicia

Galizien German Descendants (GGD) has a comprehensive collection of information to help you find your Galizien German ancestors in Galicia. Knowing where your ancestor's village was located and what parish it belonged to is vitally important to finding records of your family. Be aware that some villages are known to have spelling variants over time so if the spelling doesn't exactly match while using these references, check into names that are close in spelling.  Villages may have names in more than one language, for example in German and Polish.

  1. If you know the name of the village you can use the parish/administrative district finder, section A, to find out which village with similar names is the one for your relatives.
  2. Once you have the parish/administrative district, you can find the location on a map using section B.
  3. You can also find details about the village such as population, ethnicities, etc. using section C.

A: Parish and Administrative District Finder

  1. First we have Dave Gorz's Index of German Settlements in Galicia. Dave has collected villages from 3 different versions of Rudolph Unterschütz's map (Eastern Galicia and Western Galicia on our website) to create this index.  Dave also has a list of district and sub-districts associated with the Gemeindelexion below HERE.

  2. Another very large listing of over 6,000 villages in Galicia with their districts and parishes is available at Gesher Galicia, www.geshergalicia.org/galician-town-locator/. Try the "Find" command on your browser and only search the non-accented characters in your village names.

  3. Administrative districts changed over time. A map of Galicia showing administrative districts for 1900 is found HERE.
    Gesher Galicia gives a detailed history of the administrative district changes at: https://www.geshergalicia.org/about-galicia/a-guide-to-galician-districts/

  4. Member Oskar Wolf has also created a village list with map sector references to the Unterschütz map which is available at this link. His index includes the maps themselves as well as the index. Entries for each village include when the village was founded, the primary religion of the inhabitants, the equivalent Ukrainian name of the village, what administrative district it was in and the number of inhabitants in 1934. However, it is in German and it is not as complete an index as David created above.

B: Find the Location on a Map

  1. Germans from Russia Settlement Locations have added Galicia to their extensive database. As described on our main Galicia map page, you can search their database for the village using the past, current, accented, or unaccented name and it should provide a Google map with its current location as well as district, GPS coordinates, religion, year founded, and a link to an 1890s map showing the old German name.

  2. Germans from Russia and Eastern Europe Settlement Locations have a 489 page listing of German settlements in all of Eastern Europe, including Russia. Dennis Bender makes it easy to get the GPS coordinates of any village.  Just press CTRL F and type in the name of the village you are seeking. It accepts searches with or without accents, but you may need to try alternative spellings.

  3. Gazetteer by Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe

    This 13 page online village table is unique in that it gives the GPS coordinates of villages as well as the variations in their names and their current name in the Ukrainian alphabet. It is a 13 page pdf document created by Dr. Frank Stewner for the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe. For GPS location, note that the coordinates are in degree, minute, and second groups.  Thus Bolechow is at 49°04'07" 23°51'26" or more simply, type (49 04 07 N 23 51 26 E) into Google.

  4. Galician Administrative district maps.  One from 1910 is at:  https://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/eceurope/galiciaadm.gif.  Another is at https://www.bibliotekacyfrowa.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/41376?id=41376. It is worth knowing that the administrative districts changed slightly in about 1906 with some being split up.

  5. Lutheran Parish Map by Hilfskomitee der Galiziendeutschen. This one page map from "Heimat Galizien im Bild", copyright 1983, shows the boundaries of the Lutheran parishes. It is for personal use only and not to be republished without permission.

  6. Roman Catholic Parish Map by Hilfskomitee der Galiziendeutschen. This map and village list from "Heimat Galizien im Bild", copyright 1983, shows the boundaries of the RC parishes in Eastern Galicia. The map is for personal use only and not to be republished without permission.

  7. Polish Village Finder at  https://www.kami.net.pl/kresy/ covers all of old Poland, including Galicia, but it requires the diacritics (accents) for the actual village name. It links to a 19th century map showing the village.

C: Find Details About the Village

  1. Gazetteer of the Crownlands and Territories Represented in the Imperial Council of Austro-Hungary (Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder). A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary of places. Volume 12 is 1033 page gazetteer contains valuable information like population, area, religion, native language, livestock, buildings, etc. for most of the villages and towns in the Austro-Hungarian territories of Galizien. It was written in 1907 and is the gold standard of village identification, although it does not list the various "also knows as" names for a village.

  2. Genealogical Gazetteer of Galicia by Brian Lenius, 3rd Edition 1999. Brian has collected information from a large number of sources (including the gazetteer above) to create his comprehensive gazetteer. If you cannot find your village in the resources above, Brian's gazetteer may have your village, its parish, administrative area, and a map showing the general area it is located in.

    More information about Brian's gazetteer and how to purchase it is available at this link and at Brian's website.

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