Genealogy  of      
        Halychyna /
              Eastern Galicia
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Going Home: A Guide to Polish American Family History Research
 
 
 

Church Slavic Vital Records 
 

As you look through more and more vital records from Halychyna / Eastern Galicia, you will undoubtedly come across Church Slavic, a literary language used for ecclesiastic purposes in the Greek Catholic (and Eastern European Orthodox) church.  Church Slavic uses the Cyrillic alphabet, like Ukrainian, Russian and Carpatho-Rusyn.  For those of you familiar with some of these other languages, you will have an easier time reading the Church Slavic.  However, please keep in mind that Church Slavic is a separate language and therefore, has some differences in the alphabet, grammar and vocabulary.  Church Slavic can be a particularly difficult language to read, even to someone familiar with modern-day Cyrillic alphabets of Ukrainian and Russian.  The greatest challenges are the abundance of abbreviations, superscripts and diacritical markings to show stress, breathings and types of vowels, as well as letters in the form of superscripts "floating" above the words. 

In addition, heavy influences from the local national languages were ever present in Church Slavic, which make for different variations, known as recensions, e.g., the Ukrainian recension, Russian recension, etc.  This is important for the genealogist to keep in mind when reading Church Slavic vital records.

Church Slavic Alphabet and Number System

Visit my pages on the Church Slavic Alphabet and Church Slavic Number System.  Even if you are familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet, you will want to see important notes on certain letters.  Also, remember that numerals were often written by the priest/scribe using the Church Slavic letters (similar to the use of letters in the Roman numeral system).

 

Dissection of a Church Slavic Birth / Baptismal Record

Here's a line by line study of a Church Slavic birth/baptismal record.

 

Dissection of a Church Slavic Marriage Record

Here's a line by line study of a Church Slavic marriage record.

 

 

 

 

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