Vital Records - Microfilms
From the Family History Library and
Family History Centers

When you are using the microfilms of the Family History Library, either onsite at the main library in Salt Lake City, Utah, or if you rent the film at your local Family History Center, you should understand how the material is organized.

Each film will have several books, or subjects, broken up into chapters, or "items".  One film could have birth records from one parish, marriage records from another village, and yet census records from a third village.  The Family History Library Catalog, found at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp, will list all of the "items" on a particular film.  For more information on the Family History Library and its microfilms, visit my webpage www.halgal.com/fhl.org.

The items are broken up by title pages that clearly mark the "item".  However, when using the microfilms of vital records filmed at the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, city of Lviv/Lwów, you'll find these title pages written in Ukrainian and/or Russian.  A little knowledge of the layout (along with some Ukrainian and/or Russian, too!) can help you navigate through the massive film collection with ease.

This example below shows ITEM NUMBER 2 on the microfilm.  You can see it's number 2 with the large 2 in the lower right.

The left hand side includes technical information of the filming.  But the right hand side contains the most important information, including the place name, type of documents, and date span.

Additional Notes:

Metrical books <in Ukrainian as Метрична книга (Metrychna knyha), or in Russian as Метрическaя книгa (Metricheskaia kniga)> usually means a set of birth/baptismal, marriage and death records.

If the records were only marriage ones, it would include the word "Marriages".

Catalog numbering in Ukrainian archives

Material in archives are broken down into groups and subgroups.  In the Ukrainian archival system, the largest unit (Record Group) is the Fond.  A subgroup (Series) is Opys.  And the next sub-grouping (File), in terms of our vital records the individual parish book/vital records registry, is the Sprava.

Sprava can also be listed as Tom (or "Volume").  In Russian this level is usually called Delo.

For the large collection of vital records housed at the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine-city of Lviv/Lwów, the collections are cataloged thusly:

Roman Catholic parish registers: Fond 618, Opys 2.  (Then each individual book is a different Sprava, or Tom)

Greek Catholic parish registers: Fond 201, Opys 4a.  (Then each individual book is a different Sprava, or Tom)

The next page that you may find, as part of the title page or coversheet, looks like this.  It contains some more information on the item.

<in Ukrainian> Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, city of Lviv For the information file no. 2295 of Fond no. 618                                     of Opys no. 2 numbering: 224 two hundred twenty-four pages of which ____________________are back-sided letters: ______________________ missing: _____________________ Enclosures ___________________ Pamphlets, newspapers: _________ Graphic materials: ______________ Other special features of the documents: Stamped pages: _______________ Pages with seals: ______________ Documents with faded text: _______ 27-May-2004                           Signature _________   Preparation of file for microfilming (that is done and instructions of the operator) Date:                                                 Signature _________

Another title page you may find would be the title page from the original file.  This would be the archive's title page found at the beginning of the parish register or file, created at the time of the initial cataloging.  It is usually in Ukrainian or Polish.

	<in Ukrainian>   Roman Catholic Metropolitan Consistory.    city of Lviv
	Metrical book Roman Catholic church, city of Bilyi Kamin, county of Zolochiv
	TsDIA of Ukraine, city of Lviv          Beginning: 1878 (abbr. = Central State Historical Archive) Fond No.: 618                                  Ending: 1890 Opys No.: 2 Od zb. No.: 2245                              In 224 pages

The filmmakers often included additional pages with notes and comments, such as the following:

And finally, the reality of research in Ukraine is evidenced by the following page I found scanned on the film from the Zakarpatskyi (Subcarpathian) Archives in Uzhhorod:

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