Dear Friends,
We are pleased to be sending you a Research update, on our work throughout 2023.
Vital Records Project
This year we completed a comprehensive overhaul of our Gesher Galicia website. One of the greatest improvements was to our All Galicia Database: https://www.geshergalicia.org/all-galicia-database/. Current paid members of Gesher Galicia who search our All Galicia Database can now directly click from the search results to images of most of the records we have indexed. Some go to the specific image, others to the whole book, where the information in the index search result will tell you the image, page, and record number you need. Throughout this year we were able to acquire many additional images of records previously indexed by Gesher Galicia, including most of the records we have indexed from Central State Historical Archives (TsDIAL) in Lviv, in their Fond 701.
Gesher Galicia continues to index Jewish records of births, deaths and marriages from the entire former Galicia, uploading the indexes to our online database, the All Galicia Database, at: https://www.geshergalicia.org/all-galicia-database/.
We also transcribe, where the information is useful, index books of vital records. For the year 2023, we have indexed and uploaded to the All Galicia Database some 56,860 records, as follows.
Bobowa Jewish Births (index book) (1895-1937)
Drohobycz Jewish Births (index book) (1870-1874); Jewish Births (index book) (1875-1876); Jewish Marriages (index book) (1853-1876, 1882-1883, 1892, 1898)
Horodenka Jewish Marriages (index book) (1932-1939)
Jaworów Jewish Marriages (index book) (1859-1876)
Kołomyja Jewish Births (index book) (1920-1942)
Kozłów Jewish Marriages (1877-1939)
Krakowiec Jewish Births (index book) (1903-1939)
Lwów Jewish Births (1832.11-1834.06); Jewish Births (1834.07-1837.07); Jewish Births (1932); Jewish Births (1933); Jewish Deaths (1918-1919); Jewish Deaths (1941.09-1941.11)
Lwów-Zniesienie Jewish Marriages (1937)
Muszyna Jewish Marriages (index book) (1913); Jewish Deaths (index book) (1921-1926)
Nadwórna Jewish Births (index book) (1860-1875); Jewish Births (index book) (1909-1941)
Nowy Sącz Jewish Births (index books) 1893, 1912, 1917, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1932-1933, 1935-1937
Oleszyce Jewish Marriages (1877-1933); Jewish Deaths (1904-1924)
Podkamień (near Brody) Jewish Deaths (1905, 1939)
Pruchnik Jewish Deaths (index book) (1899-1940)
Przemyśl Landsmanschaften Members (New York City) (1931) Thanks to Brooke Schreier Ganz for kindly donating these images to Gesher Galicia and to Gesher Galicia board member Marsha Shapiro for indexing the records.
Radomyśl nad Sanem Jewish Births (1877-1901)
Sambor Jewish Births (index book) 1852-1876
Skała Jewish Deaths (index book) (1932-1942)
Skałat Jewish Births (1897); Jewish Deaths (1827-1845); Jewish Voters (1938)
Skole Jewish Marriages (index book) 1918-1919, 1941-1942; Jewish Deaths (index book) (1941-1942)
Sokal Jewish Births (1831-1858)
Stary Sącz Jewish Deaths (index book) (1890, 1893)
Stanisławów Jewish Births (index book) 1845-1876
Załoźce Jewish Births (index book) 1868-1938
Żurawno Jewish Marriages (index book) (1833, 1841-1876); Jewish Marriages (index book) (1901-1936)
Two sets of records from the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna: Kraków Jewish Military Chaplaincy Marriages (1915-1916) and Przemyśl Jewish Military Chaplaincy Deaths (1914.08-1914.12)
Bukaczowce Jewish Births (index book) (1910-1942); Jewish Deaths (index book) (1909-1942); Jewish Marriages (index book) (1909-1942)
Bursztyn Jewish Births (1874); Jewish Births (index book) (1898-1929); Jewish Births (index book) (1931-1942); Jewish Marriages (index book) (1878-1929); Jewish Deaths (index book) (1927-1929); Jewish Deaths (index book) (1931-1942). Thanks to Alex Feller for his work on this project to index Bursztyn records, as well as the Bukaczowce indexes listed above.
Many of the index books in the above list are from the Przemyśl Identification Project. Books from this project that we transcribe are all those where the original full record books have been lost or are inaccessible.
We have also indexed and uploaded to the All Galicia Database in 2023:
Stanisławów Jewish Conscripts (1937)
Vienna University of World Trade Jewish Students from Galicia and Bukovina (1919-1938) Thanks to Andrew Zalewski for his work on this project.
Zbaraż Jewish Voters (1938)
Zborów Jewish Voters (1927) Thanks to Ann Harris for her work on this project.
Files to be completed soon, and uploaded to the All Galicia Database:
All these indexes are freely searchable and can be found on the All Galicia Database at: https://www.geshergalicia.org/all-galicia-database/.
As usual, Gesher Galicia thanks Sławek Postek, Paulina Postek, Piotr Gumola, and Paweł Malinowski for all their work on the indexing projects.
Apart from 28 files of Jewish vital record files from Lwów, which will be in next year's indexing project, Gesher Galicia has now indexed, and uploaded to the All Galicia Database, all the Jewish vital record files held at the Central State Historical Archives in Lviv (TsDIAL)—other than a few books that are duplicates of ones that have already been indexed elsewhere.
Scans of records
Gesher Galicia now has scans on our inventory for all vital record sets that we have indexed (with the exception of the two books from the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna mentioned above, which the Austrian archive, will not allow to be copied). We also have scans of all the Holocaust records (including non-vital records), Josephine & Franciscan Survey records, and Jewish Taxpayers records. Among other property records that we have indexed in the past, we still need to obtain the scans of 28 files, held at TsDIAL in Lviv and the Przemyśl state archive.
Among the almost 8,000 vital record files to which have links to scans in our inventory, we have links to scans to all 761 vital record files from the the city of Lwów, covering the period 1801-1942, that are currently accessible. These are held in four archives: AGAD in Warsaw, TsDIAL in Lviv, DALO in Lviv, and the Przemyśl State Archive. Some of these scans are ones we have obtained ourselves, and are available only to Gesher Galicia members. The others are all from the websites of the archives, or of the Polish State Archives, and these are freely available for viewing for everyone.
Notaries
In the past year, we have added over 1,000 files of notary records held in the Przemyśl archive to our inventory, all but 17 of these with links to their scans on the Przemyśl archive website. We also have 71 notary files from DATO in Ternopil, and 50 from DAIFO in Ivano-Frankivsk on the inventory, though these are without scans.
Our comprehensive Galician inventory can be viewed and searched at: https://www.geshergalicia.org/inventory/
IT work and Research
We thank Liliana Serhejczuk for her work on the Gesher Galicia inventory as well as the All Galicia Database. Many thanks are due too to Paweł Malinowski for so meticulously managing all the considerable amount of IT work related our research projects.
Our indexing plans for 2024
Next year we plan to index thousands of additional records from archives in Poland and Ukraine. We also plan to continue to transcribe, wholly or in part, information from more files which were identified in the Przemyśl ID Project. The list can be viewed by everyone at: geshergalicia.org/projects/przemysl-id/
If you are a Gesher Galicia member, and are logged in to the Gesher Galicia website, you can also view the page images here of all the files.
Upcoming Projects
At Gesher Galicia we are proud to announce two major indexing projects which will begin in 2024.
1940-1941 Vital Records Project
As Gesher Galicia revealed earlier this year and will be further detailed in the December issue of the Galitzianer, we discovered vital records maintained by the Soviet Union during their occupation of towns in former Eastern Galicia between January 1940 and mid-1941. This project will begin with identifying Jewish listings in various records for the city of Lwów and creating indexes which will be published in our All Galicia Database. This new project will be led by past Gesher Galicia President and Research Chair Tony Kahane.
NKVD Files Project (1939-1941)
Gesher Galicia has identified over 12,000 files from the Soviet secret police operating in the Lviv Oblast between 1939 and 1941. Jewish refugees fleeing to former eastern Galicia were commonly subjected to repressions during Soviet rule. These files include criminal proceedings cover their arrests, investigations, and sentencing. This project will identify Jewish refugees in these files and create indexes which will be included in our All Galicia Database. This new project will be led by past Gesher Galicia Vice President, Andrew Zalewski.
Maps Project
The Maps Project, managed by Gesher Galicia’s Digital Maps Manager, Jay Osborn, continues. In 2023 the following maps from Galician towns have been added to the Gesher Galicia Map Room, at: https://maps.geshergalicia.org
Cadastral maps:
Andrychów (1845/1882)
Bobowa Cadastral Map 1847
Borodczyce Cadastral Map 1846
Brzostek (1850)
Huczko I. Cadastral Map 1852 with the Colony of Ober Engelsbrunn
Huczko II. Cadastral Map 1852 with the Colony of Unter Engelsbrunn
Pilzno Cadastral Map 1849
Przeworsk Cadastral Map 1849
Stary Sącz Cadastral Map 1847
Żmigród Cadastral Map 1851
Żywiec (1844)
Regional maps:
Güssefeld Map of East and West Galicia 1800
Administrative Map of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkSSR) 1940
Administrative Map of Drohobych Oblast 1940
Administrative Map of Lviv Oblast 1940
Administrative Map of Stanislav Oblast 1941
Administrative Map of Tarnopol Oblast 1940
We thank Jay Osborn and Vasyl Yuzishin for their work on the Maps Project, which is much appreciated.
Support for Gesher Galicia’s research activities
As always, we have an ambitious program of research activities planned for this year and over the next few years. This includes a comprehensive indexing project covering: Vital Records, as well as some further Voters and Schools records; the Cadastral Maps project; the Censuses project; and the two new projects on records from the period of Soviet occupation 1939-1941. We are also continuing, as mentioned above, to order sizable batches of scans from archives, for the exclusive benefit of Gesher Galicia members.
All of this comes at a significant cost. We are always grateful to receive donations for our research work generally or for individual research projects. Donations can be made through our website at: https://geshergalicia.org/donate/
Mark Jacobson
Research Coordinator, Gesher Galicia
