Suggestions for  Ethnic German Family History Research in Bukovina


Bukovina was a geographical region on the eastern edge of  Austria from
1775 to 1918.  Now the land is split between modern day Ukraine and
Romania.  The land was home for some ethnic Germans from the late 1700s to
about 1940 when most ethnic Germans were removed from the area.
Some of these people migrated to North America and the purpose of this
page is to provide some helps towards finding and tracing these ethnic Germans.



1. Find a single place e.g. a file cabinet drawer or folder and place all family history or documents into a single place.
Any irreplaceable items I suggest you make copies and store elsewhere or share with other relatives.  You can never have too many copies, but if you ever lost anything you will be grateful for the back up copy.

2. Get a membership at the Bukovina Society of the Americas at http://www.bukovinasociety.org/
for a nominal fee and then search their online database which has thousands of names online from Bukovina. 
See if you can tie into an existing line.  The sources of information are not always
documented, so take care to confirm the information wherever possible.  Also browse the
online bookstore for some interesting items that provide some background information to
the history and times of the region.


3.. Trace your ancestry from Bukovina to North America.  A good resource for searching ship registers is at ancestry.com.  Remember to search by different name variations.  Even though the ancestry.com search functionality  often brings back too many false positives I have found it can sometimes miss names too, so always try name variations.


4. Once you have an idea of  your family tree in Bukovina fill in pedigree charts and family group sheets and plan research in those areas where there are holes.


5.  Read Richard Carruthers paper, Between Imperial Hinterlands:  Reconsturcting Families in Bukovina and Saskatchewan, 1775-1940

While the paper is from 1996 it provides the background and context of Lutheran and Catholic church records for Bukovina by listing films found at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City and available at LDS Family History Centers via their internal loan program.  Sadly the LDS Family History Catalog is still lacking in many areas regarding in the organization of the various films on the region. 

If you would like to just browse the area in general go to www.familysearch.org and click on the Library Catalog link and click on Keyword search and enter the word bukowina (bukovina may also be searched, but you get far fewer matches)   and you will find the whole collections holdings on the area.

It is a shotgun approach as it brings back everything, but you may be surprised what is there.
Richard's paper lays out the church records by year and type and area, which is very useful.
I find the lists of films he provided to be a key guide to using the LDS Family History Library films.


6. Visit an LDS Family History Center or better yet the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and see what you can find.


7. ancestry.com has excellent resources for searching passengers lists to America and Canada.  Search on alternate spellings and if a search does not find a match
always search on any and all other family members known to have migrated at the same time.  Sadly this site is a pay site.



Links of Interest

1910 Map of Bukovina


25 Essential Websites for Austro- Hungarian Genealogy

Beginner’s Guide to Austrian Research:
Using gazetteers, church records, military records and population registers to
find your ancestors

Galicia: A Multi-Ethnic Overview and Settlement History
with Special Reference to Bukovina


East European Emigration and the EWZ


Institue for Research of Expelled Germans


The Bukovina-Germans During the Habsburg Period:
Settlement, Ethnic Interaction, Contributions