Every Lithuanian search eventually comes down to one question: what was this village called, and which parish did it belong to? The same place may appear in a family letter, a Russian-era baptism, a Polish gazetteer and a modern map under entirely different names, and the church books are filed under a parish that may not be the village at all. This guide shows how to turn one name into all of its forms and then into a parish and a diocese.
One place, several names
The Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania gives the clearest examples. Varėna appears in documents as Orany or Ораны, and Zarasai as Jeziorosy or Ново Александровск. Personal names change in the same way, with the family name Arlauskas appearing as Orlowski or Орловский. The cause is the language of the records. The church books were written in Latin, then Polish, then Russian, and the clerk wrote the name in the language of the book. A modern Lithuanian spelling is therefore often the least likely form to appear in your ancestor’s papers.
| Modern Lithuanian name | Other forms in records |
|---|---|
| Varėna | Orany, Ораны |
| Zarasai | Jeziorosy, Ново Александровск |
| Arlauskas (a surname) | Orlowski, Орловский |
| Jurgis (a given name) | Jerzy, Георгий, Юрий |
The three provinces
In the Russian period the territory of present-day Lithuania was divided into the Kovno, Vilna and Suwalki gubernias, according to FamilySearch’s wiki on gazetteers. Knowing which gubernia a place was in helps you choose the right gazetteer and the right set of church books. Gazetteers were published for all three, but two are available only in the FamilySearch Library, and the one for Vilna gubernia is covered by FamilySearch’s Belarus gazetteers page.
Gazetteers and databases that convert names
| Tool | What it does | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Lietuvos Žemėlapis gazetteer | Gives Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and German versions of town names, with cross-references from alternative names and abbreviations explained at the top of the page | You use the alphabetical list |
| Istorinių vietovardžių duomenų bazė (the historical place names database) | Gives the current name, historical names for various years, the parish and references to church books, in Lithuanian | It does not include every place name in Lithuania |
| Słownik Geograficzny (1864 to 1918) | A Polish geographical dictionary with detailed entries for villages and towns in the Suwalki, Kovno and Vilna provinces, searchable online | In Polish, with many abbreviations, and browsable images on FamilySearch |
| Skorowidz (1930s) | An interwar Polish gazetteer listing the type of place, jurisdictions and parishes, including eastern areas later ceded to Lithuania | Useful mainly for the Vilnius region |
| JewishGen Communities Database | Covers about 6,000 communities and gives modern and historical names and jurisdictions, whether or not your ancestor was Jewish | A broad Europe-wide tool |
FamilySearch also lists print gazetteers, among them the US Board on Geographic Names gazetteer of Lithuania (1994), Lietuvos katalikų bažnyčios (1993), which identifies parishes and their histories and has a locality index, and a 1903 alphabetical list of populated places of the Kovno province.
From village to parish
A parish was a congregation that could include many neighboring villages, and metrical books were kept by the parish. FamilySearch’s wiki explains that you must know your ancestor’s religion and town and then determine the parish. For Catholics it recommends the digital map of churches, and it stresses that you need the modern Lithuanian name to use it. In the historical place names database, the Parish (Parapija) field and the source references are the details to note. See our screen-by-screen search guide.
From parish to diocese
- The Lithuanian State Historical Archives preserves almost all eighteenth to twentieth century church books of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Vilnius, Seinai and Telšiai (Samogitia).
- It also holds the 1924 to 1940 books from the Panevėžys, Kaunas, Kaišiadorys and Vilkaviškis churches.
- For records that are not at the archives, FamilySearch lists the websites of the dioceses of Telšiai, Šiauliai, Vilkaviškis, Kaišiadorys and Panevėžys, where you can find contact information and lists of parishes.
- FamilySearch also notes that records may be in the archives of neighboring countries, such as the Central State Archives of Belarus.
A worked example
Example (invented, for illustration only): A reader’s family letter says her ancestors came from “Orany.” She searches the Lietuvos Žemėlapis gazetteer and finds Orany is the Polish form of Varėna. She types Varėna into the digital map of churches, sees the nearest Roman Catholic parish and a red icon, and notes the parish and the diocese. She then searches the baptism books under the Polish spelling of the surname, which the gazetteer’s Polish name made her suspect.
Pulling it together
- List every form of the village name you have seen.
- Look each one up in a gazetteer, and write down the modern Lithuanian form.
- Find the parish and the diocese.
- Note the religion, because each denomination kept its own books.
- Search the parish’s books under every spelling of the surname.
- Record which names matched, so the next search starts faster.
The interwar Poland trap
Interwar Poland, from 1918 to 1939, extended far to the east, taking in areas that were ceded after the Second World War to Soviet Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, according to FamilySearch. For that reason an ancestor may have written in US records from the interwar period that he came from Poland even though the place is now in Lithuania. The Polish Skorowidz gazetteer of that period lists the place, its jurisdictions and its parish.
Postal names and other odd forms
Some forms come from the postal system. FamilySearch lists Baltische Postorte 1632 to 1917/8, which identifies postal offices of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by their Russian and native names. A name on an old envelope may be a post office name that differs from the village’s own name, which is one more reason to test every form in a gazetteer.
Continue with the complete Lithuanian genealogy guide and how to request records, and browse Archives & Records. Sources: the FamilySearch wiki on Lithuanian gazetteers, the FamilySearch wiki on Lithuanian church records, the Office of the Chief Archivist’s genealogical search page and the historical place names database.
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