Gesher Galicia: Cadastral Map Project

Today I had lunch in New York with Gesher Galicia research coordinator Pamela Weisberger, before she flew back to Los Angeles. Our discussion ranged over the Los Angeles conference (set for July 2010) and Gesher Galicia's second phase of the Cadastral Map and Landowner Records Project.

The project began in 2007, and I'm interested in this initiative as my mother's paternal roots are in a town listed below, Sukhostav.

The objective is to create inventories for maps and landowner records for Galician towns held by the Lviv archive and obtain copies of the maps and record books.

Indexing of landowner records will provide an easily searchable snapshot of where Galician ancestors once lived and the type of property they owned, during the years the land surveys were taken.

Nineteenth century maps will show the house and/or parcel numbers, along with the town's synagogue(s) and Jewish cemeteries, in many cases.

Genealogists and researchers will certainly benefit from this information as they match information in land record books to the available maps and then compare maps to house numbers on vital records. We may be able to see exactly in town our ancestors once lived. Other connections will be made to additional relatives, as many houses were handed down through the generations.

In some cases, said Pamela, inventories also show books on German-Jewish schools, a list of poor Christians and Jews in a town, and other information relating to the Jewish community.

The project includes finding the inventory for a town in the Lviv Archive card catalog, photographing/copying the maps, landowner record books and other documentation of interest.

In May 2007, Gesher Galicia obtained inventories of cadastral maps and landowner records for the following towns:

Chervonohrad (Krystynopol), Dobromil, Dora, Hrymaliv (Grzymalow), Halych (Halicz), Kamyanka / Kamyanky (Kamionki), Khodoriv (Chodorow), Konopkivka, Kopychyntsi (Kopyczynce), Kropivnik (Kropiwnik), Kulykiv (Kulikow), Lanchyn, Lisok, Mykolayiv (Mikolajow), Mykulyntsi (Mikulyince), Nyzhniv, Pavshivka, Pidhaisti (Podahajce), Pistyn, Polupanowka, Rozdil (Rozdol), Skala, Sniatyn (Snyatyn), Sukhostav (Suchostaw), Ustechko (Uscieczko)

The cadastral map inventories for these towns is here.

The landowner records for these towns is here.

In 2008, town projects included Kalush, Nadworna, Drohobycz, Boryslaw, Sambor/Stary Sambor, Rohatyn, and Zaleszczyki

For more information, click here or contact Pamela, pweisbergerAThotmailDOTcom (replace AT and DOT with the appropriate symbols).