How to search for ancestors’ records in the archives of Moldova, Ukraine and Romania

The short answer

You do not start with an archive, you start with what is already at home: names, dates, the settlement. Then comes a request to the archive of the country where that place lies today. For Bessarabia that is the National Archives Agency of Moldova; for northern Bukovina and the Hotin area — the Chernivtsi regional archive; for Budjak — the Odesa regional archive. Some records of the Romanian period are also kept in Romanian archives.

Step 1. Gather the starting data

The minimum without which an archive will not take on a search:

• the ancestor’s surname, given name and patronymic — in every spelling you know;
• an approximate date of the event (birth, marriage, death) — at least within 2–3 years;
• the settlement and the county as they were at the time of the event, not in today’s borders;
• the religious denomination — parish registers were kept by confession;
• any indirect documents: old certificates, extracts, photographs of documents, entries in family papers.

The more precise the starting data, the cheaper and faster the search. “Grandfather was born somewhere near Chișinău, sometime in the twenties” turns into a thematic search, which costs more and carries no guarantee.

Step 2. Where to apply

Step 3. How to order in Moldova

Since 2024 certificates of birth, marriage and death from the parish register fonds for 1820–1924 are ordered online — through the agency’s website and the government services portal. The finished document can be delivered, including abroad, through the state delivery service.

Other requests — archival certificates, extracts, copies of documents, thematic searches — are submitted by post, by email or in person at the agency, and in-person visits require an online appointment booked in advance.

A practical tip: state in the request that the document is needed for a Romanian citizenship file, and ask for it to be issued in a form suitable for legalisation. That saves you a second round.

Step 4. What to do about discrepancies

Discrepancies are the norm, not the exception: the same name is written differently in the Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan traditions, and village names changed twice in a century. The ANC knows this: its list of documents expressly provides for certificates of changes in national onomastics — of names and of settlement names. Such a certificate is issued by the competent authority of the country of origin and must be no more than two years old.

The rule is simple: every discrepancy is closed with a document. If one certificate says “Георгий”, another “Gheorghe” and a third “Юрий”, you need a paper tying those spellings to one person.

What to do if the record is not found first time

A negative answer from an archive is not the end of the case but a fork in the road. The order of action is:

1. Check neighbouring fonds. The same event may have been entered in the register of another parish or county, or in the registry office of a neighbouring village — borders and subordination changed.
2. Widen the period. Dates in family memory are almost always out by 1–3 years.
3. Follow another line. The basis only has to be proved along one branch: if the grandfather’s line is a dead end, the grandmother’s or a second line often works.
4. Collect indirect evidence. Records of marriage, death, service, schooling, church and resettlement entries — they confirm both the place and the affiliation.
5. Obtain a certificate that the fonds was lost. That is a document in its own right: with it the case is built on indirect evidence rather than on nothing.
6. Change jurisdiction. If the Romanian route is closed, the route of recognition of Moldovan citizenship is often open — and that is not a consolation prize but a full result.

What we take on

Requests to every archive and registry office along the chain, correspondence with them in the right language, thematic searches, obtaining certificates in a form suitable for legalisation, and the apostilles and translations that follow. You do not need to travel, call or explain — you only need to remember the names and the town.

Where people get it wrong

• They order a search along every line of descent at once. First it has to be established which branch actually provides a basis.
• They search by today’s borders. A village may have belonged to another county or even another country — the fonds sits where the administration was at the time of the event.
• They receive a certificate without checking its form. A document unsuitable for apostilling will have to be ordered again.
• They obtain fresh extracts before the archival search. Those will expire within two years while the search is under way.

Frequently asked questions

How long does an archival search take? From a few weeks for a simple request to 6–9 months for a thematic search across several fonds.

Can a request be made from abroad? Yes: by post, by email, and in Moldova online, with delivery abroad.

Are any records freely available? Some parish registers have been digitised and are available in research databases, but a file needs an official certificate from the archive, not a screenshot.

What if the record is found but the surname is spelled differently? You need a certificate of onomastic changes — see above.