About the Kremenets District Research Group

The Kremenets District Research Group (KDRG) is a worldwide group of people who trace our ancestors to the towns of the Kremenets district in present-day Ukraine.

Coordinators

Ellen Garshick, Sheree Roth, and Ron Doctor

History

Ron Doctor and Sheree Roth formed the Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP in August 2000 following the IAJGS Conference in Salt Lake City. Now the Kremenets District Research Group, we coordinate the Krzemieniec Research Area of JRI-Poland and serve as leaders for many of the Kremenets-district towns included in JewishGen's Ukraine Research Division.

What does KDRG do?

Originally, our purpose was to translate and make publicly available the approximately 15,000 vital records from the town of Kremenets that the Family History Library had microfilmed. Since our formation, we have expanded our scope to include all the records we can find about Kremenets and its surrounding villages. We obtain, translate, and make available data from those records. We post some translations on this site, and post translated, proofed records in the JRI-Poland database. We make unproofed records available to KDRG contributors.

See the Research Page to learn how to search the records for your family names and towns.

See the spreadsheet KDRG Document Acquisitions and Status for a list of all the documents we have obtained and the status of each translation project.

Vital Records

To date, we have translated 24,871 birth, 3,371 marriage, 196 divorce, and 8,674 death records for the towns of the Kremenets district for various years from 1870 to 1936.

The records for the years through World War I are handwritten in 19th-century Russian and Hebrew/Yiddish; those for the interwar period are written in Polish. Some years are incomplete or missing. Unfortunately, the ledgers have no index pages, which made our translation project even more important.

The vital records are an incredibly rich source of information. For example, the birth records include not only the given names of the newborn, but also the father's surname, the mother's and father's given names, and sometimes the mother's and father's patronymics and mother's birth surname. Many records include the social class of the father and the mother's father and the town or shtetl in which they were registered. Some even include the given name and surname of the mother's father and his social class and registration town.

The Vital Records of Kremenets, by Ronald D. Doctor (2001; PDF), is an analysis of the records held by FHL.
The Vital Records of Kremenets: An Update, by Adam Mizock (2021; PDF), analyzes causes of death in records from 1870 to 1938.
Inventory of Jewish Vital Records on Microfilms Held by FHL (PDF)

Hebrew side of a birth record from Katerburg, 1887

Page from a Revision List ledger for Oleksinets, 1858

Revizskie Skazki (Revision List) Records

Russia began compiling Revizskie Skazki (Revision Lists) in 1719. These censuses, which were used to levy poll taxes, continued intermittently through the 18th and 19th centuries.

We have translated Family History Library and State Archive of the Ternopil Region microfilms of the various Revizskie Skazki (Revision List, or census) records for the Kremenets district for various years from 1811 to 1883. Some years are incomplete or missing for some towns. The resulting database includes 108,916 names from the towns of Belozirka, Berezhtsy, Katerburg, Kozin, Kremenets, Krupets, Lanovtsy, Oleksinets, Pochayev, Podberezhtse, Radzivilov, Rokhmanov, Shumsk, Vishnevets, Vyshgorodok, and Yampol. (We also translated 1816 records from the Ostrog district towns of Annopol, Gushcha, Kilikiev, Kunev, Lakhovtsy, Mezherichi, Ostrog, and Teofipol that were included in the Kremenets-district ledgers.)

Description of the Revision Lists and the translation project, by Ronald D. Doctor (2007; PDF)

Central Archives, Ternopil Archives, and Other Documents

We have obtained copies of documents from the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, the State Archive of the Ternopil Region, and many other sources. These include vital records, resident lists, and many other documents, some of which date to the 1500s. See the Research page for a list of translations of these documents.

Yizkor Books

Translated and indexed yizkor books include two 450-page books for Kremenets (one published in Tel Aviv and one in Buenos Aires), 18 booklets published by the Organization of Kremenets Emigrants in Israel, and books for Vishnevets and Radzivilov. Descendants of Shumsk families have translated a yizkor book for Shumsk.

Cemetery Project

In 2006-2007, we undertook a project to document, restore, and maintain the Jewish cemeteries of Kremenets and Vishnevets. See the Cemeteries page for information on the project and the resulting database.

Indexed Concordance of Personal Names and Town Names

We maintain an Indexed Concordance of Personal Names and Town Names for all the records we have translated and compiled to date. As of 2025, the Concordance includes more than 520,000 entries. Each entry details the surname, the given name, the associated town, the source of each record, and the location of the record within the source. See the Research page for information on the Concordance.

How can I find out more about these resources?

This KehilaLinks site includes many resources for those interested in the Kremenets district. See especially the Research page. We urge you to explore the site, and, if you can add to it in any way, email the site creator (see the page footer).

How can I help?

If you have suggestions for our project or material for this site, or of you'd like to volunteer, email the site creator (see the page footer). Or, if you just want to be kept informed of our progress, sign up for our mailing list.

Pending Projects

Research help: Help Kremenets-district researchers find family records in our resources
Kremenets Census: Translate 1922 census records from Polish to English
Kremenets Tarbut School: Translate 1938-1939 student ledgers from Hebrew to English
Yad Vashem testimonies: Translate first-person Holocaust-era testimonies from Hebrew, Polish, or Yiddish
Slownik Geograficzny [Geographic Dictionary]: Translate 1880-1904 entries from Polish to English

Cemeteries →

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