Czernowitz (Chernivtsi), Bukovina, Ukraine

Czernowitz (German) · Cernăuți (Romanian) · Chernivtsi / Чернівці (Ukrainian) · Czerniowce (Polish) · Tshernovits / טשערנאָוויץ (Yiddish) · Chernovtsy / Черновцы (Russian)

Czernowitz was the capital of Bukovina, the easternmost crown land of the Habsburg Empire, and one of the great Jewish cities of Central Europe, and members of my Mittman family lived there. This page collects a short history of the city and the genealogical resources I have found most useful for researching Czernowitz and Bukovina families.

At a glance

Today	Chernivtsi, capital of Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine
Historical region	Bukovina (northern part); near the borders of Galicia, Bessarabia and Moldavia
Coordinates	48.29° N, 25.94° E
Sovereignty	Moldavia (to 1775) → Habsburg Austria (1775–1918) → Romania (1918–1940) → USSR (1940–41) → Romania (1941–44) → USSR (1944–91) → Ukraine (1991–)
Languages of records	German (Austrian era), Romanian (1918–1944), Russian and Ukrainian (Soviet era and later); Hebrew/Yiddish on headstones and in community records
Jewish population	About a third of the city on the eve of the First World War

History

This timeline is an outline I still need to check against published histories.

1408 – First documented mention, in a charter of the Moldavian prince Alexander the Good.
1775 – Bukovina is ceded by the Ottoman Empire to Habsburg Austria; Czernowitz becomes its administrative center.
1849 – Bukovina becomes a separate Austrian crown land (Duchy of Bukovina) with Czernowitz as its capital.
1867 – Full civil equality for Jews in Austria; rapid growth of the Jewish community, with German as the language of daily and civic life.
1875 – The Franz-Josephs-Universität opens, the easternmost German-language university in the empire.
1908 – The Czernowitz Yiddish Language Conference declares Yiddish a national language of the Jewish people.
1918 – After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Bukovina joins Romania; the city becomes Cernăuți. From 1930, civil registration is no longer kept by religion.
1940 – June: the Soviet Union occupies northern Bukovina. June 1941: deportations to Siberia.
1941 – July: Romanian and German forces return; mass killings by Einsatzkommando 10b. October: a ghetto is created and most of the Jewish population is deported to Transnistria. Mayor Traian Popovici secures exemptions for about 20,000 people.
1942 – June: a further round of deportations to Transnistria. August: census declarations of the remaining Jewish families.
1944 – The Soviet army retakes the city. 1945–1946: many survivors leave for Romania and onward to Israel, the Americas and Western Europe.
1991 – Chernivtsi becomes part of independent Ukraine.

Records by era

Where to look depends on when the event happened.

Period	Records	Where to find them
1856–1929	Jewish metrical books (births, marriages, deaths) kept by the Jewish community	FamilySearch catalog 1378569 (images); name index at Czernowitz GeneaSearch
1869, 1880, 1890	Austrian census books	Chernivtsi State Archive, fond 39 opys 3; images on FamilySearch; index in progress at zeydele.com
1898–1936	City address directories	Edgar Hauster’s scans on czernowitz.blogspot.com
1930–1940	Civil registration (no longer by religion); newspaper registry notices	Czernowitzer Deutsche Tagespost deaths and marriages database, 1936–1940
1941–1944	Romanian governorate files, including the August 1942 census declarations	Chernivtsi State Archive fond R-307; USHMM RG-31.006M; name index at zeydele.com; images on FamilySearch
1945 onward	Émigré press, repatriation lists, Holocaust testimonies	Die Stimme (DiFMOE); 1946 repatriates list; Yad Vashem; Arolsen Archives

Online resources

Grouped by kind of source. Compiled from my archive of the Czernowitz-L mailing list (November 1998 – October 2026), keeping only sites that hold records or documents.

Indexes & databases

zeydele.com – Free name index by Leonid Kats. Czernowitz 1941–1944 files (USHMM RG-31.006M, filmed from the Chernivtsi State Archive, fond R-307): about 144,600 name entries from all 37 reels, including about 3,700 family declarations of August 1942, each linked to the original USHMM frame. Also an index of the 1869, 1880 and 1890 census books in progress (about 109,000 people read so far, not yet published), a town-by-town finder for birth, marriage and death registers in archive catalogues, and a short guide to Czernowitz sources. Announced in October 2026; Edgar Hauster called it the most significant contribution to Bukovina genealogy in many years. Readings are machine-assisted; Kats reports 91% of sampled surnames read exactly.
Links: zeydele.com/czernowitz-1942 · zeydele.com/censuses · zeydele.com/towns · zeydele.com/guides/czernowitz-sources-guide
Czernowitz GeneaSearch – Name index to the Czernowitz Jewish birth, marriage and death registers filmed by FamilySearch (Metrical books, 1856–1940). Use the index to find year and item, then view the image on FamilySearch. Copies can also be ordered from GeneaSearch. Recommended repeatedly by Bruce Reisch and Edgar Hauster. Indexing was organized by Daniel Horowitz.
Links: czernowitz.geneasearch.net · geneasearch.net/index.php
FamilySearch catalog – Digitized images, mostly unindexed. Catalog 1378569: Czernowitz Jewish metrical books 1856–1940. Catalog 1378649: birth records for districts around Czernowitz. Catalog 1632161: civil registers including Jews to 1933, plus a 1940 death register. Also the 1942 Cernăuți government records (the August 1942 Jewish census family declarations, 31 files) and the 1869/1880/1890 census books as image groups. Daniel Horowitz first reported the large set of Czernowitz microfilms in February 2011. Images need a free account.
Links: familysearch.org/search/catalog/1378569 · familysearch.org/search/catalog/1378649 · familysearch.org/search/catalog/1632161 · familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHJ-QW3M-Y3BR-Z?view=explore&groupId=TH-7714-164727-106939-9&lang=en&grid=on
archival.name – Free search engine launched in October 2026 by Luke Rothman: 3.3 million records from registers, censuses, house lists and name lists; 1.5 million entries from printed Galician directories (1883–1942); Vienna address books 1915–1942, including the 1915 directory of nearly 20,000 refugee households from Galicia and Bukovina; a gazetteer of 13,795 places in Galicia and Bukovina. A list member found a relative who was a bookbinder in Radautz in 1890–1894. Note: One list member reports that about half of scan requests fail with a security error.
Czernowitzer Deutsche Tagespost deaths & marriages, 1936–1940 – Database of 8,116 deaths and 3,754 marriages taken from the Czernowitz registry office notices printed in the Czernowitzer Deutsche Tagespost, often with address and occupation, each linked to the newspaper page. Covers the city and the suburbs Horecza, Kaliczanka, Klokuczka, Manasteriska and Rosch. Built by Edgar Hauster to fill the 1930–1940 gap: FamilySearch data ends in 1929, and from 1930 civil registration was no longer kept by religion. 1939 was added in December 2024.
Czernowitz address directories 1898–1936 – Scanned city directories put online by Edgar Hauster for 1898, 1909, 1914, 1927 and 1936. Useful for linking a name to a street address and trade. Shared in November 2023 for a list member researching carpenters and tinsmiths 1880–1910.
Links: czernowitz.blogspot.com/2008/11/directory-for-czernowitz-and-its.html · czernowitz.blogspot.com/2008/11/address-book-for-czernowitz-including_16.html · czernowitz.blogspot.com/2008/11/address-book-for-czernowitz-including_8456.html · czernowitz.blogspot.com/2010/11/directory-for-czernowitz-for-year-1927.html · czernowitz.blogspot.com/2010/02/address-book-for-czernowitz-for-year.html
Other czernowitz.blogspot.com datasets – The Radautz Jewish Vital Records Database 1857–1929 (transcribed by Martina Hauster), a list of Jewish taxpayers in Bukovina, and death certificates issued by Czernowitz authorities. Cited alongside the census-book and Die Stimme threads.
Links: czernowitz.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-radautz-vital-records-index.html · czernowitz.blogspot.com/2014/05/jewish-taxpayers-in-bukovina-at-end-of.html · czernowitz.blogspot.com/2014/05/death-certificates-issued-by-czernowitz.html
Repatriates at the USSR/Romanian border, 1946 – A list of over 10,000 people repatriated from northern Bukovina to Romania in March and April 1946. Posted on Edgar Hauster's Radauti blog; cited with a scanned Soviet transfer document.
Links: radauti.blogspot.com/2009/12/repatriates-at-ussrromanian-border.html · hauster.de/data/SovietTransfer.pdf
JewishGen databases – The all-databases search (filter by Country=Ukraine, Region=Galicia or Bukovina) and the cemetery databases. Burial listings for the Czernowitz Jewish cemetery were indexed by list members into JOWBR. A list member used the burial records to find Brandmann burials in January 2026; another found a Jurgrau headstone there in July 2026.
Links: jewishgen.org/databases/all · jewishgen.org/databases/Cemetery

Archives & document collections

USHMM Collections Search – Holocaust Memorial Museum catalog. Holds RG-31.006M (the Czernowitz 1941–1944 governorate files behind zeydele.com), plus oral-history interviews and photos of Czernowitz-born people. Linked records include the 1994 Samuel Flor interview and papers of Maximilian Koessler.
Links: collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504791 · collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn518430 · collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1160267
Yad Vashem Collections – "List of Jewish residents from Cernauti, 1942": 3,657 names, dated 23 July 1942, compiled from M.I census forms not exchanged for M.II forms. Edgar Hauster argues it is in effect a list of people already deported to Transnistria in June 1942, not of those still present. Another list member points to the full August 1942 census declarations on FamilySearch.
FelixArchief, Antwerp – City archive of Antwerp, with over one million aliens-registration dossiers, most digitized and often with photos. A search for "Czernowitz" returned 186 files. Recommended by Edgar Hauster for emigrants who passed through Antwerp on the way west or overseas. Free registration required.
Wiener Holocaust Library collections – Digital collections. Searching "Czernowitz" first returns the Einsatzkommando 10b report on the execution of Jews at Czernowitz, 9 July 1941, in German and English.
Links: whlcollections.org/search · whlcollections.org/image/1655-1688
EHRI Portal – European Holocaust Research Infrastructure finding aids, including the Matatias Carp collection (source of Cartea Neagră) and Koessler papers.
Links: portal.ehri-project.eu/units/il-002806-carp_coll · portal.ehri-project.eu/units/us-005578-irn518430
JBAT (Leo Baeck Institute archival survey) – Results of Julie Dawson's 2012–2019 survey of Jewish material held in archives in Bukovina and Transylvania: which archive holds what.
hauster.de document scans – Edgar Hauster's directory of scanned documents and photos: Matatias Carp's Cartea Neagră (Romanian vols. 1–3, English vol. 1), the 1946 Soviet transfer document, the Jewish orphanage, the Jewish hospital, and other PDFs cited in his Die Stimme posts.
Links: hauster.de/data/CarpRO1.pdf · hauster.de/data/CatpEN.pdf · hauster.de/data/SovietTransfer.pdf · hauster.de/data/Waisenhaus.pdf
Raimund F. Kaindl Digital Collection, Univ. of Graz – Kaindl's papers and the Bukovina Photo Collection, some images in high resolution. Brought to the list by Julie Dawson via Edgar Hauster in October 2026.
Links: unipub.uni-graz.at/obvugruakaindl · unipub.uni-graz.at/obvugruakaindl/content/titleinfo/10398550
YIVO Archives – Records of the Czernowitz Bukowiner society, whose landsmanshaft plot in a New York cemetery holds early emigrants.
Other person-specific archives – California Historical Society (Koessler papers) and JDC Archives (Malben aid programs in Israel, 1950s–60s). Each came up for one family or topic.
Links: californiahistoricalsociety.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/8855 · archives.jdc.org/project/malben-programs-in-israel-1950s-1960s

Newspapers & publications

DiFMOE: Jewish-German Bukovina 1918+ – Digital Forum Central and Eastern Europe. Digitized Bukovina Jewish periodicals, above all Die Stimme, the Bukovinian émigré newsletter from 1945 on, with personal notices, anniversaries and obituaries. Source of Edgar Hauster's long-running "A Snippet from Die Stimme" series. Also suggested for searching relatives' names.
Links: difmoe.eu · difmoe.eu/collection/uuid:73f99406-de54-44ff-bb4f-89a0b8b9560c?doctypes=periodical
ANNO, Austrian National Library – Full-text search of historical Austrian newspapers, including the Bukowinaer Post and Czernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung. Recommended for the period up to the First World War. A search for "Feibisch BRAMBIER" turned up five 1901–1903 articles tracing a murder case from missing-person report to conviction.
National Library of Israel newspapers – Historical Jewish Press search, suggested for finding relatives' names.
Internet Archive – Scanned books and documents, including Yiddish books from the Yiddish Book Center. Advanced search suggested for finding family documents.
Links: archive.org/advancedsearch.php · archive.org/details/nybc201155
JewishGen Yizkor Book translations – English translation of Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina (the Bukowina book), and other community books such as Obertyn.
Links: jewishgen.org/yizkor/bukowinabook/bukowina.html · jewishgen.org/yizkor/obertin/obertin.html
czernowitzbook.blogspot.com – Edgar Hauster's book blog: digitized and summarized Czernowitz books, including the Jewish Almanac for Greater Romania and family memoirs.
Links: czernowitzbook.blogspot.com/2018/03/jewish-almanac-for-greater-romania.html · czernowitzbook.blogspot.com/2017/09/about-my-family-autobiographical.html
Biographical reference works – Salomon Wininger's Große Jüdische National-Biographie (Frankfurt University Library and Jewish Museum Vienna) and the Bukowina-Institut's Bukowiki person and place entries.
Links: sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/titleinfo/6487687 · sammlung.jmw.at/objekt/029554-salomon-wininger-große-jüdische-national-biographie · bukowina-institut.de/en/bukowiki/personen/detail?id=19

Guides, maps & addresses

Jewish Bukovina: Sources for Genealogical and Family History Research – Bruce Reisch's master guide on JewishGen KehilaLinks: microfilmed records, historical newspapers, archives and databases for Czernowitz and other Bukovina towns. Called "the standard page" for Bukovina genealogy; recommended to nearly every new member since 2008. Older links use the shtetlinks.jewishgen.org address.
Czernowitz-L website – The list's own site: searchable archive of all list posts, a map collection, the Czernowitz street-name translator (Austrian, Romanian, Soviet and current names), and member family stories. Also in the footer of nearly every message (527).
Links: czernowitz.ehpes.com · czernowitz.ehpes.com/maps/index.htm · czernowitz.ehpes.com/czernowitz5/translator/translator.html
czernowitz.org maps – Iosif Vaisman's map extracts, 2010 panoramic street photos, and a scanned page of the 1936 Czernowitz phone book. Used to place the Roll family house at Roschergasse and Cecinagasse.
Links: czernowitz.org/maps/roschergasse.jpg · czernowitz.org/maps/roll_phone_1936.jpg
Urban Media Archive, Lviv Center – The West map of Czernowitz, c. 1888, showing Austrian-era house numbers.
Street photos and modern maps – LiveJournal photo archives tagged by street (whasup, gr-czernowitz) and OpenStreetMap, for matching old addresses to today's buildings.
Links: gr-czernowitz.livejournal.com/tag/vul.%20gastello · openstreetmap.org/#map=18/48.293289/25.935365
Bukovina Jewish Heritage Sites (Eylon Consulting) – Baruch Eylon's town-by-town database of Jewish heritage sites and cemeteries in Bukovina, with survey reports such as Hlyboka.
Links: eylonconsulting.com/bukovina · eylonconsulting.com/bukovina/blog/?p=1620

Cemetery documentation

Radautz Jewish cemetery documentation – Yossi Yagur's project photographing and transcribing Radautz headstones into JewishGen JOWBR, with a full description of the work to date.
Links: data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/jowbr/ROM-01899/ROM-01899-CemeteryDescription_replaceNov-2021.pdf · my.israelgives.org/en/fundme/RadautzCemeteryDoc
Nepolokivtsi Jewish cemetery transcriptions – Yohanan Loeffler's transcriptions and translations of headstones photographed by Edgar Hauster in 2015.
Suceava Old Jewish Cemetery index – Index of the old cemetery in Suceava, browsable but not searchable by name; mostly patronymics.
Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art – Documentation of the Jewish cemetery in Câmpulung Moldovenesc.
Links: cja.huji.ac.il/browser.php?mode=set&id=9374 · cja.huji.ac.il/browser.php?mode=set&id=19678
Find a Grave – Memorial for a Czernowitz-born emigrant buried in the Czernowitz Bukowiner lodge section in New York.

Family trees & personal sites

Ancestry and davidmittman.org – Member family trees. I offered my Ancestry tree and my Reunion family tree here on davidmittman.org for the Roll and Felder families; another list member offered an Ancestry tree for Kamil and Dermer.
Links: ancestry.com · davidmittman.org/genealogy/David%20Saul%20MITTMAN/wc05/wc05_396.html
Museum of Family History – Steven Lasky's virtual museum: Czernowitz pages including school class photos and the Jewish hospital.
Links: museumoffamilyhistory.com/lee-czernowitz.htm · museumoffamilyhistory.com/czernowitz-school-L3.htm
Boris Feldblyum Collection / FAST Genealogy – Historic photo collection with a Chernivtsi page (including a 1909 synagogue photo), plus a paid genealogy research service.
Links: bfcollection.net/cities/ukraine/chernivtsi/chernivtsi.html · bfcollection.net/fast/fast.html
bukowina.info – Peter Elbau's site. In January 2008 a list member used the 1907 Czernowitz directory to find Leibisch MITTMAN, carpenter, Landhausgasse 13, and Nuchem KLANG, watchmaker, Waggasse 4.

Neighboring regions

Galicia record sources – Suggested for Obertyn, just across the border in Galicia: JRI-Poland (10,000 searchable records 1848–1931 and a surname list), Gesher Galicia town pages, and Jewish Galicia & Bukovina.
Links: jri-poland.org/town/obertyn · geshergalicia.org/towns/?id=168 · jgaliciabukovina.net/related_items/110741
Mohyliv-Podilskyi (Transnistria) sources – KehilaLinks and MyShtetl pages for Mogilev-Podolsky, a main crossing point for Bukovina deportees.
Links: kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/mohyliv_podilskyy/index.html · myshtetl.org/vinnitskaja/mogilev_en.html

Other sources (not online)

Mentioned in Czernowitz-L messages without a direct link, or requiring a request to the archive.

Source	Notes
Chernivtsi State Archive (DAChO)	Holds the originals: fond 39 opys 3 (1869/1880/1890 census books) and fond R-307 (1941–44 files filmed by USHMM). Usually reached through local researchers.
Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony	Compare 1950s and 1990s Pages of Testimony; the full archive is now digitized.
Arolsen Archives	Records of Nazi persecution and displaced persons.
MyHeritage and Geni	Member family trees, including a Schachner family profile on Geni.
Romanian National Archives (Arhivele Naționale)	Civil-status requests need the year and the village, city and county of birth.
Suceava County Archives	Vital records for southern Bukovina; email requests may go unanswered.
Ellis Island / NARA passenger records	Ship manifests, e.g. for confirming a birth year.
Duck Inspector	Volunteer project used by zeydele.com for its town-by-town register finder.

Connections on this site

Czernowitz Birth Record for Bernhard MITTMANN (1901 – 1979)
The 1907 Czernowitz directory lists Leibisch MITTMAN, carpenter, Landhausgasse 13, and Nuchem KLANG, watchmaker, Waggasse 4 (looked up by a list member, January 2008).
Roll and Felder families: see my Reunion family tree.
[Add links to the related Families pages.]

Research notes

[Open questions, records requested, and findings in progress.]

About this page

Resource list compiled from the Czernowitz-L mailing list archive, November 1998 – October 2026. Last updated October 2026.