The Josephine and Franciscan Surveys Project

Project Coordinator: Andrew Zalewski

Jewish genealogists seldom tap into early population records from Galicia. Gesher Galicia has made these important sources the subject of a new research initiative. Once completed, the names of the inhabitants will be searchable through the All Galicia Database on the Gesher Galicia website, offering a unique resource for tracing your family roots.

The Josephine survey was ordered by Emperor Joseph II in 1785 (hence, it is sometimes referred to as the Josephine cadastre). Thousands of communities in Galicia — along with those in other provinces of the Habsburg Monarchy — were surveyed, with the names, house numbers, and every plot of land recorded in specially prepared registers. To learn more, click here.

The Franciscan survey — ordered by the imperial edict of Francis I in 1817 (and referred to as the Franciscan cadastre) — recorded Jewish names using given names and surnames. Its first phase was conducted in 1819–1822, with the Jewish landholders found in many communities. Charting cadastral maps was the survey’s new feature but detailed land measurements in Galicia did not finish until 1854. To learn more, click here.

Access an Inventory Table of all Josephine & Franciscan cadastral survey records to see which localities and records have been researched, indexed, and made available, free to all, on the All Galicia Database. To date, there we researched 67 towns, resulting in 56,177 records.

Click here for an inventory table of all Josephine & Franciscan cadastral survey records that Gesher Galicia has indexed and made available, free to all, on the All Galicia Database. To date, there are 52,900 records, from 56 towns.

Gesher Galicia members can access scans of these records in the Members Portal (look for “Archival Records”), by clicking here.

Additional resources:

For more details refer to the articles: “Early Galician Population Surveys,” Galitzianer, March 2016 and “Research Project Updates,” Galitzianer, September 2017. Past issues can be found at the Members Portal click here.

For the archival inventory of the Josephine and Franciscan surveys held in TsDIAL, Lviv, Ukraine check the reference (Kiev 1965, in Cyrillic).

If you have questions about the J&F project, contact: andrew.zalewski@geshergalicia.org