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Wiznitz & Waschkoutz: Jewish registers of births, marriages and deaths, 1918–1930
The registers kept by the Jewish registry offices of Wiznitz (Vyzhnytsia) and Waschkoutz (Vashkivtsi) in Bukovina between 1918 and 1930, read entry by entry. Every person named in an entry is searchable: the child, the parents and grandparents, the bride and groom, the deceased, and also witnesses, midwives, mohels and rabbis. Mothers are found by their maiden names too.
Under “More fields”: the village of the entry (any of its names), and the surname of a parent, spouse or other person in the same entry — for example a child by the mother’s maiden name. Search tips · Terms
3,644register entries
20,897people named in them
8books on 4 microfilms
All books available on film are read: every frame of the three microfilms, finished 7 October 2026.
What is new here
- 2,279 entries that had no name index anywhere — Wiznitz births 1918–1920; Wiznitz births 1920–1925; Wiznitz births 1926–1929; Wiznitz deaths May 1918 – April 1920; Wiznitz deaths 1920–1930. As of October 2026 neither JewishGen nor FamilySearch indexes these books; until now they could only be read frame by frame. 12,528 people are named in them.
- Waschkoutz births are also indexed by JewishGen (994 lines). We read the book again in full: here every person in the entry is searchable, including 1,663 witnesses, midwives, mohels and others not in that index, and the margin notes on legitimation and later name changes are given in full. About a hundred of our entries have no match in that index yet; they are being checked against the frames.
- Wiznitz marriages 1918–1925 are indexed by JewishGen; ours cover the same entries and add every named person and the marginal notes.
The books
| Book | State Archive of Chernivtsi Oblast | FamilySearch film, frames | Entries | Other name index |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Births, Waschkoutz and villages, 1918–1928 | fond 1245, opys 1, file 932 | 007807376, frames 7–553 | 1,006 | JewishGen |
| Births, Wiznitz, 1918–1920 | fond 1245, opys 1, file 933 | 007807376, frames 559–662 | 199 | none — first index |
| Marriages, Wiznitz, 1918–1923 | fond 1245, opys 1, file 934 | 007807376, frames 668–777 | 189 | JewishGen |
| Births, Wiznitz, 1920–1925 | fond 1245, opys 1, files 935 and 936 | 007807376, frames 778–849; 007799359, frames 1–330, 791–817 | 774 | none — first index |
| Births, Wiznitz, 1926–1929 | fond 1245 (file number to be confirmed) | 007799360, frames 1–259 | 489 | none — first index |
| Marriages, Wiznitz, 1923–1925 | fond 1245, opys 1, file 939 | 007799359, frames 687–790 | 170 | JewishGen |
| Deaths, Wiznitz, May 1918 – April 1920 | fond 1245, opys 4, file 88 | 007799782, frames 180–292 | 196 | none — first index |
| Deaths, Wiznitz, 1920–1930 | fond 1245, opys 1, files 937 and 938 | 007799359, frames 331–686 | 621 | none — first index |
Waschkoutz births include the villages of its registry district (Karapcziu, Russ Banilla, Willawcze and others); the village is given on each entry. Wiznitz marriages after 1925 and any Waschkoutz books other than births are not on FamilySearch.
How it was read
- Machine-assisted reading, checked against the images. An AI model read every frame and wrote each entry down as the clerk wrote it, in German or Romanian, with names letter for letter.
- How accurate is it? On 7 and 8 October 2026 we checked a random sample of 550 entries from 275 frames across all the books against the original images. A separate reader worked from the images alone, and every disagreement was settled by a third look at the frame. Surnames match the register letter for letter in 96 % of cases and to within one letter in 98 %; given names in 90 % and 98 %. Act numbers matched in every case, dates were exact in 95 %, and no entry on the checked frames was missing from the index. Limits: for deaths before 1924 the place of death is not given here (the older index put Wiznitz for every death); a father named only in a later marginal note is not always searchable; a child legitimated by a later marriage is listed under both surnames, mother's and father's. Always open the frame: the image, not the index, is the record.
- Marks. Square brackets mean the clerk didn't write it there but the entry implies it (a child's surname, a mother's married name); “(?)” marks an uncertain reading.
- Two death books were indexed earlier from a first reading; where a frame has been re-read, the re-read version is used. Some of those older entries list only the deceased, with the parents' names in the wording of the entry.
- Images are not copied here. Each entry links to its frame on FamilySearch. Viewing the film needs a free FamilySearch account.
- Privacy. For children born in 1926 or later only the surname is shown; the entry itself is on the original frame. Why.
- Found a mistake? Use “Report an error” on the entry page. Corrections are checked against the frame.
Terms you will meet
The registers are written in German until about 1920 and in Romanian after. Occupations and notes are given as the clerk wrote them; on each entry page you can switch to English.
| As written | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Schächter, haham | ritual slaughterer (shochet) Slaughterer of animals by Jewish law. In Romanian records “haham”. |
| Private, Privatin, particular(ă) | of private means No occupation given; living on income or supported by family. |
| unehelich, nelegitim | born out of wedlock Often only means that the parents had a religious marriage that the state did not register. The child then carries the mother’s surname. |
| legitimiert, legitimat | legitimated The child was later recognised by the father or the parents married civilly; a margin note usually gives the date and the new surname. |
| Sandek, Pate, naş | sandek (godfather) Holds the child at the circumcision. |
| geb., geborene | née Before a woman’s maiden name. |
| Namensbeilegung | naming A girl’s naming in the synagogue, recorded instead of a circumcision. |
| recte | correctly “Katz recte Kupferman”: the legal surname is the second one. |
| p/C, p.C. | on the Czeremosz Pe Ceremuş: villages on the Czeremosz river (Waschkoutz p/C, Banilla p/C). |
| negustor de lemne, neguster de lemne, Holzhändler | timber merchant |
| negustor de vite, Viehhändler | cattle dealer |
| negustor de cereale, Getreidehändler | grain merchant |
| negustor, neguster | merchant |
| comerciant, comerc. | merchant |
| Geschäftsmann, Kaufmann | businessman, merchant |
| Gemischtwarenhändler, Greisler, băcan | grocer |
| Handelsangestellter | shop employee |
| Rabbiner, rabin | rabbi |
| Vorbeter | cantor (prayer leader) |
| Bethausdiener, servitor la sinagogă | synagogue beadle (shammes) |
| Privatlehrer, profesor particular | private teacher |
| Grundwirt | landholder, farmer |
| Taglöhner | day labourer |
| Hausbesitzer, Hauseigentümer, proprietar | house owner |
| Schneidermeister | master tailor |
| Schneidergehilfe | tailor’s assistant |
| croitor, Schneider | tailor |
| cişmar, cizmar, Schuhmacher | shoemaker |
| tâmplar, tâmpl., Tischler | joiner, carpenter |
| tinichigiu | tinsmith |
| măcelar, Fleischhauer | butcher |
| frizer, friz. | barber |
| zidar, Maurer | mason |
| sticlar, geamgiu | glazier |
| pielar, Lederhändler | leather worker, leather dealer |
| cărăuş, Fuhrmann | carter |
| cârciumar | innkeeper |
| Uhrmacher | watchmaker |
| Gerichtsoffiziant | court clerk |
| funcţionar particular, funcţ. part. | private clerk |
| agricultor, agric. | farmer |
| lucrător, lucrătoare, lucr. | worker |
| avocat, advocat | lawyer |
| mozaic(ă), mosaisch, israelitisch | Jewish (of the Mosaic faith) |
| ehelich | born in wedlock |
| Hebamme, moaşă | midwife |
| Beschneider, Mohel | mohel (circumciser) |
| Zeuge, martor | witness |
| Witwer | widower |
| Witwe | widow |
| ledig | single |
| verheiratet | married |
| ohne Beruf | no occupation |
| wohnhaft in | living in |
| Beschneidung | circumcision |
| Trauungsschein | marriage certificate |
| getraut | married (wedding) |
| Beerdigung, begraben | burial |
| Todesursache | cause of death |
| decedat(ă), gestorben | deceased |
| vel | or (also known as) |
Search tips
- Sounds like (the default) finds spellings that sound the same by the Daitch–Mokotoff system and keeps only close spellings as results: Katz finds Kac, Kaz, Caț. Other surnames with the same code are listed separately below the results.
- Exact spelling finds only that spelling; Starts with finds every surname that begins with the letters you typed.
- * and ? in a surname: * stands for any letters, ? for one letter. Kat*, *berg, Gr?nberg.
- Accents and alphabets don’t matter: ş = s, ţ = tz, ä = a, ł = l. Records written in Cyrillic are found by their Latin spelling.
- Given name matches the beginning of any given name of the person: Mor finds Moritz, Mordko and Moric.
- Other surnames: a married woman is also found by her maiden name (née, născută, geb.), and anyone by a second surname written with recte, vel, zis or false.
- Town (under “More fields”): any of the town’s names in any language. Collections from one city match only that city.
- Parent, spouse or other: a surname of another person in the same record (a register entry, a family declaration or letter, a family on a list). Use it to find a child by the mother’s maiden name, or a couple.
- A dash (—) in the list of collections means that collection has no such field, so the search was not run there; 0 means it was searched and nothing was found.
- Private: people born in 1926 or later are shown by surname only. Why.
How to cite
State Archive of Chernivtsi Oblast (DAChO), fond 1245, [opys and file of the book], entry no. N of year N. Microfilm: FamilySearch, DGS film N, frame N. Index: Zeydele (zeydele.com).