25 May 2017

New Map: Bukovina

We're very pleased to announce the release of a new map of Bukovina that, along with Galizien, was a part of the Austrian Empire, western neighbors to the Russian Empire.

Bukovina, whose name in all languages (Romanian: Bucovina; German: Buchenland; Polish: Bukowina; Ukrainian: Буковина) means land of beech trees, is a historical geographic area in east central Europe located on the northern slopes of the Carpathian mountains and the adjoining plains, currently straddling Romania and Ukraine. Formerly a part of Moldavia, in 1775, it became a part of the Austrian Empire.

The area is very rich and diverse in terms of ethnicity and religion. Three major German groups –Swabians from southwestern Germany, Bohemians from the Bohemian Forest and Zipsters from upper Hungary – settled colonies in the area and also joined many villages that already existed, some of which became more German in character as a result.  Some spent time in Galizien before moving to Bukovina.

One interesting thing you may notice when looking at these locations is that there is rarely only one religion noted for a colony.  Austria and the Habsburg Monarchy were officially Roman Catholic, but one particular source,  Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder (Gazetteer of the Crown Lands and Territories Represented in the Imperial Council), enumerated separately both Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic residents along with Jewish and "other."  The "other," it turns out, was anything of the Protestant faith, Lutheran and/or Reformed. Evangelische parishes were found for some colonies and are noted on the map with a (P) after the parish name.

If this is your area of research or if you're interested in learning more about it, I urge you to check out the sources below that were used to populate the map.  The history and chronology by Sophie A. Welisch are in English and excellent places to start.

The following maps are now available and updated: 
All of the maps associated with this site along with their descriptions can be found on the Maps page.

Bukovina Sources:




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