About

What it is

Every archival document has an address: archive → fond → inventory → file. This site collects those addresses from open sources, adds what the sources themselves lack (whether a file is digitized or withheld from the reading room), and offers one fast search in Cyrillic and Latin script.

There are no scans here and there will not be: we show where a document is kept and link to the source. Everything taken from open sources is free for good. The Researcher plan gives early access and tools and supports the project.

Sources

Data currently in the database:

* Titles of individual files exist where the inventories were retyped by the “Velikie opisi” volunteers (NIAB, NARB, LVIA and others), where we extracted the inventories ourselves (NIAB in Grodno, part of NIAB), and for three Ukrainian archives — TsDIAK, TsDIAL and TsDAVO (only files mentioning places in Belarus). Archives we have only fonds of so far (the fond catalogue of Belarusian state archives) are not in the table: their fonds are in search and under “Archives”.

** The share of the archive's files we have with titles. Not given for archives outside Belarus: from them we take only files concerning Belarus.

Most file titles of NIAB, NARB, LVIA and several Russian archives come from the volunteer project “Velikie opisi”, where thousands of people retype archival inventories by hand. This site would not exist without their work.

Fonds and inventories of Ukrainian archives — the Central State Historical Archives in Kyiv and Lviv and the Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power — come from their e-resources on the ARCHIUM platform. Of hundreds of thousands of file titles we show only those that name places in today's Belarus (for example, metric books of the Slonim and Kobryn districts); each such file links to its ARCHIUM page, which often has scans.

Some inventories we read ourselves, from the files and scans on the archives' sites (NIAB in Minsk and in Grodno). This brings tens of thousands of files into search that cannot be found anywhere else. Titles read by software from scans are marked as machine-read and may have misread names; such a file's page links the scan and has a “Correct it” button.

Which parish a place belonged to comes from the “Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego” (1880–1902); coordinates and name variants from open geographic databases.

The "digitized" and "not issued" marks come from the inventories themselves and from public lists published by the archives; every record shows its source and when it was last refreshed.

Data last updated: November 9, 2026.

Planned: the remaining NIAB Grodno inventories (scans), Polish archives, the FamilySearch catalogue, linking a place to the registers of its parish.

Free and Researcher

Search, all record pages, source links and statuses are free, without registration, permanently.

The Researcher plan: early access (files we read ourselves from archival inventories show 30 days before everyone else), any number of saved searches (one on the free plan) with a daily e-mail about new and digitised files, unlimited collections. It is available as a subscription, or earned with a contribution or corrections of machine-read inventories. More about the plan

How to cite

Cite the archive, not this site: the URL of a file is permanent, but scholarly practice is to quote the archival reference.

NHAB. F. 1. Inv. 1. File 10.
https://fond-vopis-sprava.com/en/niab/1/1/10

Errors and additions

Spotted a mistake in a machine-read title? Press “Correct it” on the file page: the scan is shown alongside, once checked the correction appears on the site, and every corrected title earns you a day of the Researcher plan. For other mistakes, or if you know a file is digitised or not issued, write to us with the file reference.

Contact

Questions, suggestions, cooperation with archives and projects: fondvopissprava@gmail.com

Site news in the Telegram channel: @fondvopissprava

A private project. The site is not an official resource of any archive and does not issue archival certificates.