Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The Lithuanian Migration Information System (MIGRIS) is an online system used to submit and manage applications and documents related to migration matters in Lithuania. It is administered by the Migration Department under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania.
Electronic documents issued by an archive in .adoc format may be legally valid as original electronic documents, provided they meet the applicable legal requirements, including requirements for electronic signatures where relevant.
However, the legal validity of a document and the technical ability to upload it to MIGRIS are two separate issues. If MIGRIS does not accept .adoc files directly, an alternative submission method may be required.
One possible option is to use the Electronic Government Gateway tool to generate a PDF version of the digitally signed .adoc document. However, the resulting PDF should not automatically be assumed to have the same legal status as the original electronic document, or to constitute an officially certified electronic copy. This depends on the conversion process and the receiving authority’s requirements.
Before submitting the document, applicants should confirm with the Migration Department whether a PDF generated using this tool is acceptable in MIGRIS and whether the original .adoc file must also be provided.
Practical recommendation: Keep the original .adoc file, including its electronic signatures, so that the document’s authenticity and signature validity can be verified if requested by the Migration Department.
Yes, when a document is signed with a qualified electronic signature, the electronic signature is authentic and can be verified as belonging to the signatory. The authenticity and integrity of the document can also be verified by validating the qualified electronic signature.
The fees are listed in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives’ official price list.
Application forms are available here: Application Forms.
Once you have completed the application form, please email it to the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (LVIA) at [email protected].
To request genealogical search, please complete the free-form application and send it to the Lithuanian State Historical Archives by email at [email protected].
If you do not know the exact parish or date, you can indicate this in your request as well. Please provide all the information you have, and the Archives will assess what type of research can be carried out.
To begin genealogical search, as much detailed information as possible is required. This may include the dates of birth, marriage, or death of at least one family member. You may start with your father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother who was born before 1940. This information is important to ensure that the research focuses specifically on your family, rather than on another family with the same surname.
It is also helpful to provide information about the person’s religion, church or parish, village or place of residence, as well as the names of their parents, brothers, and sisters and their dates of birth, marriage, or death.
The main difference between genealogical search and obtaining documents confirming legal facts is the scope of the research and the final result.
Genealogical research is a research service aimed at finding information about specific ancestors or a family line. The research may involve parish registers, population censuses, records of religious communities, civil registration records, and other archival sources. It may cover several generations and require the examination of numerous documents. To request genealogical research, please complete the Free-Form Application.
Documents confirming legal facts are official documents issued by the Archives that confirm a specific fact based on records held in the Archives. These may confirm, for example, a person's birth, marriage or death. To request such a document, please complete the appropriate application form:
Genealogical search identifies and connects information about family relationships based on baptism, marriage, and death records found in parish registers.
Depending on the surviving records and the information they contain, it may be possible to establish a person's name and surname, date and place of birth or baptism, parents, spouse, date and place of marriage, date and place of death, as well as other family members mentioned in the records. This information can help establish family relationships and trace a genealogical line.
Please note that genealogical research is not a biographical investigation. It does not provide detailed information about a person's education, employment, military service, property, activities, or other aspects of their life.
Genealogical search at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives is a paid service. The search begins once an initial fee of €300 has been paid for genealogical search of one family using the parish registers of one church. The initial fee covers an average of 10 hours of research work.
The initial fee is deducted from the final cost of the search. The final cost depends on the scope and complexity of the research and the actual time spent on the work, and is determined after the search has been completed.
Genealogical search is normally conducted along the male line and covers approximately 3–5 generations. The cost of genealogical search for one family is approximately €1,500–€2,000.
If the search produces no results, the initial €300 fee is non-refundable.
For more information about the fees for services provided by the Archives, please see the Lithuanian State Historical Archives Service Price List.
No. Genealogical search is a comprehensive and systematic archival investigation and therefore cannot be effectively divided into separate, independent stages. The Archives do not have a database that allows a specific person to be located simply by searching for their surname or first name.
During the search, each record found may provide important information for further investigation. For example, a marriage record may indicate the parents, ages, and places of residence of the spouses. This information can help identify the previous generation of the family and continue the research in earlier records.
Therefore, a systematic examination of all relevant records is essential to accurately identify members of your family, rather than limiting the research to people with the same surname or similar names.
Yes. If the parish register entries indicate that members of the family under investigation were nobles, the genealogical search is supplemented by a search for documents confirming noble status. In such cases, not only parish register entries are examined, but also documents held in other archival fonds relating to noble families, their origins, and the confirmation of noble status.
The main fonds in which such information may be sought include:
- Fond No. 391 – „Vilniaus gubernijos bajorų deputatų susirinkimo kanceliarija“;
- Fond No. 708, inventory No. 2 – „Vilniaus ir Kauno gubernijų apskričių bajorų vadovai ir bajorų globos įstaigos“;
- Fond No. 789 – „Vilniaus centrinė revizijos komisija“.
This demonstrates that genealogical search may encompass a broader range of archival sources, rather than being limited to parish registers.
No. As the Archives receive a large number of genealogical search requests, they are processed in the order in which they are received. At present, there may be a waiting period of approximately six months before genealogical search can begin.
The waiting time may vary depending on the number of requests awaiting processing at the time.
Genealogical search generally takes approximately 8–10 working days. As the Archives do not have a single comprehensive database that allows an individual to be readily identified by name or surname, relevant information must be located and verified in various parish registers. These records are handwritten and were compiled in different languages.
The duration of the research may vary depending on the scope of the research, the period covered, the quantity of relevant archival records held by the Archives, and their condition.
No. A request for genealogical search may be submitted by both citizens of the Republic of Lithuania and citizens of other countries. Lithuanian citizenship is not a requirement for requesting genealogical search.
Access to documents of the National Documentary Fund containing information about a person’s private life, as well as to structured personal data collections, is regulated by the Law on Documents and Archives of the Republic of Lithuania. Article 20(5) of this Law establishes the time limits for restricting public access to such documents.
Under this Law, access to birth registers is restricted for 100 years, while marriage and death registers are subject to restrictions of 70 and 30 years respectively. However, access to documents or copies of documents received from non-state organizations, private individuals, or legal entities may be restricted in accordance with the conditions of use specified in the transfer agreement.
A 100-year access restriction period applies to digital copies of birth, marriage, and death register books, parishioner lists, and other documents preserved in the churches of Lithuanian dioceses (LVIA fonds Nos. 3001–3007). This restriction has been applied in accordance with the Agreement of 30 May 2016 between the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference on the digitization of parish register books held in the Roman Catholic parishes of Lithuania.
Access to records containing personal data is restricted in accordance with the Law on Documents and Archives of the Republic of Lithuania:
- Birth records are generally accessible 100 years after a person's birth. If 100 years have not yet passed since the person's birth, access to the record is generally restricted.
- Marriage records are generally accessible 70 years after the record was created when neither the person's date of birth nor date of death is known. If 70 years have not yet passed since the marriage record was created, access to the record is generally restricted.
- Death records are generally accessible 30 years after a person's death. If 30 years have not yet passed since the date of death, the record is generally not publicly accessible.
These time limits are established in Article 20(5) of the Law on Documents and Archives of the Republic of Lithuania. The Lithuanian version of the law is available here:
Until the beginning of 2022, when the project “Electronic Services – Creation of the EAIS Digital Reading Room” implemented by the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania was launched, digital images of register books were uploaded and made available on the website www.epaveldas.lt.
Since 2022, digitized files have been uploaded to the EAIS Digital Reading Room, where the register books available on www.epaveldas.lt can also be accessed. In turn, the books available in the EAIS Digital Reading Room at https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext are also visible on the www.epaveldas.lt website.
Due to the way the Digital Reading Room and www.epaveldas.lt websites are interconnected, the main screen of www.epaveldas.lt displays only the covers of those files that have already been uploaded to the EAIS Digital Reading Room at https://eais.archyvai.lt/repo-ext.
To view the entire file, click on the displayed cover image of the file you wish to view. Then, at the bottom of the left side of the screen, expand the section “Object Data”. In the information that opens, click the active Digital Reading Room link to view the entire file.
On the Archives website at https://lvia.archyvai.lrv.lt/lt/fondu-rodykles/, there is an Index of Parish Registers of the Former Vilnius Roman Catholic Diocese Churches, Now Located in the Territory of Belarus.
It contains information about all the fonds and inventories held by the Lithuanian State Historical Archives that contain parish registers of churches belonging to the former Vilnius Diocese and located in what is now the territory of Belarus.
The Lithuanian State Historical Archives did not receive for preservation any lists of buried persons, burial and grave registration journals, or cemetery registers.
The only way to identify persons who died before 1940 is to consult the death registers of the specific church, which indicate the cemetery where the deceased person was buried.
In civil registration records from 1940 onward, only the deceased person’s place of residence is generally indicated, rather than the place of burial (with rare exceptions in the years 1940–1943).
For information about burials after 1940, inquiries should be directed to the cemetery administration.