Discovering My Roots

17 November 2008 - More on 2009 Tour

By Jim Onyschuk

It is acceptable to address your mail in Latin alphabet, similar to the way you would in Canada, for most large Ukrainian cities. Before 1991 (Soviet times) we wrote down addresses on the envelopes in accordance with the format of the postal system of the USSR: postal code, city, street, house number, flat number, last name, first name and patronymic (patronymic was optional). Postal codes consisted of 6 numbers.

For example:

325000, Khersonvul.
Suvorov, 00 apt. 00
Tkachenko P.V.
Vul. is str. (street).

This is the old format. After Ukraine became an independent state in 1991, postal codes changed. They began to consist of 5 numbers. The format of writing down the addresses on the envelopes changed too: last name, first name and patronymic, street, house number, flat number, city, postal code.

For example:

Tkachenko P.V.
vul. Suvorov, 00 apt. 00
Kherson, 73000
village Horishnya Vyhnanka
Chortkiv Raion
Ternopolskaya Obl.
Ukraine.

If you were hoping to locate any relatives from an ancestral village you could write to the village or town mayor, asking if there were people with your ancestral surnames still living there. They would likely know. Here is an example of how to address an envelope to go to the village head/mayor.

Holovi Silskoji Rady
selo Shydlivtsi
Chemerovetskij Raion
Khmelnitska Oblast
UA 31360
UKRAINE

Holovi Silskoji Rady refers to the Head of the Council
selo Shydlivtsi refers to the village of Shydlivtsi
Chemerovetskij Raion refers to the region of Chemerovetskij
Khmelnitska Oblast refers to the province Khmelnitska
UA 31360 is the postal code in Ukraine

For more information on writing to Ukraine visit the following page at:
http://www.torugg.org/trip_letter_writing_guide.html The Guide covers the various phrases that you would use when requesting information from various sources, such as the archives, churches and village/town mayors. There are also examples of letters for writing to a mayor. There are English phrases followed by the Ukrainian translation of that phrase. Simply decide on which phrases you will use. Then highlight the Ukrainian translation and copy it to your word processor.