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Question:There's such complication as to which empire, etc., owned what in that region, can you tell me what nationality a person born in what is modern day Kozelets, Ukraine between 1877-79 would be? Ukrainian, Russian, Malorussian, other?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: There's such complication as to which empire, etc., owned what in that region, can you tell me what nationality a person born in what is modern day Kozelets, Ukraine between 1877-79 would be? Ukrainian, Russian, Malorussian, other?

There are several parts to your question...and it is very complicated.

Ethnicity is what the peasants in the area considered themselves, and that would have been Ukranian.

Nationality depends on who ruled the land on a given day. Because Russia ruled the land, their allegiance was to the Czar of Russia. Immigration records would use that, but census records would have used either Russian or Ukranian. The difference is that the ship's manifest would have been used to create the immigration records, and the ship's manifest was prepared using passports. Because Russia issued the passport, Russian it is. BUT the census was self-reported and no one verified the accuracy of the information. So whatever your ancestors claimed as their ethnicity is what was recorded.

No it gets funky when those lands change hands. Prior to Naturalization, if the land changed hands from Russia to Austria-Hungary, then when the original immigration records were filed they would indicate the person was Russian, but when the Naturalization Petition was filed it would say either Austrian or Hungarian.

Yes, it is extremely complicated when we're discussing Central Europe in the 1800s. But that's what makes our job both fun and challenging.

http://feefhs.org/newest_map.html
One of my favorite map collections, and useful especially for your reasons. Great details.
don't neglect to hop to their main page and see what else there is.

I found interesting information about your answer here.http://armaream.blogspot.com/2007/11/koz...