To search the catalogues of the National Historical Archives of Belarus, use  website “Archives of Belarus” which contains the descriptions of the collections of the Archives.

The characteristics of the collections.

The number of fonds: 3,148 fonds, over 23 collections of microfilms and 1,023,512 archival items.

The Archives keeps records dated from the fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries and parish registers up to the early 1950s.

The territorial coverageof the records:

The districts of Braslav, Brest, Vitebsk, Volkovysk, Grodno, Lida, Minsk, Mozyr, Novogrudok, Orsha, Oshmyany, Pinsk, Rechitsa and Slonim, the Mstislavl and Polotsk provinces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Podlasia province of the Kingdom of Poland.

The Belarusian, Vitebsk, Minsk, Polotsk and Mogilev governorates of the Russian Empire.

The pool of the records kept at the Archives is divided into two parts:

Records relating to the whole territory of Belarus (within its modern borders) dated from the fourteenth to the late eighteenth centuries;

Records relating to the territories of the Vitebsk, Minsk and Mogilev governorates of the Russian Empire for the period between  the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Note: The vast majority of documents  on the Vileika, Disna, Lida, Oshmiany and Sventiany districts of the Vilnius province (up to the early twentieth century) is kept at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (Mindaugo g. 8, Vilnius, 03107, Lithuania) and records on the Grodno province are held at the National Historical Archives of Belarus in Grodno (Gospodarchaia, 21, 230005, Grodno, Republic of Belarus).

The National Historical Archives of Belarus keeps records which contain genealogical information for the following regions of Belarus:

• The territory of Belarus within its historical borders (ca XVI – late XVIII.).

• For the Vitebsk, Minsk and Mogilev governorates for the period between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.

• For the Vileika, Disna, Oshmiany and Sventsiansk districts of the Vilnius province within the boundaries of the modern Minsk region (from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.).