App Store

Nowogródzkie · Wileńskie · Two eras

Where was your grandmother’s village?

Type the name the way you remember it, typos and missing diacritics included. Kresopis finds its modern counterpart in Belarus or Lithuania where one could be identified, and shows the interwar gmina, county and voivodeship.

See how it works ↓

Free place search · Works offline · No account

Android version in progress.

Archival photograph of a village in Polesie: thatched cottages, a windmill and a field of grain, Sityck, around 1936.
Sityck, Polesie, c. 1936 · photo H. Poddębski
Kresopis app screen showing search results for “Siewruki”: four places, two of them with today’s name marked “confirmed”.

SiewrukiSiaurukai

Why you can’t find it on the map

One village, several names, several countries.

Before the war it was a gmina in the Nowogródek or Wilno voivodeship. Then the border moved by hundreds of kilometres, and officials wrote the name in Belarusian, Lithuanian or Russian. That is why today’s map stays silent when you type a name from family stories.

Examples from the app’s database

  1. Ejszyszki

    miasto · Ejszyszki, Lida, nowogródzkie · 1921

    →

    Eišiškės

    confirmed

  2. Siewruki

    wieś · Podbrzezie, Wileńsko-trocki, wileńskie · 1937

    →

    Siaurukai

    confirmed

  3. Nowogródek

    miasto · Nowogródek, Nowogródek, nowogródzkie · 1921

    →

    Навагрудак

    confirmed

  4. Kamień

    wieś · Dołhinów, Wilejski, wileńskie · 1937

    →

    Камена

    confirmed

  5. Wołożynki

    wieś · Jody, Brasławski, wileńskie · 1937

    →

    Валожынкі

    confirmed

  6. Kozłowszczyzna

    folwark · Hermanowicze, Dziśnieński, wileńskie · 1937

    →

    Казлоўшчына

    confirmed

For some places there is no modern counterpart today. Then Kresopis shows the pre-war data and says plainly that no counterpart was found.

How it works

From a name in a family story to a family tree

  1. Type the name the way you remember it

    Typos and missing Polish diacritics included, just like in the family story. Search tolerates misspellings and finds records from different years.

    • Approximate spelling
    • Latin and Cyrillic alphabets
    Kresopis app screen: a search for “Wołożynki” with exact and approximate matches, each result showing its source and a confidence label.

  2. See the place card

    Gmina, county and voivodeship, households and residents from the census, today’s counterpart with a confidence label. Every record names its source.

    • Pre-war administrative affiliation
    • Today’s name: confirmed or probable
    Kresopis app screen: the place card for Siewruki with today’s name Siaurukai, “Open in Maps” and “Add to tree” buttons and the 1921 census entry.

  3. Record your family with what you know

    People, facts and relationships with any gaps: just a year, just a first name, “somewhere near Nowogródek”. Several spellings of a surname are normal, not an error.

    • Surname variants
    • GEDCOM export
    Kresopis app screen: the person card of Józef Michałowicz Kowalewski with surname variants, family relationships and a list of facts.

Works offline. Stays on your phone.

  • Offline

    The database lives on your phone. Check a name in the archive, on the road or in a village with no signal.

  • No account

    You don’t create a profile or sign in. Place search is free and unlimited.

  • Your data stays yours

    Your family tree and search history stay on this device. GEDCOM export is your backup.

Sources and honesty

Every record has a source.

Pre-war data comes from official gazetteers and lists of places. Modern names come from open registries. Next to each name in the app you can see where we took it from.

  • Index of Places of the Republic of Poland, Wilno voivodeshipGUS
    1938
  • Index of Places of the Republic of Poland, Nowogródek voivodeshipGUS · census of 1921
    1923
  • Index of Places of the Republic of Poland, ed. T. Bystrzycki
    c. 1933
  • WikidataCC0 · modern names
    today
  • Adresų registras (Lithuania)Registrų centras · CC BY 4.0
    today
Scan of a page from the 1923 Skorowidz miejscowości RP, a gazetteer of places of the Republic of Poland: a table of places and census data.
Kresopis app screen: the place card for Siewruki with the 1921 census entry, its source and neighbouring places of the gmina.
Skorowidz miejscowości RP, vol. 14, 1923. Public domain.

How to read the labels

confirmed
Today’s counterpart confirmed by coordinates and census data.
probable
Spelling and gmina match, but no document settles it.
no modern counterpart
We could not establish one. Kresopis doesn’t guess: it shows the pre-war data, the gmina and neighbouring places.

Search is free. Pay once for the family tree.

You’ll see the price in the App Store before you buy.

  • Place search

    free, unlimited

  • Family organizer

    people, facts, relationships, editing, GEDCOM export

    one-time purchase, no subscription

You can restore your purchase on any device with the same Apple account.

Frequently asked questions

Not here? Write: [email protected]

How do I find the modern name of a village in Kresy?

Type the pre-war name the way you remember it. Kresopis searches more than 22,000 places in the Nowogródek and Wilno voivodeships, tolerates typos and missing Polish diacritics, and where a counterpart could be established, shows today’s name in Belarus or Lithuania.

Will Kresopis find every place?

No. The coverage is two voivodeships of interwar Poland, and a modern counterpart could not be established for every place. Then the app shows the pre-war data and says plainly that no counterpart was found.

Which voivodeships does the app cover?

Nowogródek and Wilno within the borders of interwar Poland. More voivodeships will come in later versions.

Does it work offline?

Yes. The place database is on your phone, so you can check a name in the archive, on the road, or in a village without signal.

How much does it cost?

Place search is free and unlimited. You unlock the full family organizer with a single purchase, no subscription.

Do I need an account?

No. Your family tree and searches stay on your device, no account and no cloud.

Where does the data come from?

From official gazetteers and lists of places from 1921-1938, from Wikidata and from the Lithuanian Address Register. The full list of sources is further up this page, and each record in the app shows its source.

Is there an Android version?

It’s in progress. For now Kresopis runs on iPhone.

Type the name you remember from home.

Free place search. Works offline. No account.

Android version in progress.