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The blue line shows the boundary of the historic Volhynia gubernia. View Larger Map Volhynia -- known as Wolhynien in German -- is in the northwest corner of Ukraine. There was a government district with that name for more than a century, and the region is still generally known as Volhynia even though the old government district is now split between five modern oblasts. Major cities in Volhynia include Zhitomir, Korosten, Novograd-Volynsk, Rowno, Lutzk and Kowel. The northern part of Volhynia is known for its forests and its marshes. The most common tree is pine, but oak may be found on richer soils, along with birch, alder, and linden. At one time almost the entire belt was covered with forest, but the spread of agriculture over the past 150 years means that less than 33 per cent of the forests remain. Volhynia includes part of the Polessie, one of the largest European swampy areas. The Polessie also includes parts of Belarus, Russia and Poland.The swamp area of the Polessie -- which translates as "woodland" -- is known as the Pripiat Marsh, named after the major river that runs through it. The main highway between Korosten and Rokitnoe passes through the southern part of the marsh, with water-soaked soil clearly visible from the road. Volhynia was heavily affected by radioactive fallout from the 1986 nuclear plant accident at Chernobyl. Huge areas in the northeastern region were so badly polluted that agriculture has been prohibited. This region is also considered unsuitable for living, so several villages have been abandoned. Temperatures in Volhynia vary widely -- between -35 in winter and 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in summer. It gets about 600 millimetres of precipitation in an average year. Today, Volhynia is home to about four million people. Its economy is primarily based on forestry and lumber milling, agriculture and food processing, granite mining, metalworking, and the manufacture of machinery and musical instruments. A Volhynia district map is available online. The Federation of East European Family History Societies has some maps of interest. The General Atlas of the Russian Empire is available online. Also check the map resources on the SGGEE website. The JewishGen Gazetteer is the best way to find localities in Eastern Europe. Another option is to use Geonames.org. Genealogy Unlimited has, for sale, an excellent selection of 1:200,000 scale maps that include virtually every village in Volhynia. For information by Dave Obee on using maps and gazetteers in your research, go here. 1:100,000 topographic maps of Volhynia Ukraine has a comprehensive modern mapping program, making it possible to find most of the cities, towns and villages that you are looking for. The 1:100,000 scale maps are on the Internet -- and you can get to them quickly by using the grid maps below. There are two grid maps. The dividing line between them falls between Rowno and Kostopol (both on the western map) and Korets and Rokitno (on the eastern one). Western Volhynia 1:100,000 topographic map grid (Most of the old Polish Volhynia) Eastern Volhynia 1:100,000 topographic map grid (All of the old Russian Volhynia and some of Polish Volhynia) The images of these maps are on websites in Russia (Vlasenko) and the Czech Republic (Mapy). Unfortunately, both sites are difficult to use, and it takes a lot of guesswork to find the map that you need. 1:200,000 topographic maps of Volhynia These maps were published by the Austro-Hungarian empire in about 1910. They are the first editions. Printed copies of later editions are available for purchase from the Genealogy Unlimited website. The grid map below links to images of the original maps that are on a Hungarian website. Click on the numbered squares to view the maps. Note that the longitude is measured from Ferro (on the Canary Islands) rather than from Greenwich. 
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