Finding Austria-Hungary records: do they even exist?

[InmostLight]

Is it even possible? The majority of my mother's side came from Austria-Hungary in the 1880s, from what is now southern Poland and Ukraine. I cannot trace anyone past the first generation to arrive in the US. Is there any possible way to find the records of my ancestors before they immigrated? Anyone who would have access to them in real life is long dead, and my mother and I are not on speaking terms, sadly. Would it be weird to email the relevant relatives through MyHeritage or GEDmatch?

[Incal]

I guess it depends on the country and some luck. I was able to find my great-grandfather records who was born at Germany in 1871. You have to find which particular city or town they came from (as in born) and visit the City Hall.

[rothaer]

https://www.familia-austria.at/index...triken-im-netz

Check for "Galizien" and "Woiw. Kleinpolen" unter the label of "Polen".

[Lucas]

Is it even possible? The majority of my mother's side came from Austria-Hungary in the 1880s, from what is now southern Poland and Ukraine. I cannot trace anyone past the first generation to arrive in the US. Is there any possible way to find the records of my ancestors before they immigrated? Anyone who would have access to them in real life is long dead, and my mother and I are not on speaking terms, sadly. Would it be weird to email the relevant relatives through MyHeritage or GEDmatch?

Search for southern Poland voivodships https://geneteka.genealodzy.pl/?lang=eng
There is also western and central Ukraine available but on limited scale.

You have here access to birth, dead and marriage data for parishes, sometimes even starting in XVII century. Just you must know proper surnames.

[Mr.G]

It's really tough, ImL. I have a similar situation trying to find records for a set of Hungarian great-grandparents of mine from what is now Western Ukraine. I have tried FamilySearch.com, AncestryDNA, and MyHeritage memberships to no avail. I was told by a distant dna relative that the local church that kept all the relevant records burned down. I wish you more luck than I have had, don't give up.

And hell yeah you can reach out to distant dna relatives, I have done that a number of times, a couple have proved quite fruitful. More often than not they just don't respond, so I leave those folks alone.

[White Swan]

I think I read that a lot of the churches with those records in Germany were burned down immediately following WW2.
I haven't tried hard yet because I don't know if I'll get much information on the name Reich in light of that lol