Soviet Repression Records - Information, Photos and More

Those who lived in the Soviet Union could be arrested and even put to death for various perceived or actual infractions.  Several different sites have been collating information on these individuals to document these victims of Soviet repression, with information ranging from simple names to full trial transcriptions and photos.  More records are being added to most of these sites regularly, but that means searching each of those sites individually to check for updates.  But there is a site that acts as a master search engine for all of these sites, allowing you to search in just one place.

Record for my third cousin three times removed, Isai Lefand

A Second Cousin Found - How DNA Helped a Holocaust Survivor Connect to My Family

My Diamond (formerly Diment) grandparents were Holocaust survivors.  My grandfather came to America with his two surviving siblings after his parents and two other siblings were killed in the Holocaust.  I've since managed to connect with descendants of two of his father's siblings--one because of a DNA match in which we learned that my grandfather's Aunt Shaindel had emigrated to Michigan rather than dying in the Holocaust like we'd thought, and then because of intensive paper-trail research where I found descendants of my grandfather's Uncle Leibish.  But now I have found descendants of one of my grandfather's half siblings, halfway across the world!  My father has a new-to-us half-second cousin, and a Holocaust survivor who lived most of her life in Ukraine (now living in Germany) who thought she had no relatives on her father's side has found out that she has a large family.

Email from MyHeritage about a new--and intriguing--match

Eastern European Newspapers

Have you ever used newspapers as a resource for researching your Eastern European family?  I've been playing around with a site that allows you to do just that.  It predominantly covers Ukraine, but there is coverage for neighboring countries as well; the site contains periodicals in languages including Russian, Yiddish, Ukrainian, Polish, Belorussian and more.  Below are some examples of what I've found for my own family--and how you can potentially find articles about your relatives too.

1913 Advertisement for Performers for the Zubkis Theater in Gaysin

Lefands in 1822--More Females Found--but Russian Handwriting Help Needed!

The indefatigable Alex Krakovsky posted of an interesting record set that included--among other things--many family lists of both Jews and Christians in Chernigov Guberniya.  So of course I went Lefand hunting--and I had success (although it does have their name here as "Lefan").

Lefand Family List Entry, 1822

US Military Records via BIRLS - My Beta User Experience

Our friends at Reclaim the Records have done it again.  The latest record set that they've helped to make accessible to us is the Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) database, which includes people who served in the US military and received veterans' benefits in the twentieth century.  They've set up a user-friendly way for you to generate and send a fax (yes, a fax--but you don't need a fax machine) request for C-File (different than naturalization-related C-Files) records referenced in BIRLS.  I was a beta tester and have already received responses to many of my requests, so here are some of the things I learned about the system and about some relatives--as well as how you can do the same!

Application for my grandfather's first cousin to become a WAVE

Keser Torah / Kaiser Torah Congregation Pittsburgh Minutes

My Supkoff and Tolchin(sky) ancestors attended Keser Torah Congregation in Pittsburgh's Hill District for several decades.  I recently got copies of fragmentary minutes for the congregation from the University of Pittsburgh, which included minutes from various groups associated with Keser Torah from 1927-1939.  The records were written in Yiddish, and they were expertly translated by Géraldine Trom.

If you have ancestors who also attended Keser Torah--or if you just want some insight into the workings of an American synagogue in the 1920s and 1930s, the full translation is below.  Enjoy!

Excerpt from the Keser Torah Congregation Minutes

Alien Attack: Get Your Relatives' AR-2s!

Many people, especially women, who came to America in the first half of the twentieth century, never naturalized, for a variety of reasons.  If they were still alive and non-citizens in 1940 (or if they weren't sure if they were citizens), the Alien Registration Act of 1940 compelled them to register their status by filling out a form called the AR-2.  These forms have recently transferred custody from USCIS to NARA, which means you can get these without the ridiculously long wait associated with the USCIS Genealogy Program.  I recently ordered several and had a wonderfully pleasant experience (USCIS had set a very low bar) and found information--and people who had registered--that I hadn't expected.

Bessie Tolchin's AR-2