Sunday, March 17, 2024

Soviet Records Via JDoc (Some Declassified!)

When I shared a recent post on Facebook, I was asked why there aren't more Soviet-era records available online on JewishGen and similar sites.  I believe much of the reason is that pre-Russian Revolution, records were kept by religion, so JewishGen has been able to concentrate on acquiring and indexing records that will be all (or predominantly) Jewish.  However, post-Revolution, all religions were kept together, so it's a much larger task to extract Jewish records, and it means searching entire towns, not just the Jews of an entire town.  But there are resources for Soviet-era records online (including many found via Архів and directly on local archive branch sites).  And there are also records on sites that are more specialized or obscure.  I recently found one such site with information on some of my relatives, so I'll share what I found and how you can see if there are records about your relatives or ancestral towns available there as well.

A page from an investigation into Alexander Lefand, suspected of Zionist activities; 1925-1926

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Getting a GRIP on Ashkenazic Jewish Genealogy - Week-long Class

hereThis summer, I'm co-teaching a week-long intensive course on Ashkenazic Jewish Genealogy, along with Emily Garber and Janette Silverman at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh.  This is your chance to spend a week learning how to further your Jewish genealogical research at a prestigious institute, being taught by three genealogists who have done significant amounts of in-depth personal and client research.  It won't be a relaxing week, but you'll be sure to learn a ton.
 
There are still seats remaining, so if you're interested, please register soon!  The course will be in-person in Pittsburgh from July 14-19, 2024.  And no, it will not be recorded.
 
So what would you learn in this course?

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Tolchinskys in 1920 Soviet Census--And How I Have It

My Tolchinsky great-great grandparents and their children had emigrated to America before the Russian Revolution.  But my great-great grandfather's siblings remained behind in what was then the Russian Empire, along with their families.  I've found bits and pieces of what happened to them later, but I'm always on the lookout for more.  This past week, I got some additional insight, using a strategy that I've mentioned before, but which is always worth a reminder.

1920 Soviet Census; Tolchinsky Family; Losinovka, Chernigov Guberniya

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Town-Focused Searches - New Research Pathways

More and more records are being indexed, which is wonderful.  But many are misindexed either because of poor handwriting or fading of originals or just poor indexing (often due to unfamiliarity with ethnic names by those indexing), which means that you might not find records that could be critical to your research.  Even if everything is indexed correctly, if your family has a common surname, it might be difficult to find your Cohen among all of the Cohen records you'll get with a typical search.  

In addition, not all fields are always indexed in some record sets, so there may be mention of your relatives in records that a simple search wouldn't find.  So how do you improve your chances of finding these records?  Especially if your family members are from smaller towns and villages, searching only by town can be critical.  I'll give examples of how to do this on Ancestry, but you can do similar searches in most of the other large record repositories. 

Edmund David Lebovitsch WWII Draft Registration

Sunday, December 10, 2023

A Diamond Cousin? Searching by Address, Steve Morse, and More.

Diamant/Diamond is a very common name.  Most Diamonds (and variants) are not related to me, as many distinct families took the same surname.  But I’m always on the hunt for Diamonds who are related.

Schloma Diment Manifest; June 5, 1911
 

Results from SteveMorse.org's Gold Form

Recently I did a search using Steve Morse’s Gold Form to look at Diamants (and variants) that arrived in Ellis Island, and I sorted the results by town.  One of the results looked intriguing.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Researching in the USHMM's Shappell Center

I recently spent time at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Shappell Center (located in Bowie, Maryland), finding documents relating to my relatives.  Before going, it's important to have done your homework, reserving materials and logging what you hope to find in each record set.  You'll have a set amount of time to do your research, so advance planning is critical to make sure you can get everything you want while there.

Remember, there are many record sets that are Holocaust-related, but there are also many record sets related to pre-war European Jewry (and some non-Jewish communities as well).

Thursday, September 14, 2023

USHMM Online Resources

I have a scheduled research appointment at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), and I've been preparing for what I'll want to see while I'm there.  But one thing I've noticed is that not all USHMM research needs to be done in person, as there are documents that are scanned and available remotely from the comfort of your home.  And it's also important to note that not all collections housed by USHMM are Holocaust-related--some documents that the museum has are from events that took place well before the Holocaust.

Below I'll show an example of a document found that mentions one of my relatives in 1919, and then I'll explain how you can see if there are documents relating to your ancestral town or relatives.

List of 1919 Pogrom Victims for Nezhin; Derz︠h︡avnyĭ arkhiv Kyïvsʹkoï oblasti via US Holocaust Museum Memorial