Town Finding Aid Created for Novohrad-Volynskyi District Revision Lists on Krakovsky Website

At the recent IAJGS conference, I spoke to Ellen Shindelman Kowitt.  Ellen mentioned an incredible project she is undertaking, which led to her obtaining images of records not just for her towns of interest but for many towns in the area.  As a result of this conversation, I'm pleased to have Ellen as a guest blogger today where she talks about the towns covered by these records and how you can find records for your own family's towns, if you're fortunate enough to have had family from this area.  While most of the records are Jewish-focused, there are a reasonable number of records for non-Jews who lived in these towns as well! Without further ado, here's Ellen!


Town Finding Aid Created for Novohrad-Volynskyi District Revision Lists on Krakovsky Website
By guest blogger Ellen Shindelman Kowitt, genealogysleuth@comcast.net

If you’re interested in Russian-Era Revision Lists circa 1816-1868 for the city of Novohrad-Volynskyi, Ukraine and nearby towns, this article directs you to the exact pages that records for your town are found within nine Revision List books that have been digitized and are available on Alex
Krakovsky’s website (https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Єврейське_містечко#Новоград-Волинський_повіт).  Not all of the pages in these books include Jewish surnames, but the index identifies exactly where the pages with Jews within each town are located. These are not surname indices – just a finding aid to where within over 9000 digitized pages, you can browse Russian-language records for the following 13 towns:

Baranivka - @243 pages in 7 books
Berezdiv - @253 pages in 8 books
Horodnytsia - @843 pages in 7 books
Korets - @938 pages in 8 books
Krasnostav – @365+ pages in 8 books
Liubar – @918 pages in 8 books
Myropil - @267 pages in 7 books
Nova Chortoryia - @59 pages in 5 books
Novohrad-Volynskyi City -@890 pages in 7 books
Ostropil - @341 pages in 6 books
Polonne - @816 pages in 8 books
Rohachiv - @172 pages in 7 books
Romaniv - @89 pages in 7 books

Towns Covered in Revision Lists

Upcoming Week: FGS & JGSMD

The next week will be a busy but fun one.  I'm speaking three times during the FGS Conference in Washington, DC--a great location.  If you'll be there, come say hi!  I start off on Wednesday morning with an introduction to Jewish genealogy.  If you're not sure how to start researching your Jewish ancestry, this is the talk for you!

TWO New WWII-Related Databases

Last week I wrote about a "hidden" database on Ancestry along with tips to search it, since it didn't have a typical Ancestry search page.  Well, it turns out that it wasn't hidden, it just wasn't ready for release, but Vera discovered it too soon!  And there are actually two new databases, and Vera and I only wrote about one of them.

So what are these databases and what could you find?

My Grandparents Coming to America!

New WWII Database--And A Cousin Who Survived!

Last week, Vera Miller posted about a new database, "Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947" which is on Ancestry but not easily searchable.  (Vera often posts about data sets to trace family from Ukraine and Russia; if you're not already following her blog, you should!).  Despite Ancestry setting up this data set in a way that doesn't allow you to search that database directly, I figured out a creative query workaround; I'll detail that below.  But first, here's one thing I found on a relative of mine to give you an idea of the kinds of discoveries you could make:

Lasar Rutner Survived!

Duplicate Birth Records - Different Names, Different Information, Same Person

Eastern Europe has had multiple border changes, including in the 20th century.  And that can impact how records on your ancestors were recorded.  It can also mean that vital records you find aren't original and could have information that differs from that on the original.

When my Rutner family was first recorded living in what's now Kolodne, Ukraine, they weren't anywhere near an international border.  They were in the middle of Hungary, in the province/megye of Máramaros.  But then World War I happened, and Kolodne ended up in the newly-created Czechoslovakia, right on the border with Romania.  Close cousins who used to just live a few villages away now lived in another country.  One branch of the Rutners lived in what was had been Pálosremete, Hungary, but which became (and still is) Remeţi, Romania.

I had some vital records from Remeţi, which I always thought were a bit odd.  Although they were recording births from the late 1800s & early 1900s, when the town was solidly part of Hungary, they were recorded in Romanian.  One such birth record registered the birth of an Iloni Ruttner, a second cousin four times removed, and I added Iloni to my tree.

Birth Record of Iloni Rutner, Remeţi, 1902

IAJGS 2019 - Four Talks and a SIG Meeting

We're three weeks out from IAJGS2019, which will be held in Cleveland this year (quite a difference from last year in Warsaw!)  I'll be pretty busy while there, presenting four separate times plus leading a SIG meeting.  And if you're trying to figure out how to find your family in the numerous Russian Empire records that are coming online or how to use DNA to find your family, hopefully I'll see you at one of my talks!  Here are some of the details of my presentations:

Presenting at OGS a Few Years Ago

Connecting the Farkas Line, Maybe

I recently wrote about how a DNA connection to my cousin John's mother helped us to find the connection--but that the large shared segments on the X chromosome implied that there had to be another connection.  Well, I have a new theory that might trace my Farkas line further back.  But it's still very much a theory.

Ita Farkas, Death Record, 1914