NEXT UPDATE (January 13, 2016): It's been a year and still nothing. I've gotten referrals from a post in Russian which links to my post and many others who have been cheated. I'm not the only one.
NEXT UPDATE (September 3, 2015): I was contacted by someone who was in contact with Sergey to do research on her family. She had Googled his name and found this post and contacted me to find out the story. Well, as I was emailing back and forth with her (warning her), he responded that he was ready to start research for her! So I emailed him at that very moment. No response. So he is definitely online and ready to do research for people who have yet to pay him--but he ignores those from whom he took money.
NEXT UPDATE (August 30, 2015): Still haven't heard from him despite him promising an email with results or at least an update last week. He lies yet again--and tries to make me feel bad for doubting him.
UPDATE (August 20, 2015): After posting this, I immediately heard from him. There is a promise that next week he will definitely get this work done. We shall see; I am no longer so trusting, but I'll update here if he comes through.
Back in January, I contacted genealogy-ua.com, as the website mentioned having access to records from some of my towns of interest (including Kuna, Shpikov and Krasnoye). We emailed back and forth, and he promised to have results for me within 3 weeks. Those three weeks passed, and I got no response. He finally responded saying he had been sick and couldn't get out of bed, but that his assistant was now doing the research.
I then waited a few weeks for that work to be done, but when I emailed him, I did not get a response for a month. At that point, he claimed his wife was in the hospital, so he was behind. He did sent me some cover sheets for some of the Kuna records. This was March 23.
I emailed him multiple times throughout the spring. Finally on July 1 he responded that he was still working on my request but had been out of the country. He promised that the work would be done by the end of July.
Well, it is August, and he is again not responding to emails. So please take this as a warning--do not trust this man and do not send him money. He is a thief. He is full of excuses. He needed money immediately but doesn't bother answering emails for months or fulfilling his promises.
So if you are looking at doing business with Sergey Burlachko (email addresses ua.genealogy@gmail.com and info@genealogy-ua.com and tpkservice@gmail.com), BEWARE! ВНИМАНИЕ! Сергей Бурлачко - мошенник!
NEXT UPDATE (September 3, 2015): I was contacted by someone who was in contact with Sergey to do research on her family. She had Googled his name and found this post and contacted me to find out the story. Well, as I was emailing back and forth with her (warning her), he responded that he was ready to start research for her! So I emailed him at that very moment. No response. So he is definitely online and ready to do research for people who have yet to pay him--but he ignores those from whom he took money.
NEXT UPDATE (August 30, 2015): Still haven't heard from him despite him promising an email with results or at least an update last week. He lies yet again--and tries to make me feel bad for doubting him.
UPDATE (August 20, 2015): After posting this, I immediately heard from him. There is a promise that next week he will definitely get this work done. We shall see; I am no longer so trusting, but I'll update here if he comes through.
Back in January, I contacted genealogy-ua.com, as the website mentioned having access to records from some of my towns of interest (including Kuna, Shpikov and Krasnoye). We emailed back and forth, and he promised to have results for me within 3 weeks. Those three weeks passed, and I got no response. He finally responded saying he had been sick and couldn't get out of bed, but that his assistant was now doing the research.
I then waited a few weeks for that work to be done, but when I emailed him, I did not get a response for a month. At that point, he claimed his wife was in the hospital, so he was behind. He did sent me some cover sheets for some of the Kuna records. This was March 23.
I emailed him multiple times throughout the spring. Finally on July 1 he responded that he was still working on my request but had been out of the country. He promised that the work would be done by the end of July.
Well, it is August, and he is again not responding to emails. So please take this as a warning--do not trust this man and do not send him money. He is a thief. He is full of excuses. He needed money immediately but doesn't bother answering emails for months or fulfilling his promises.
So if you are looking at doing business with Sergey Burlachko (email addresses ua.genealogy@gmail.com and info@genealogy-ua.com and tpkservice@gmail.com), BEWARE! ВНИМАНИЕ! Сергей Бурлачко - мошенник!
I have also had a bad experience in Polish research. I paid a larger than usual fee (but cheaper than a trip) for records. I got a photo and a few copies of old directories but none of the records I requested. The answer is always that he has not gotten the records from the archives yet......it has been months and I don't think they are coming.
ReplyDeletePlease post his name here. The reason I made this post is so that when people Google his name it comes up so that they are warned.
DeleteLara
ReplyDeleteGive me your data, im going to Vinnitsa on Tuesday, maybe i can help you
Thanks--but I believe these records (if they really exist) are in Khmelnitski.
DeleteI'm one of his victims too. I think it's time to stop him, and the only way to do this is to prosecute him. But in this case somebody has to live in Kiev. I can prepare papers, but somebody has to bring them to court. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteI'd love to, but going to Kiev and suing him would cost more than he stole. He still isn't responding to my emails--and when he did was pretty nasty when I stopped believing his excuses!
DeleteDid my comment vanish? Anyways, I am so glad I googled Burlachko before paying him any money. Usually genealogists charge for each archive entry found AFTER the research is completed. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg 7-10 bucks per entry at the most. Paying someone in advance makes no sense, since you don't know whether or not the search will turn anything up. Jews were changing their last names in the 1920 without any official records of that, so archives might have no records of them. So what would Burlachko get paid for in case the search was unproductive? For his effort? That's like hiring a plumber to fix your pipes, but instead of fixing them, he just sits there and bangs on them with a hammer for hours. I mean, technically, he put a whole day of work in, but the job didn't get done. You know what I mean? Where is the guarantee that I'm not wasting my money? Sure, there are some "high end" genealogists, usually professors with years of experience in the field, that you can pay money to and they will travel across the country and look through archives for you. But Burlachko is not one of them. He found like a random archive record that showed my grandfather's last name but not his first and last name. He clearly pulled it off some website, just to kind of show that he's been "hard at work". I didn't get it at first and tried to help him out by telling him I found the actual records concerning my grandfather online, but he kept ignoring it and saying he didn't have enough information to work with. He was trying really hard to bullshit me and get me to pay him for an "effort". So glad I got suspicious and looked him up. For those looking for their Jewish ancestors, a lot of Ukrainian Synagogues have electronic copies of their archives online for free. Jews are good about keeping records and giving people free access to them.
ReplyDeleteI put up this post in hopes that others would find it and not give him money. I'm glad you found it!
DeleteI cooperated with Sergy Burlachko in 2012-2013, he did research for me in Chernovty in Ukraine. I remember I did transferred the payment just before his trip there. He successfully found the documents I needed, he made 2 or 3 trips for me. I was surprised to see negative comments after him, it seems like something happened to him after 2013-2014
ReplyDelete