Western Volhynia (Ukraine) Ancestors? Check This Out?

The United States Holocaust Museum Memorial (USHMM) has a great new research resource for those with ancestors from the part of Volynia that was intra-war Poland, particularly the area around Lutsk, Volhynia, Ukraine (then Łuck, Wołyń, Poland).  There are records for both Jews and non-Jews, and many of the records are pre-WWII.  And because this area was Poland at the time, names are written in Polish, so it is relatively easy for English speakers to navigate.

List of owners of private houses in the city of Łuck, 1930--Including my great-great Uncle Chaim Leib Diamant

Yom HaShoah 2026

Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) starts tomorrow evening.  For the past nine years, I have listed the names of the family members I've found who were murdered in the Holocaust.  In 2020, I listed 454 relatives.  In 2021, I listed 515.  In 2022, I listed 642.  In 2023, I listed 916.  In 2024, I listed 990.  In 2025, I listed 1023. And this year I list 1132.

Every year, this list grows as I find new branches of my family--and then find that multiple members of those branches were killed between 1941 & 1945.  This year I found 109 more people--and many other relatives whose fates are as yet unclear.

Publishing this yearly list is my one small way to make sure they are all remembered--all 1132 of those currently on this list.

Front Row L-R: Yosef Wollich, Mendel Chechman, Devorah Chechman; Back Row L-R: Sara Fine Wollich, Moshe Wollich, Chaike Chechman.  All were murdered in the Holocaust

Ancestral Towns' Facebook Groups

You may belong to a Facebook group that covers your neighborhood or town.  Most of what's discussed probably isn't of interest to people not currently living there--you'll see items for local sale, complaints about traffic or roads, and similar things.  There are usually similar groups for your towns of origin, and I encourage you to join them, because amongst those posts that won't be of interest to you, you might find genealogical gems that you might not have found otherwise.  These aren't those genealogy-specific groups (which are great resources as well) but rather the groups that cover people's day-to-day lives.

Document mentioning my great-great uncle, Hirsh (son of Shimon) Tolchinsky, obtained via a local Facebook group

Felix Archive's Foreigner Files--Including Photos for People From Across Europe

A blog reader (John Durkan) reached out to me to see if I'd ever used Felix Archive's site with Foreigner Files.  I had not, and since this site is out of Antwerp, I never would have thought to look at it given my family's roots being much further east.  But he pointed out how many entries there were for Polish people (40,000, mostly Jewish), so I started looking what it might have for my non-Polish family.  And based on what I've found, this is a site that all of you should look at, no matter where your family lived in Europe.  I found documents, many including photos, some of people who were later killed in the Holocaust.  The documents are rich with genealogical information.

Antwerp Alien File for Mechel Feig

FamilySearch's Full-Text Search

This is a reminder to myself to always check back on resources periodically to see if there's more that has been added--either feature-wise or the underlying data.  I'd played around with FamilySearch's Full Text Search when it first came out, but for someone who didn't have ancestors in the United States before the twentieth century, it wasn't very helpful.  But Amy Cohen recently posted on her blog about a success she'd have.  I was still skeptical given that Amy's family had come to America much earlier than mine, but I was pleasantly surprised that it found records that were not indexed and which I hadn't found before.

Adoption Record for Jacob Soupcoff, 1904.  Via FamilySearch's Full Text Search

Ukrainan Online Records - Use the Duck!

More and more records from Ukrainian archives are being scanned and made accessible online, but they are not all consolidated in one place.  This means that if you have a particular citation within a branch of an archive in Ukraine, you may not realize it's already been scanned and is easily accessible for you from home.  But there's a portal that has made finding online records much more straightforward.

Record found via DuckArchive

New Resource to Find Holocaust Survivors--Often With Family Information

Ancestry recently added two new data sets (with data from the Arolsen Archives but much more nicely indexed and user-friendly to search) that document Holocaust survivors--and sometimes their relatives who didn't survive (including mothers' maiden names).  (As that these are part of the Holocaust collection, they do not require a subscription--but do require a free Ancestry account.)  But there are also some peculiarities with the search functionality when searching for towns of origin.  So what can you potentially find--and how would you search?  And how do you make sure you're not missing critical records because the searches you're using aren't catching what you think they would?

List of "Returning Deportees from Subcarpathian Ukraine."  This list includes mother's full maiden name as well as survivors' birth years.  Searching by mother's maiden name returns this document as well.

Polish Schoolchildren's Signatures - Now Searchable!

I wrote the following back in a 2018 post:

Anyone who had family in what was Poland of 1926 (which includes parts of modern-day Ukraine and Lithuania, as well as much of modern-day Poland and parts of what used to be Russian Empire, Galicia, Czechoslovakia and East Prussia among others) needs to be aware of an incredible resource hosted by the Library of Congress.

In 1926, in honor of America's 150th anniversary of independence, Polish schoolchildren wrote their signatures in "admiration and friendship for the United States."  Children of all religions participated--Jewish names are interspersed with Ukrainian, Polish, and Czech children's names. 

At that time, you had to use a relatively manual process to find pages from a particular town and then search through that town's pages in hopes of finding relatives.  But a reader named John recently commented on that post and pointed me (and now you!) to a site that has made this resource wonderfully searchable.  I've played around with it, and here's how you can as well!

Page of signatures from schoolchildren in Horochow, Poland (now Horochiv, Ukraine), 1926

Spelling Doesn't Matter in Genealogy (Still)

People tend to get hung up on a particular spelling of an ancestral surname as being the only way a particular branch of the family would have spelled that name.  They may even disregard records for individuals who are actually relatives because of the way a name was spelled.  But while these days people have a set way in which they spell their surnames--and their given names--in prior generations this wasn't a huge concern.

I've shown with examples in a previous post that even within the same record the same surname could be spelled differently.  Here's another example of where different versions of the same record give different spellings for both surnames and given names.

1864 Jewish births for Budfalu, Hungary (now Budești, Romania) - Version 1

Yom HaShoah 2025

Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) starts this evening.  For the past eight years, I have listed the names of the family members I've found who were murdered in the Holocaust.  In 2020, I listed 454 relatives.  In 2021, I listed 515.  In 2022, I listed 642.  In 2023, I listed 916.  In 2024, I listed 990.  And this year I list 1023.

Every year, this list grows as I find new branches of my family--and then find that multiple members of those branches were killed between 1941 & 1945.  This year I found 33 more people--and many other relatives whose fates are as yet unclear.

Publishing this yearly list is my one small way to make sure they are all remembered--all 1023 of those currently on this list.

Front Row L-R: Yosef Wollich, Mendel Chechman, Devorah Chechman; Back Row L-R: Sara Fine Wollich, Moshe Wollich, Chaike Chechman.  All were murdered in the Holocaust

Maybe You'll Find it, the Odesa Connection....

Many Jews moved to Odesa in the nineteenth century--including Jews from quite a distance away from Odesa itself.  Jews came to Odesa not only from all over the Russian Empire, but also from Austria-Hungary (including many from Galicia), Romania and the Ottoman Empire.  That means that even if you have no known ancestry from Odesa, it's quite possible that you have other branches of your family that moved there.  And these days it's easier than ever to find these branches.

Birth of Yosef Sanshuck, Odesa, 1916--his father was registered in Krasne, now Krasnoye, Ukraine

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

J-Roots Forums Are Back! An Incredible Russian Empire Resource

I've discussed J-Roots several times in the past, as it's a wonderful resource for those who are researching in the former Russian Empire (and somewhat in all of the former USSR).  This Ukraine-based service was set to read-only shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  A group of volunteers has been bringing it back up, starting with its forum feature.  So what are J-Roots' Forums and how can you use them?

Screenshot from J-Roots Forum Page

Yom HaShoah 2024

Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) starts this evening.  For the past seven years, I have listed the names of the family members I've found who were murdered in the Holocaust.  In 2020, I listed 454 relatives.  In 2021, I listed 515.  In 2022, I listed 642.  In 2023, I listed 916.  And this year I list 990.

Every year, this list grows as I find new branches of my family--and then find that multiple members of those branches were killed between 1941 & 1945.  This year I found 74 more people--and many other relatives whose fates are as yet unclear.

Publishing this yearly list is my one small way to make sure they are all remembered--all 990 of those currently on this list.

Front Row L-R: Yosef Wollich, Mendel Chechman, Devorah Chechman; Back Row L-R: Sara Fine Wollich, Moshe Wollich, Chaike Chechman.  All were murdered in the Holocaust