Another 9 million records boost the largest WWII soldier database of the former USSR

On April 20, 2024 By Vera MillerIn Communist era records, Military RecordsLeave a comment

The Memory of the People: 1941-1945 database has been updated once again to expand the coverage of the men and women who served during WWII for the Soviet Union.

The latest update has added:

6.1 million records on injured soldiers
2.6 million records from soldier lists
269,000 records from military transit points
162,000 records on soldier deaths
144,000 records on soldier burials

That puts the database with more than 109 million pages of digitized records from WWII. Some of the pages on soldiers have the soldiers’ service photos. Yes, the database does not involve registration or any fees and the digitized records and photos are easy to download. And no, this information cannot be found in English on any free genealogy website. (Link in English but searches must be done in Russian. See directions below for those don’t know Russian.)

The database provides detailed information on soldiers that includes full name, date of birth, place of birth, location for call of duty, map of the individual’s battle route and awards received, with photos of awards and scans of original documents. Documents and photos can be saved by right clicking on Windows-based computers and control-clicking on Macs.

A video guide can be viewed here for those unfamiliar with Russian to make the database less intimidating. Also download this file-FLRUF military database cheatsheet– to know the search categories in English.

Here’s how to take advantage of this database without knowing Russian.

Have Google Translate in the next window for translating names and places. The results can be copied and pasted for translation. Downloading the Google Translate app or another web browser translator for your device is highly recommended to see the database in English.
If Google Translate doesn’t work for certain names, try Transliterating English to Russian in One Step.
Start the search with as much information as possible. If results don’t appear, take away one search keyword at a time.
Remember that towns and villages can be spelled different than personally known. The birthplace of my great-grandfather is listed in two different neighborhoods and spelled randomly with an o and a on the end.
Open a document for copying and pasting results. Also, keep a list of people, surnames and villages/towns/cities searched in a document.
Don’t assume that female relatives didn’t serve in the war and don’t forget to search for relatives who were young teenagers during the war.
If results can’t be found on direct relatives, try searching for cousins, no matter how distant. It sometimes takes a random cousin to bring new life to research.
Remember the importance of the patronymic names (middle name based on the father’s first name such as Ivanovich and Nikolaevich). If particular people can’t be found, look for people with the same surnames and patronymic names from the same village and town. Those people could be unknown siblings of relatives.
Keep a close eye on the results because names of places duplicate throughout the former USSR. You’ll need to know the neighborhood (raiyon) and region (oblast) where your relatives lived.
In case typos have occurred, it is recommended to search solely by village or town. Copy and paste the village or town name translated in Russian into the place of birth search box to view everyone who is included in the database from that location.
Make screen shots of positive and potential results.

Those who didn’t find any useful information from this update could find information when the database is updated again. The database, now almost 9 years old, is updated every year.

You just read the 350th post to this blog, which has been running since 2011. More and more records for your Russian and Ukrainian genealogy are going online so follow this blog with the top right button to stay up-to-date on the latest free resources .

Cemetery project in Eastern Europe documenting millions of graves on databases

On March 16, 2024March 16, 2024 By Vera MillerIn Genealogy7 Comments

Finding cemetery databases for the former USSR on Russian-speaking people is quite the challenge. It gets hard when the people moved to smaller countries of the former USSR.

A newer cemetery project is making that much easier. The bonus is that the information is searchable for free and without registration in English. People with Russian, Jewish, German, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Polish ancestry can be found in this project.

Cemety has been documenting cemeteries in Lithuania and Latvia. So far about 1.6 million graves from 515 cemeteries are searchable in Latvia, while another 1.2 million graves from 738 cemeteries can be searched in Lithuania. These databases are much larger than what can be found on FindAGrave.

The project offers the deceased’s known full name, birthdate, death date, place of burial and exact location within the cemetery, in addition to photos of the gravestone.

Here are some quick tips on using these databases:

Search as many versions of name spellings as possible.
Keep a list of searched names in an open document to keep track of your searches.
Make sure to look at matches that have close spellings. Names can vary from how they were spelled in the last country where they lived or were known to relatives.
Names that would end with ov/ow/off are more often being spelled with ov and ow on the ends.
Remember that y’s in names could be switched to j’s.
Don’t forget to download photos of the gravestones and copy and paste information with all the details into a file.
If useful matches don’t appear, try searching by first name.

This project is expected to continue growing its databases. Just last month, Cemety announced expanding its project to Mažeikiai and Kupiskis districts in Lithuania at more than 200 cemeteries.

In addition to the work in Latvia and Lithuania, Cemety has sights on doing the same work in Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom.

These projects will continue to grow so check back a few times a year. Those who are interested in finding relatives and ancestors who were buried in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, can find another free database here. Searches can be done in Lithuanian, English, Polish, Russian or Hebrew.

More cemetery databases for Eastern European genealogy can be found on the Cemetery Databases page.

Follow this blog with the top right button to stay up-to-date on the latest free resources for your Russian and Ukrainian genealogy.

Wiki site details records of Ukrainian archives on a user-friendly and searchable site

On February 24, 2024 By Vera MillerIn Discovering Documents, Genealogy, Technical Help3 Comments

Trying to figure out the records that exist at Ukrainian archives is challenging for those who don’t know Ukrainian. Archives in Ukraine don’t have a standard format for how they set up their websites.

Thanks to this Wiki site, the struggle is much easier. The website is in Ukrainian but it is the easiest way to view the lists of fonds (sets of records) at many Ukrainian archives.

(This Wiki site can be easily viewed in English by downloading Google Translate as an extension to your web browser or use this link to view the site in English. The only disadvantage of using Google Translate is that too many times places and surnames will be translated into common words, not into the letter-by-letter transliteration for English.)

Thankfully, the Wiki site has a search engine to make it even easier to use the resource. A search engine is available for the entire Wiki, in addition to search engines for archives within the Wiki. Keep a window open with Google Translate next to the Wiki site to translate keywords into Ukrainian for the search engines.

The lists of fonds are broken into three groups: record sets before the Soviet period, the period after 1917 and communist party and Komsomol organizations. Not all archives have lists of fonds for the communist party and Komsomol organizations.

Once a fond of interest is found, copy and paste the fond listing in Ukrainian and English into a Word document. Then post in Ukrainian genealogy groups on Facebook to see if any members are familiar with the records from the fonds. For a thorough list of Eastern European-themed genealogy groups, check out the Genealogy on Facebook page.

The simple way to get the site to switch back and forth between Ukrainian and English is to click on the Google Translate app symbol at the end of the address bar and click on Ukrainian or English.

If nothing is found with the above tips, use the find tool in your web browser to locate keyword matches within a particular page. On Windows-based computers, press Ctrl F together and copy and paste keywords in Ukrainian into the search box.

When results are not found, start taking one letter at a time from the end of each keyword. The grammar case of the keywords translated on Google Translate could be different from what the grammar case being used on the Wiki page. Up to the last three letters could be within the spelling difference, causing nothing to be found. For example, Kaniv district likely will be translated by Google Translate as Канівський повіт but the listing of a fond on the Wiki site will have it written as Канівського повіту.

Besides the fonds being listed for Ukrainian archives, the Wiki also has a list of fonds for the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, a thorough section for Jewish genealogy resources and scans of audit tales (records similar to census records) for Volyn Province and Kyiv Province.

I know it is challenging to use websites in Ukrainian but it is well worth developing a comfort level with these websites. It saves money on genealogy research and the joy of being the one to find the discoveries, not paid researchers, is priceless.

Follow this blog with the top right button to catch the latest posts on the best free resources for Ukrainian and Russian genealogy without knowing the languages.

Variety of Ukrainian archive records awaiting online to kickoff 2024 research

On January 27, 2024January 27, 2024 By Vera MillerIn Digitizing Efforts in Ukraine2 Comments

The weather is dreary out there but the news for Ukrainian genealogy is quite sunny. FamilySearch is keeping dedicated to reaching its goal of digitizing Ukrainian archive records at a high speed and the same can be said about the efforts of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.

Here’s the top news for Ukraine’s efforts to digitize records that include Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center’s newest project and links to scanned school and prison records, in addition to birth, marriage and death records. All these records are available in the pdf format for free without any registration.

It is highly recommend to download and use Google Translate browser app while viewing these links for those unfamiliar with Ukrainian.

FamilySearch International

The State Archives of Dnipropetrovsk Region and State Archives of Kherson Region are expected to sign agreements to digitize their records with FamilySearch International very soon. Once these agreements have been signed, FamilySearch will have 22 state archives under agreement for digitizing records.

The most recent digitizing project started at the State Archive of the Cherkasy Region in late October. FamilySearch contractors are expected to digitize more than 1.3 million sheets of records.

Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center

The center’s efforts are going strong to post scanned records online. Its database of records from various archives from throughout Ukraine has grown to more than 3.9 million records, which cover Ukrainian citizens of all backgrounds.

A potential database is in the works at the State Archives of the Mykolaiv Region, thanks to a collaboration with Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. The project is documenting people who lived in the region during the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944, as found in Fond (record set) R-1016.

So far, a list of more than 6,700 people whose surnames starts with the letter A can be found in this file. People are being identified with their full name (last name, first name and then patronymic name- name derived from the father’s first name) and birthdates. The information is coming from about 200,000 cards stored at the archive.

Ukraine’s central portal

The Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv placed more than 500,000 digitized records onto Ukrainian’s archives central portal earlier this month. This puts the database with a collection of more than 7.5 million digitized records.

So far, records from eight archives are on the free portal. The list of archives that have posted records onto the portal can be found on this page. The State Archive of Poltava Region joined the portal in late December 2023.

Jewish records

Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center has posted records of Jews who were required to complete military service as residents of Kyiv Region. Those records can be found here.

The State Archive of Volyn Region added records on the opening of a Jewish cemetery and family lists from Jewish societies in its e-records section.

Make sure to check on the Jewish records Alex Krakovsky has posted to h is Wiki database. Announcements on the additions can be found on his Facebook page on a constant basis.

Filtration records

More than 10,000 Ukrainians who were taken by the Germans for forced labor during WWII and returned to Ukraine have been added to the database of the State Archives of Kyiv Region, resulting in more than 115,00 forced laborers being documented in the database.

Those who are included in the database are documented with scans of their records.

Persecution records

The State Archive of Volyn Region has posted another 500 scanned Soviet-era persecution cases onto its website. More than 2,700 Soviet-era persecution files are available through this link.

The Ukrainian martyrologist of the 20th century database for Soviet-era persecutions has been updated, giving information on an additional 1,000 victims. Now the database has information on more than 126,000 persecuted Ukrainians.

Court and prison records

The Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Lviv added 20 cases from the Zhydachiv city court (fond 7, item 1, files 101-120) to its e-archive.

More than 100 personal records from the Mykolaiv penal prison No. 2 from 1881-1916 have been posted here.

School records

More than 500 girls who attended the Mykolaivska 5th Female Gymnasium from 1908-1920 are listed in alphabetical order and their files can be found here. Also another 200 students who attended the Mykolaiv 1st City Girls Gymnasium (high school) from 1863-1920 are listed here with their school records.

Merchant records

The State Archive of Volyn Region added lists of merchants of the city of Lutsk in its e-records section.

Birth, marriage and death records

Scans of more than 93 church books from the Volyn Spiritual Consistory of Zhytomyr, Volyn Province, have been added by the State Archive of Zhytomyr Region. More information on these church books is available through these links-1, 2 and 3.

Another collection of church books has been posted by the State Archive of the Dnipropetrovsk Region.

The State Archive of the Rivne Region has birth, marriage and death records from the 1870s-1920s available on its website. The new additions are listed under 344-384.

Anyone who has missed news on the digitizing efforts for Ukrainian archive records can find previous posts here.

Follow this blog with the top right button to stay up-to-date on the latest free resources for your Ukrainian and Russian genealogy.

MyHeritage launches free Wiki site with valuable Eastern European genealogy resources

On December 16, 2023 By Vera MillerIn GenealogyLeave a comment

Nothing beats a new genealogy resource that covers Eastern Europe when it comes for free in English.

MyHeritage launched its new Wiki site this week. Users don’t need to register nor are limited in how much material they can view for free.

I know more about this great project than roaming about the new site. MyHeritage asked me to confidentially write as a volunteer for the new Wiki in March and I contributed 13 articles, which mostly focus on Ukrainian and Russian genealogy.

(Full disclosure: The MyHeritage staff showed their gratitude toward my efforts on a regular basis, extended my MyHeritage membership as a thank you and sent me a gracious gift for being a founding member of the Wiki. No, I wasn’t offered any perks for promoting the Wiki.)

The amount of time I dedicated to the Wiki explains the slow down of posts to this blog this year but I felt the Wiki was worth my time and I wanted to make sure that Ukrainian and Russian genealogy were given their proper spotlight. Anyone can apply to write for the Wiki by filling out this form.

The MyHeritage Wiki is user-friendly, covers genealogy in many countries and gives a better understanding of using DNA testing as a tool for genealogy.

Here are some quick links: Russian genealogy, Ukrainian genealogy, Polish genealogy, Belarussian genealogy, Lithuanian genealogy and Estonian genealogy.

Don’t forget to check out the sections on primer on historical records, how to guides, genetic origins and naming traditions. MyHeritage released this video to give a peak into these new resources.

It only takes discovering one piece of new information to help make a genealogy brickwall chip away.

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