January 01, 2000

Digging up your Russian Roots


The usefulness of the web to research genealogy cannot be overstated. Here are some of the most useful links.

General Sites

All Russia Family Database Search the free database for your surnames. It’s helpful to be able to read Russian for this site, even if accessing the English language version.

Federation of Eastern European Family History A central site for Eastern European genealogy that includes the former Russian Empire.

American Family Immigration History Center If your family came to America between 1892 and 1924 through Ellis Island, you can use this site to find their passenger records and view copies of the actual ship manifests. The long-anticipated site can tremendously boost your search and beats sitting in a dark room perusing microscopic print on a microfilm reader.

Germans from Russia

Germans from Russia Heritage Society

Germans from Russia Heritage Collection If your heritage is ethnic German, accessing this site is a must. It provides "one-stop-shopping" for resources and links.

Einwanderungszentralstelle (EWZ) Anträge One of the most important document sources for Germans from Russia is this collection of more than 400,000 applications of ethnic Germans living outside Germany during 1939-1945. The actual records were kept in the Berlin Document Center and filmed by the National Archives. These two sites describe what’s available.

Village Reports In the 1940s, Dr. Karl Stumpp headed up an organization set up by the Ministry of Occupied Eastern Territories to gather information on ethnic Germans in Ukraine. This site contains some of the reports written to accomplish the task.

German Russian Genealogy Says Brosz, "Here’s a site that everyone should visit if they are researching German Russians."

Online Discussion Groups Choose from several distinctive listservs to ask questions and exchange information with others from the same geographic area: Bessarabian Germans, Glückstal Colonies, Crimea Germans, and Volga Germans. In addition, two groups provide forums on genealogy and family research as well as heritage and culture.

St. Petersburg Archives Access surname lists from the St. Petersburg holdings on Germans from Russia.

Jews from Russian Lands

JewishGen The ultimate site for Jewish genealogy.

JewishGen Family Finder Allows you to enter a surname or place name and find other researchers with similar interests. Enter your own names so others can find you.

Family Tree of the Jewish People Contains family trees submitted by 1,500 Jewish researchers around the world. Armed with a researcher code and password (which you get through an e-mail request), you can access this database and you can upload your own tree. The database also enables you to contact the submitter—you may even find new family connections! Fox, for example, found connections with a recent émigré from Moscow through the Family Tree of the Jewish People. They share a great-grandmother.

All Belarus Database A compilation of more than 100,000 records from sources such as vital records, voter lists, business directories, tax lists, and ghetto inventories. Just enter the names you wish to search.

All Latvia Database Similar to the All Belarus Database, this consolidated index contains 50,000 entries referring to more than 80,000 individuals.

All Lithuania Database Sponsored by the Litvak Special Interest Group, this database contains more than 200,000 entries.

Vsia Rossia Database An index to more than 30,000 entries from the 1895, 1899, 1903, and 1911 All Russia business directories, representing Chernigov, Poltava, Kiev, Volhynia, Minsk, Mogilev, Vitebsk, Odessa, Berdichev, Zhitomir, Slonim, Volkovysk, and Tiraspol.

Yizkor Book Necrology Database After the Holocaust, survivors from a particular town banded together to write and memorialize their annihilated town and friends and family. This site provides easy, English-language access to the names contained in many of these books covering the geographic areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Special Interest Groups Researchers share common interests in groups covering Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. These SIGs also feature online discussion groups.

Nobility

Association of the Belarusian Nobility A fee-based society headquartered in Minsk open to descendants of nobility from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Russian Nobility Search a database of 11,000 names.

Belarus

Belarusian Genealogy Offers links to maps, researchers, documents.

Belarus Genealogy Forum Join this newsgroup if you’re looking to network with others researching their Belarusan roots.

Compiled by Barbara Krasner-Khait.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955