Find your old village

Posted by rusgen
On November 3, 2017
Belarus, Genealogy, geography, locations, maps, pictures, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Russian Genealogy, Ukraine, work

One of the complicated points of the research, even before you go to the archive, is to make sure you have the correct location. It is especially true if some migration was involved. In those cases people tend to forget exact details of their small villages where they were born and remember only the approximate […]

Posted by rusgen
On October 28, 2017
archives, census, Jewish, Jewish Genealogy, Odessa, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Ukraine, WWII

100 years ago Odessa was the fourth largest city in Russian Empire (after Moscow, St Petersbourg, and Warsaw). As it was within the Pale of Settlement, it has the large Jewish population. Another strange twist of the history is that a lot of Jewish records there survived the 1917 revolution, civil war, and the WWII. […]

Posted by rusgen
On October 21, 2017
archives, Genealogy, Heroldy, RGIA, Russia, Russian Empire, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogy, Ukraine

Do you know that the nobility files of the former Russian empire could be found not only in the region where the noble person lived, but also in one centralized place? It was called Heroldy Department of the Governing Senate (Департамент герольдии Правительствующего Сената), it was the highest office to finally approve (or reject) nobility […]

Posted by rusgen
On June 25, 2017
Genealogy, Grave, Nansen, Norway, Oslo, refugees, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Russian Genealogy, stateless

In our permanent quest for the new documents helping us locate your lost relatives we have visited the Fridtjof Nansen mansion, institute and the grave in Polhøgda, Lysaker, Norway. You might have heard about Nansen’s passports issued to refugees and stateless persons after the WW1.

Posted by rusgen
On December 25, 2016
2016, 2017, congratulations, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Russian Genealogy

We wish to thank everyone who asked us complicated questions last year and hope you will come back with more unsolvable puzzles. We hope your families will be safe and well in this coming year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone 🙂 –Yours Historical detectives

Posted by rusgen
On November 5, 2016
1848, 1878, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Galicia, Ivano-Frankivsk, maps, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Russian Genealogy, Ukraine

Did you ever wondered why we call our research “puzzle solving” ? Look at those pictures. It is the same Galician village, part of Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918, now in Ukraine, mapped in 1848 and in 1878. We are looking for a couple of particular house numbers. Does it look like a puzzle?? And why […]

Posted by rusgen
On October 29, 2016
Greece, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kiev, Lviv, Moscow, Odessa, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Russian Genealogy, Ufa

We are looking now for the history of yet another family which emigrated from the former Russian empire to the North America. So far the research plan consists of visiting archives of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv Historical, Odessa in Ukraine; Russian State archive (Moscow), Moscow city archive, Bashkortostan archive (Ufa); checking Greece-related records in several Russian archives, […]

Posted by rusgen
On October 22, 2016
1930s, 1950s, GARF, passport, Research, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Russian Genealogy, USSR

We have completed the research and found out how the letters in the Soviet passports (and удостоверения личности, personal IDs, and in ZAGS birth certificates) were assigned over the most part of the XX century. A couple of months of fruitless archival research finally brought some Real Historical Gems. It turned out that the 1974 […]

Posted by rusgen
On September 8, 2016
1960s, communist, ekaterinburg, modern, party, Russia, Russian Family History, Russian Genealogist, Russian Genealogy

I recently went to this standard archival building in this part of the world (note those small windows which usually covered with dark glass): It houses the former Sverdlovsk Communist party archive (currently titled “Center of the documentation of public organisations” The place has a very large holdings of 1950s-1990s history of the […]

Posted by rusgen
On March 11, 2016
Dustin Hoffman, Finding Your Roots, Henry Louis Gates, Hoffman, PBS

Where is Dustih Hoffman, Hollywood movie star, and where are we, humble historic researchers, you may ask? We helped the PBS Finding Your Roots to locate and document details of Dustin’s grandfather’s life and death in Bela Tserkva, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). We researched this part of his family tree: And found this newspaper with […]

Page 3 of 51 234 5

Find your old village

Jewish Genealogy Research – Odessa

Russian Nobility and Polish Szlachta

Fridtjof Nansen mansion visited

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Real Puzzle

New project

Soviet Passports and IDs (1927-1999)

Party archive

Finding Your Roots S03E10 Dustin Hoffman