Database reveals names of secret agents for the Soviet Great Terror

Curiosity of relatives from the former Soviet Union is peaked when there is a silence about their life in the old country. What’s the big secret about their life?

More 41,000 men and women from the former Soviet Union had a big secret of their lives- working for the NKVD (precursor to the KGB) during the Soviet Great Terror from 1935 to 1939. Their secret is no longer that, thanks to an online database from Russian organization Memorial.

Anyone who is curious if their relatives served as NKVD agents during the terror years can do it quietly by using this database. Not surprisingly, some of these agents were executed after years of loyal service.

Information on each agent varies but some have their full name, birthdate, birthplace, death date and place of death, in addition to details on their service and awards.

Naturally, this database is in Russian but easy to use for those who don’t know Russian.

Here’s how to use the database without knowing Russian:

1. Translate family names into Russian by using Google Translate or Transliterating English to Russian in One Step
2. Click on the link for the correct letters that start the last name on this page.
3. Once a possible match is found, click on the link, copy and paste the text into Google Translate  to read the material in English.

For those intimidated by using a Russian website, here is another way to search this database.

1. Translate family names into Russian by using Google Translate or Transliterating English to Russian in One Step
2. Copy the full name or last name into Google’s search bar and add site: http://nkvd.memo.ru/index.php. It should look like Иванов site: http://nkvd.memo.ru/index.php in the search bar.
3. Then the results appear in Russian. Copy and paste each page of results into Google Translate to decide which links to click on.

Memorial, which posted this database onto its website, also has a database for victims of the Soviet Repression here. The database was updated in December 2016.

The organization is working on a database of Soviet Union citizens who were forced laborers of Germany. Follow this blog by clicking on the button in the top right corner to learn when that database becomes public.

Related posts:
Secrets of searching the Internet in Russian and Ukrainian like a native speaker
Break open the “I don’t know anything” relatives for some genealogy gems

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Another treasure for researching World War I heroes

Databases are aplenty for World War II heroes but World War I heroes haven’t been forgotten. The newest database for World War I heroes is a great research tool, with the perk of having scanned military archive records.

Many people researching their ancestors from the former Russian Empire are challenged by using Russian websites. But In memory of the heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918 can be easily used with the directions below, even without knowing Russian.

The website has 2,278,000 entries on soldiers who received awards, went missing and/or died. The same information with scanned military records can’t be found on subscription-based websites.

In memory of the heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918  is free of cost and registration.

Here’s a peek at the search page translated into English, using this link:

To search this database, all keywords must be in Russian. Make sure to open Google Translate in the next window to the database.

If Google Translate can’t translate your ancestors’ names and birthplaces, use Transliterating English to Russian in One Step.

A few words won’t translate using the above link on the database’s search boxes- Губерния (region); Уезд: (county); Волость (parish) and Населенный пункт (community).

Here’s how to get great results:

1. Use only confirmed information on people being searched. If a death year is not confirmed through other sources, skip that box.
2. If the database doesn’t give any matches, redo the search by using less information.
3.  When family information is limited, try searching by surname and village.
4. If you are searching for more than one person, copy and paste all the keywords in Russian for each person into a Microsoft Word or another word processing document.

If you can’t read Russian, copy and paste each page of results into Google Translate.

It’s good to know if your ancestors’ surnames or villages translate into other words in English (such as cobbler, cabbage, etc,). You can double-check this by copying and pasting the surnames and villages name in Russian into Google Translate and viewing the English translations.

Some surnames and village names will translate letter by letter into similar-sounding Roman letters.

The scanned records from military archives can be downloaded from the website, drag the images to the desktop on Macs and right-click on PCs. If you don’t read Russian, do a print screen, save it to a Word document and paste the translated text from Google Translate.

If you want to try your luck with other databases, click here for other free databases.

The adventurous types can try to find more information on the Internet with new information found in the database in Russian. Here are some hints:
Secrets of searching the Internet in Russian and Ukrainian like a native speaker

Don’t miss out on learning about new resources by subscribing to this blog by clicking on the top right button.

 

Best tips on uncovering U.S. documents on mysterious Soviet Union relatives

Once many people learn their relatives came from the Soviet Union, the excitement of researching their past seems to be reduced to anxiety. The challenges feared chill the thrill of what can be learned.

But the thrill is allowing curiosity overtake the anxiety. The search is still possible even if relatives didn’t leave behind many documents from the old country.

Just knowing names, birth years and birth countries of Ukraine, Russia or Belarus, plenty of potential exists to research their lives. The approach just needs to be flipped with starting with what is known and collecting all possible records.

1. Obtain the death and marriage records.

2. If your relatives collected Social Security, search for them in the Social Security Death Index here. Don’t worry if they can’t be found in the database.

3. Apply for photocopies of their original Social Security applications here. The fee is $21. Proving death with death records, obituaries or Social Security Death Index listings is required for anyone who would be less than 120 years old today.

On an application of a friend’s great-grandfather who was born in the early 1900s, the man provided his birth date, birth village, both parents’ names, date
of arrival and previously used names.

4. Search for naturalization records. If they can’t be found online, go to the U.S. National Archives website and e-mail the regional office closest to their residence for the first 5 years in the USA. The office will typically search for their records for free.

5. Find the passenger records online or order reproductions here for $10. (If they arrived at Ellis Island, try this free database.) This may seem like duplicating information already found on other documents, but passenger records may include other unknown relatives. Every piece of information is important.

6. Search for Alien Case Files (the golden gem of information) on your relatives for free here. If your relatives’ surnames are uncommon, just search the surnames. The ordering information is listed on the bottom of the clicked link.

7. If your relatives weren’t found in that database and arrived between July 1, 1924 and 1975, the U.S. Department of Citizen and Immigration Services Genealogy Program may have files on them. Click here for more information on  its records. The search is $65 per person and each file costs another $65. If you can afford the fees, it’s worth checking whether records are available on your relatives.

8. Make sure to download or print out any new information. Even if a document says your relatives came from a different place than noted on other documents,  it’s important to keep that information. Your relatives may have struggled with spelling their birthplace in English.

Once you have collected all the documents, use the new information to search online databases.  If you weren’t as successful as hoped on one relative, try the first six steps on siblings. Don’t give up.

The final step is joining Facebook genealogy groups and be ready to be amazed by the amount of advice and resources that will come pouring in.

Related posts:
Top 13 tips for making Facebook the best genealogy networking tool
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Don’t let this easy mistake implode your family tree

Great-grandpa’s arrest record helps breakdown a brickwall

It’s been quite frustrating to not know the full name of my great-great-grandmother. No one passed on information more than her first and middle name and archives lost her marriage record.

I thought hope was lost in knowing who was my great-great-grandmother. Then luck again happened once again on the most popular Russian genealogy forum.

A woman who previously worked for the regional archives in the same area of my family village offered her services to research records. I didn’t have much hope records could be found but this woman would know archives better than anyone else I could hire to dig through archives.

By luck, she knew another resource for marriage information. My great-great-grandfather had to ask permission from a military board for his marriage to be approved, with him being a Don Cossack, soldier of the Russian czar’s army.

Thank you Don Cossacks for having such rules. The researcher found a document that revealed the month and year of marriage, the full name of my great-great-grandmother and her father’s title of captain and engineer.

The maiden surname sounded familiar. An investigation record of my great-grandfather’s arrest from his college days mentioned him staying with an uncle in Lugansk, Ukraine, with the same last name.

My grandmother gave my father an oral history of the family. That family surname was supposed to be connected to a maternal aunt’s husband, not her paternal grandmother.

Thanks to connecting my great-grandfather’s arrest document from St. Petersburg archives with his father’s marriage request record, the man in Lugansk is confirmed as my great-grandfather’s uncle, not just an older family friend. This explains why my great-grandfather attended college in Lugansk, so far away from the family Cossack village in southern Russia.

And thanks to Russian culture, I also know the first name of my great-great-great-grandfather. Once a full name is known of an ancestor such as given name, patronymic name (in honor of the father’s given name) and surname, the father’s first and last name are known. It’s a two-for-one deal in Russian genealogy.

The profession of my great-great-great-grandfather was hardly a surprise. His grandson, some great-grandsons and a great-great-grandson were engineers. After all these years of researching, I finally discovered a family profession comes from an ancestor.

Learning about my great-great-grandmother’s family didn’t seem realistic, with my past luck in southern Russian archives. My researcher got lucky with finding my great-grandfather’s death record so my curiosity was peaked whether his parents’ marriage record could be found.

The birth records of my great-grandfather and his brother vanished from archives. Thanks to connecting with my cousins from my great-grandfather’s brother on the most popular Russian genealogy forum, I guessed when the parents could have married, based on their great-grandfather’s birth year, and hit the jackpot.

In Russian genealogy, you can either be bitter about what can’t be found or be delighted with surprises after constant resilience.

For more inspiration:

An overlooked record opens a door to finding long-lost family from WWII
Guide to Using the Best & Largest Russian Language Genealogy Forum (includes a video guide in English)

Databases of Soviet Army soldiers as POWs provide wealth of information

It’s wonderful to hear stories of Soviet Army soldiers who returned home to their families. Too many Soviet Army soldiers were taken prisoner and never heard from again.

One database from Germany provides information on 700,000 Soviet Army soldiers who died as POWs. The typical solider will have the following details: first name, last name, birthdate or birth year, father’s first name, birthplace, death date, nationality and identification number for the database.

This database is easy to use in German with the following suggestions.

1. Change the letter v to w. Vladimir will also appear as Wladimir. Smirnov will also appear as Smirnow. The website has Ivanov written as Ivanov and Iwanow.
2. Change the letter y to j. Vasiliy will also appear as Vasilij.
3. If nothing can be found with the changes suggest in No.1 and 2, try the known or common spellings.
4. Remember the e may be dropped in names such as Petr and Alexandr.
5. Search by last or first name only if searches with first and last names are not successful.

The search box is above two phrases- Beginn des Namen (start of name) and Teil des Namen (part of name). The beginnings and endings of first names can be searched, in addition to last names.

Once information is found on a soldier, obtain additional information by sending an e-mail message in German (using Google Translate) to the first address listed here or mailing a letter to the first postal address listed.

If the people being researched aren’t on this database, check these lists that are translated into English.

Arkhangelsk Region, Russia

List of Soviet Army soldiers who died as POWs of the Germans

List of Soviet Army soldiers who died as POWs of the Finnish

Auschwitz, Poland

List of Soviet Army soldiers at  Auschwitz– There are 2,032 Soviet Army POWs in this database, listed in alphabetic order in English. One card of information is given on each soldier, written in German. The images can’t be download so print or try holding down Ctrl and PrntScr at the same time and paste the print screen into an image editing program.

Kiev

List of Soviet prisoners of war who died in German captivity in hospital No. 3 in White Church, Kiev Region, in the winter of 1941-42

Stalag 326

List of Soviet prisoners of war who died in Germany captivity

Maps

Map of German POW camps for Soviet Army soldiers

Map of Finnish POW camps for Soviet Army soldiers

If nothing can be found on the people being researched, make free search requests with International Tracing Service here. It could take a year to get a response.

Remember to look at the Free Databases page to see the other databases for researching in Russia and Ukraine.

Another gem for researching relatives who served in the Soviet Army during WWII

It takes some digging to uncover great finds for researching relatives from the former USSR. Genealogy research isn’t the commercial enterprise in Russia as it is in the English-speaking world.

So it’s a happy dance moment when one more gem is found. My latest find is Ветераны Великой Отечественной войны (Veterans of the Great Patriotic War).

This wonderful website has pages of photos and stories for more than 12,000 WWII veterans of the Soviet Union. Yes, this website is only in Russian but directions are given below on how to search and use the site for those unfamiliar with Russian.

This is the first website on WWII veterans of the Soviet Union that I have found with pictures of each veteran, plus stories of their lives. The people who contributed the photos and stories are mentioned by full name and place of residence.

For those familiar with Russian, the search box is above the first row of veterans with a button that says найти (find).

For those unfamiliar with Russian, go to this link to search. Then open Google Translate in the next browser window.

Here’s how to check whether any of the veterans included on the website are your relatives.

1. Translate your last names and family villages/towns/cities using Google Translate or the Steve Morse website.
2. If you are searching common Russian names such as Ivanov, Smirnov, Romanov, etc., I highly recommend searching the website with last names and family villages/towns/cities.
3. Copy and pasta the Russian translations of last names and family villages/towns/cities into the long search box and then click on the button that says найти.
4. If you use Google Chrome, the Russian may be automatically translated into English. If your browser doesn’t translate automatically into English, copy and paste each page of results into Google Translate.
5. Please remember if you can’t find your last names and family villages/towns/cities after using Google Translate, the names translated into other words, i.e. last name Kapusta could translate from Russian into English as cabbage.
6. If you didn’t get any results by using together last names and family villages/towns/cities, try only one type of keyword. Also, try using all possible spellings suggested on the Steve Morse website before giving up hope.

Now that you were brave enough to try searching in Russian on this website, try searching the whole Internet in Russian. Here’s my guide on taking that next step: Secrets of searching the Internet in Russian and Ukrainian like a native speaker.

Remember to follow this blog by clicking on the follow button on the top right of this page. Great free research resources are discussed on this blog throughout the year.

The dream of three generations comes true on a rare chance

Eight years ago, I was filled with joy for finally finding my grandfather’s family who were left behind for dreams of a better life. It took until last weekend to comprehend what it really meant for this family to come back together face-to-face 74 years later in Washington, D.C.

My grandfather was the only child of six who left his family in Ukraine. His parents weren’t supposed to talk about their son who left Soviet Ukraine but his siblings never forgot him.

My cousin (granddaughter of an older sister of my grandfather) gave me the complete picture of what our reunion really meant to her family. Her grandmother agonized over finding my grandfather but she knew she couldn’t under communism.

She faced the death of three brothers and sisters and died before communism fell in Ukraine. The pain of not knowing about what happened to her little brother wasn’t hushed. One son made it a mission to find my grandfather’s family to fulfill his mother’s dream.

He tried to find us through the American Red Cross’ Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center. The program has a 79 percent success rate for finding information but our family wasn’t a success story. That was thanks to my grandfather changing his last name by one letter to avoid questions whether he was German.

As a last resort, the son of my grandfather’s sister posted information on his mother’s family on All Russia Family Tree (link translated into English) in 2005. That is the only place where he posted to find us and he didn’t have much hope we would find his message.

I was viewing this website at that time and even before. My Russian was so rusty that I didn’t know how to write my grandfather’s last name in Russian but I remembered some words and the alphabet. I called my mother that I found a Russian genealogy website but I couldn’t read it.

This was before I knew of the existence of Google Translate, my best friend of understanding Russian websites and searching the Internet in Russian. When I got “sophisticated” enough to use Google Translate to discover my grandfather’s nephew’s message in 2009, he already died from a heart attack.

He dreamed of writing a book, bringing his family together in a newly-bought datcha and finding his uncle’s family. He never had a chance to fulfill any of those dreams.

Thankfully, his two oldest children welcomed me with open arms. It took three generations to bring us back together, all thanks to one Russian genealogy website I randomly found.

Spending three days with my cousin, my mom and my two kids felt so natural. My grandfather loved his family he left behind and it’s amazing that love wasn’t forgotten over the years. That’s what family is all about.

Related posts:

The gift of patience becomes a gift of knowledge five years later

Guide to Using the Best & Largest Russian Language Genealogy Forum (All Russia Family Tree) Includes a video guide.

Secrets of searching the Internet in Russian and Ukrainian like a native speaker