2021 Conference, Russian Track
Russian Track – Class Descriptions and Time Schedule (sorted by time slot)
All presentations in the Russian track are in Room 3.
All times are Mountain Daylight Time.
Introduction to Russian Research (Joe Everett), Wednesday August 11, 9:45 AM, Room 3
The Russian track includes research in countries that were formerly part of the Russian Empire or U.S.S.R. This class will provide an overview of genealogy research in the region.
Russian Birth, Marriage, and Death Records (Joe Everett), Wednesday August 11, 11:00 AM, Room 3
Learn about Russian birth, marriage, and death records, including religious and civil records. We will also discuss confession lists, which were compiled based on these records.
Russian Census, Revision, and Conscription Lists (Joe Everett), Wednesday August 11, 1:30 PM, Room 3
Among the most important record types in Russia are various lists, included census, revision lists (census-like poll tax list), and lists used for military conscription.
Russia Archives and Online Sources Part 1 (Joe Everett), Wednesday August 11, 2:45 PM, Room 3
Learn about how records are organized in Russian archives, methods of accessing them offline as well as online.
Russia Archives and Online Sources Part 2 (Joe Everett), Wednesday August 11, 4:00 PM, Room 3
Learn about more examples of records from Russian archives that are accessible online on major genealogical sites and archive sites.
Russian Maps & Gazetteers (Joe Everett), Thursday August 12, 8:30 AM, Room 3
Learn how to use maps and gazetteers to help understand the places Russian ancestors came from.
Russian (Soviet) WWI and WWII Military Records Online and in Archives (Valentina Nagy), Thursday August 12, 9:45 AM, Room 3
This presentation will focus on research in the military records of Russian (Soviet) officers and soldiers during First and Second World Wars, as a valuable source, covering a vast male population of Russian Empire and/or Soviet Union. It will present the biggest online databases of these records and provide tips on how to use them for those who do not speak Russian. It will also teach how to further extend the research of the war-related records in archives in Russia and other successor countries.
Topics included:
• Best online databases to research Russian WWI records (In the memory of the heroes of the Great War of 1914-1918, The First World War, 1914–1918, Officers of the Russian Imperial Army etc.)
• Best online databases to research Soviet WWII records (Memorial, Feat of the People, Memory of the People etc.)
• How to work with Russian databases for non-Russian speakers
• How to extend research in WWI and WWII records in local archives
Baltic States Research (Greg Nelson), Thursday August 12, 11:00 AM, Room 3
If your family has roots in the Baltics States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, there are a number of rich resources available for you to consult. This course will cover research in all three Baltic States and include online research, research groups, data privacy restrictions, and strategies for archival visits. The course is intended for the diaspora and not for in-country researchers but will benefit both groups.
Lithuanian Research (Angela Sinickas), Thursday August 12, 1:30 AM, Room 3
Lithuanian genealogical records abound, but unlocking them requires the key to understanding why the same family surname might be written in a variety of ways for different family members or in different centuries. This class provides simple, clear explanations and lots of tips on how to try alternate spellings when doing searches of indexed databases for Lithuanian genealogy.
This class covers:
- How language, calendars, history, and geography affect where and how to look for your Lithuanian ancestors' records.
- How Lithuanian is completely unlike the languages of most nearby countries that speak Slavic, Germanic or Scandinavian languages.
- How a belated changeover from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1918 may affect the birthdates of your ancestors.
- How Lithuania's very late Christianization process, starting in 1386, means there were no church records before then, other than rare Russian Orthodox conversions.
- In what years the records you're searching for might be written in Latin, Polish, German, Russian, or Lithuanian.
- In which archives besides Lithuania's you might find your Lithuanian ancestors' records due to changing borders after wars were fought.
- Why and how the endings on Lithuanian surnames are different for males, married females, and unmarried females in the same family, and why the endings will also be different depending on the position of the name in a church record.
- How modern-day spellings of Lithuanian names may be different from the way those names were spelled in the past, or spelled by the Polish and German officials who wrote down what they heard illiterate peasants say were their names.
- How to easily tell apart unfamiliar male and female first names in Lithuanian.
- How to correct for mistakes that may have been made by indexers when you're searching databases.
If you have Lithuanian ancestors but don't speak Lithuanian, this class is a must-not-miss before trying to find your ancestors' names in a variety of archives.