Family tree by last name. How to make a request to the archive about relatives? Archive request - sample

Today we often ask ourselves the question: "Who are we? Where do our roots come from?" But we do not always find the answer to our question. Time has passed, much has been lost and forgotten. And finding ancestors by last name is not at all easy. Our roots go back to the distant past of ancient times. But, respecting the memory of our ancestors, we are drawn to history, to the history of a kind.

Origin of the surname

Scientists-historians in our time are actively working in search of roots by surname. Special sites have been created on the Internet where you can conduct your research, and if you're lucky, you can find traces of your ancestors. You can look through dictionaries, reference books, in which the meaning of your last name is written. It may come from the occupation of the father of the family, that is, your distant relative. For example, "the son of a cooper is a cooper." Surnames that came from a princely family were called like the lands that were in their possessions. Vyazemsky, Shuisky are examples of this. Surnames came from the churches in which the clergy ruled, as well as from the geographical location of the area.

If independent research has not given you any clue, then you can contact the Center for Genealogical Research or its website, its address is http://rosgenea.ru/. It was created to help those who want to explore their family tree, who do not want to lose their roots. On the RosGenea.ru website, you can find out how to find your ancestors, whose roots go back to pre-revolutionary times. The site provides a database that is constantly updated. There are no analogues of this system on the Internet, so you have the opportunity to find ancestors by last name for free.

Search through the archive

If you have the opportunity and time to turn to archival institutions, then set yourself up for the fact that you will need to spend a lot of time and leaf through a lot of literature. At the same time, you should know the most minimal information about your ancestors, in particular about the place where they lived. In the archive, you must write a request and its employees will look for references to a particular surname in the file cabinet. Immediately, information can be found out when a person was born, who his parents are. Gradually, the “glomerulus unwinds” and a family tree begins to be drawn.

Internet search

The link http://www.familyspace.ru can also tell you where to find your ancestors. When you visit the FamilySpace website, you will see that there is unique information about genealogy here. Here you can learn a lot about your roots. People are searched by profession, region and last name. The information on the website is constantly being updated. And if you registered here, but did not find the one you were looking for, then you can just wait. When the information you are interested in appears on the site, you will be sent a notification. The site provides instructions that describe in detail how to use the site. The opportunity to find your ancestors is provided free of charge on this site.

If you have minimal information about relatives: place of residence, last name, then you can check the places where they used to live. Surely, there are old-timers who can remember these people. It often happens that abandoned old photographs can be found in attics, which would be of great value to you. Older people usually do not immediately want to remember the past, but when the conversation gains momentum, you can learn a lot of interesting facts.

TV shows

If you want to find your ancestors by last name, who are still alive, but lost somewhere for one reason or another, please contact the Wait for Me program website at poisk.vid.ru. A simple people search system works here, which will give you the opportunity to see if any of your relatives and friends are looking for you, and you can also submit an application to search for the person you need.

Design your family tree while there is such an opportunity, while grandparents are alive. Let history remain for future generations, let your great-grandchildren know and remember their genealogy. Leave your photos for them, and time will pass, and the successors of your family will know you.

The World Wide Web helps not only to communicate with contemporaries, but also to find relatives who lived long before the existence of the Internet. Genealogical research is not an easy task, but who knows what unexpected results will bring you perseverance and the right approach?

Every adventure starts differently. Time travel for everyone also begins in their own way. Personally, a normal national animal came to me - a toad. The toad was not very big, but grew by leaps and bounds. And it fed on a simple fact - not only do terrorist attacks take place in a field with a barn and a cornfield, but also the ancestors, as in many other countries, are lost almost forever. The country of victorious socialism has grown a gray community that did not want to know the stories of grandparents. It was already dangerous to know the history of the family, great-grandparents and great-grandfathers. And it is no coincidence that the Soviet regime shuffled families and nations. Uprooting and transplanting many people into foreign soil adds dullness to the surviving masses. And already the third post-revolutionary generation was much easier and easier to manage. Because fear and the absence of their own roots deprives peoples of self-identification.
The comparison came, of course, from the West, where one simple family from Germany took care of the issue of their ancestors. It is clear that the great- and great-great- they already knew. You see, they were concerned about the condition of their more distant ancestors. In just a few recent years, they managed to get to the progenitor of the clan, whose children have already received a surname, and he, the progenitor, is known as a person who lived near the place that gave the family a surname. And this man lived in the XI (eleventh) century!!! To date, the family tree of this family consists of 17,312 people and 6,034 families.
Digging Basics
From the basics: decide who, what names and in what time interval you want to find. Understand what data you have. Just in case, it is very useful to rummage through the home archive, chat with relatives. Detailed instructions for beginners can be found on the All-Russian Genealogical Tree website.
The most important events in the history of our country that broke the fate of many people and families - the October Revolution of 1917 and the Second World War. From them, perhaps, you need to build your research. Personally, at the beginning, having taken care of the fate of the missing grandfather, I found documents on www.obd.memorial.ru (including a request from my grandmother to the USSR Ministry of Defense in 1953) and his entire lost family on www.dag.com.ua.

Tribute to contemporaries: looking for in social networks?
It can be assumed that the online search for the lost relatives are easiest to conduct in popular social networks: "Odnoklassniki", "Vkontakte", or Facebook and MySpace, if relatives migrated abroad beyond Russia and Belarus.
The search technique for such networks is rather primitive.- the same clubs of namesakes, search by first name and last name (in additional parameters, you should specify the place of residence or year of birth - this will significantly narrow the circle of searches). The more widespread the surname, the more accurate data you need to have. In fact, these social networks are considered to be one of the most complete bases, and if you recall the theory of six handshakes (according to which any two people on Earth are separated by only six levels of common acquaintances), the odds look especially optimistic. Another argument in favor of social networks is that this area of ​​the Internet, as a rule, is not indexed by search engines, so it will not be superfluous to check popular social networks for contemporaries.
On the other hand, do not forget that often relatives have completely different surnames. Yes, and social networks cover people with a maximum gap of a generation, therefore, these communities of contemporaries cannot have anything to do with genealogical research.

The Mystery of Metrics
The most interesting begins in the study of another period- until 1917. It turns out that there is a mass of electronic data on the Russian Empire - starting with maps of different years and scales and ending with the preserved archives of parish registers, revision tales (documents reflecting the results of audits of the taxable population of the Russian Empire), memorial books and population census. The breadth of possibilities can be assessed on the website "Genealog Library". The study of grandmothers' metrics raised the question: why were all sisters and brothers baptized in different cities of the Bakhmut district? Why didn’t you sit still? There are a lot of regional sites and articles on Wikipedia on the Web. Surviving Metrics and Lists of the Churches of Donbass that Existed at the Time. But there are also metrics of the progenitors.

Quick Reference of Useful Links
Genealogy catalogs
genealogy.top650.com, www.cyndislist.com,
maxpages.com, forum.vgd.ru
search engines
Search help for Waneta.
Search through genealogical sites.
Global people search system.
Forum dedicated to the search for relatives.
Genus research
A site for those who want to learn about the origin of their surname, understand the compilation of a family tree of their kind, or find lost relatives.
The resource is devoted to various aspects of genealogy, the compilation of a family tree, the search for relatives - close and distant, who had the misfortune to get lost.
Pedigree: Pedigree Studies. Drawing up a genealogical tree and family archive.
"All Russia Family Tree". Russian genealogy. All-Russian genealogical tree. Information and materials on genealogy, genealogical database. Poems about genealogy.
Genealogy of Moldova, Bessarabia, Transnistria. Search for ancestors, relatives. Drawing up a pedigree. Search for documents in archives. Publication of family photos.
Surname studies and heraldry
Genealogies of nobles and kings of Europe: genealogies, history of surnames, biographies, orders, coats of arms, heraldry, portraits.
Surname research and the search for namesakes.
Archives
A project to systematize records and documents about fallen soldiers in World War II and subsequent conflicts.
Search organization, which collects information about soldiers who died in wars.
Books of Memory of several regions of Russia, numerous electronic reference books on the composition and formations of the Soviet Army.
Stalinist execution lists.
Archival business: genealogy, search and analysis of information in archives, compilation of genealogies, study of family history.
Portal Archives of Russia, official website of the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarchive).
Looking for relatives abroad
Lists of emigrants to America since the middle of the 20th century.
Search in Israel
About relatives in Latvia
www.rosjanie.pl, www.ipgs.us - how to find relatives in Poland
Resources for Finding Roots in Sweden
Russians in Paris
www.411.com, www.zabasearch.com, www.switchboard.com - Bases of Russian speakers in the USA.

Google knows everything!
With the right Google questions answers with the Google Books section, where you can find unique books, for example, the census lists of Little Russia for 1666 reprinted at the beginning of the 20th century.
What do they have?
A separate story is emigration. A lot of people who went missing during the hostilities actually ended up in exile. Base www.ancestory.com USA. In general, it is much easier to search for ancestors up to the 53rd year in the USA and Canada than in our space. Almost all existing databases are available in open electronic form. In this regard, the development of genealogical resources is several orders of magnitude higher than the Russian-speaking ones. True, modern data are closed for 70 years ago.
Those who have discovered another opportunity online and in real life, we must remember that genealogical research is a long-term hobby, there is nowhere to rush and the heirs will have something to do!

How to "plant" a tree
Genealogical research- It's a rather tedious and laborious task. But there are programs that can simplify the compilation of a family tree and the establishment of links between relatives. The simplest and most primitive way of compiling your family tree is online services such as GenoLink, Genway, myKin, MyHeritage, FamilySpace, semyaonline or, for example, My Tree.
Naturally, the main function of such resources- build a family tree (fill in the data columns, add a photo, etc.), ideally with the participation of your relatives, because they function by and large as social networks too. Because the standard search functions, adding friends, mail often work on such portals. At the same time, the possibilities of building the trees themselves can lose (and most often they are) to similar programs. All the charm - in interactivity and the possibility of joint work on the tree, well, or to make it easier to show to friends and brag.
B more laborious way, aimed at a deep study of family history - the use of genealogy programs. They even have their own standard for storing genealogical information GEDCOM - it is supported by all such specialized programs. And if, for example, one of the programs seems inconvenient or not suitable for you, it is easy to “move” the already found information to another program.
GEDCOM uses a lineage-linked data model. At the heart of this model, the core is the family or the individual. A GEDCOM format file is a text file (usually in ANSI and/or ANSEL encoding (UTF8 is supported in the latest draft version of the 6.0 specification) and consists of a set of records corresponding to individuals or families, or containing metadata intended to indicate the relationship between individual records. Sami records have a tree structure, the level of nodes is given by a number in the starting position of the line, the node type is specified by a tag following the level indicator.

Comes from online
The MyHeritage project also has an offline free program– Family Tree Builder, which is rightfully considered one of the best in the world due to its constant improvement. Family Tree Builder supports 35 languages, has easy navigation and the ability to select the number of generations to show, and the visual interface allows you to draw a family tree just like on paper.
Face recognition technology allows you to add captions to selected portraits and insert them into an already built tree. In the same menu, pictures can be supplemented with historical documents and text. Family Tree Builder has original, easy-to-use pages that allow you to visually build and expand your family tree in a visualized way.
The program has several fine-tuning modes for each user, from beginner to more experienced users.
Tree in Slavic
Development of Russian genealogists "Genealogy"- a fairly full-featured program for building, storing, editing and replenishing a genealogical data bank. It is easy to use and has an intuitive graphical interface. Its characteristic difference is one of the first such programs, which takes into account Slavic genealogical features, namely, the presence of a patronymic.
The base view in the application is tabular representation of one generation (family) with the possibility of transition to older generations (parents) and younger generations (children). In the base window, you can enter, change and delete any information about people, events in their lives, etc. To build diagrams (family trees), you must use the functions in the main menu.
In general, the program is a functional minimum for those who are just starting to conduct their genealogical research. In the future, when moving to more advanced genealogy applications, you can use the function of exporting the database to the unified GedCom genealogy format, which is understood by all major programs in the genealogy market.
Relatives card
Another program- GenealogMap is also a creation of Russian programmers who used a rather non-standard approach in presenting information on genealogy - the so-called genealogical map.
The element map is displayed as a pseudo-relief. Area sizes and feature levels on a map can emphasize important information and obscure details. By changing the display scale of map areas, you can control the visibility of objects at different levels. The relief of the map helps to divide the information by importance: the key information is placed on the upper levels, and the detailed information is placed on the lower ones. Information corresponding to higher levels is displayed in a larger font, so more important information catches the eye faster.
Shown on the map as direct links between relatives, and connections that currently do not have direct evidence. For example, when searching for a distant relative, there is no exact information about the connections with the main person in the database - in this case, you can put this relative on the map and complete the chains to him as information is received, but the indirect connection will be visible, since both persons will be located on one card.
Family constructor
Kith and Kin Pro is a software product for saving, visualizing and documenting family trees. It uses a user-friendly graphical interface and powerful data management tools that are suitable for both large and small trees.
Information that is entered into the program, organized by families. The main screen is a window called a genealogical chart, where each family is displayed as a rectangle. The links between families look like connecting lines. Using the mouse, you can drag and position the family boxes within the genealogy chart to form the tree however you like.
The program supports all the usual genealogical information: date and place of birth, baptism, death, etc., as well as pseudonyms for each person. You can add custom fields to personal or family information to tailor the database to your needs.
Multiple notes can be associated with each person or family. In this case, each note will be associated with a certain access level, which will allow you to later choose which of the notes should be printed in the reports. For a historically important family name, Kith and Kin Pro allows you to save information about archival documents. A record of such documents and the archives themselves will allow us to return to interrupted research in the future.
There are not many trees
The GenoPro program is simple, but a very powerful system for entering genealogical information. Like GenealogMap, it renders the genealogy database as trees, but the visualization style is more intuitive.
Already in early versions of GenoPro allowed to build trees of almost any complexity. At the same time, in the latest versions of the program, it became possible to show both the entire tree at once and in parts. This innovation greatly simplifies the use of a tool such as AutoArrange, since in the presence of multiple or circular relationships, display difficulties can arise, so the tree can be drawn “ugly”. The tree is displayed in parts on different sheets, just as it is done, for example, in MS Excel or MS Visio. Navigation between parts of the tree is carried out using hyperlinks.
world tree

Legacy Family Tree- one of the most powerful software tools for maintaining genealogical databases today. Family trees can contain the names of millions of people, information about which can be recorded, stored and displayed in a report. The program stores a sequence of names, surnames, dates, places, events, notes, archival records, images, and then presents them in an intuitive way, displaying the whole family in large. Legacy Family Tree includes all standard genealogical reports, timelines, questionnaires, search logs, census forms, and other forms. You can even print out an entire family book containing photos. The program is so wide in its functions which requires careful study. However, for those who have spent some time learning and understanding all the functionality, there will be a lot of opportunities for maintaining a genealogical database. Only in order to correctly configure this software package, it is worth spending several hours.

Introduction to Genealogy

The ideal state of mind of an amateur genealogist, which guarantees him peace of mind, is to believe that genealogical research is in many ways interesting as a process that can be continued indefinitely - you can even try to find your ancestors before Adam or find out the family tree of all people who bear your last name. If you think so, then you will not be too upset by the fact that genealogy is currently a hobby, from the point of view of many, no more exciting than, for example, collecting stamps. All found relatives cannot become your like-minded people, just as there is not a single family in the world, all members of which are obsessed with philately. You can hope that a small part of the newly found relatives will want to participate in your search, a slightly larger part will listen to your stories with interest, and the bulk will think that you are doing nonsense. Here, as elsewhere, there is a general statistical pattern of 80 to 20 - 20 percent of people show 80 percent of interest in genealogy.
It is best to start genealogical research of your own kind with ... You will never guess from what.

From the purchase of stationery and revision

It is impossible to remember everything, all the facts must be recorded with the source indicated and put into envelopes and folders. Copies of documents, photographs and archival references will also go there later, but this will be later. Even if you are a cool computer person and you are going to scan and store everything on a computer, you also need a paper archive. Don’t let B., of course, but suddenly Russia will lose electricity ...

Review old documents and photographs at home. Documents that contain genealogical information - Birth certificates, Marriage certificates, Divorce certificates, Death certificates, Passports, Employment books, certificates, certificates, certificates, diplomas, diplomas, order books, military IDs. Pay attention to names, dates, place of residence, family ties. Make photocopies of all documents. Put everything related to the paternal line in one folder, and the maternal line in the other. For each person - a separate envelope. When you receive new information, do not forget to lay it out. Subsequently, you have to set yourself the task of getting to the family archives of relatives and copying everything relevant to the case.
Since the population was, as they say, passportized under Soviet rule, passport information can also serve as a source of genealogical information. It is unlikely that you will find someone's old passport at home, but the passport number can be recorded, for example, in an old notebook, and this already indicates the possibility of searching for information in the archives.

Now it's time to talk

Most people's relatives are not interested in genealogy and family ties, they do not want to cooperate, they do not provide any documents ... Many genealogical studies ended at this stage. Well, for starters, think for yourself - why should they do something for you? It's one thing when something serious happens, then relatives, as a rule, come to the rescue, otherwise, for the sake of fantasies ... Genealogy is serious for you. And for them, it is quite possible, something else. They have their own problems, troubles above their heads, so they certainly cannot consider themselves obligated, for example, first to look for documents, then go to photocopy and scan them, and then spend an evening, or even more than one, to be with you communicate. Therefore, everything needs to be thought through.
Walk around with a notebook or cards and pester all relatives with questions. Ask your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles about everything they remember. Ask those living in other cities by letters, and preferably by phone and e-mail. Phones can be found in the phone databases on the web, there are more and more e-mail addresses every day on our website. However, it should be noted that if there is no publicly available e-mail address, most likely we do not have it either, or the person asked not to give this address to anyone. You can try to find his phone in the phone database or at the place of work, this is not too difficult. You can ask us, we will find.
One of the regular visitors to the site, Ilona, ​​came up with the perfect letter, which almost all namesakes respond to, you can read. And another visitor, Larisa, came up with a genealogical greeting card, you can.

Often people are embarrassed to ask their relatives (or namesakes) about their family ties, then we step in - this is the first component of the site experience. We are not shy, call, introduce ourselves, you can go to the site and see who we are, call. But a person who is not shy and not limited in time can do all this himself.

One of the ways to search for relatives, tested and sent recently:
“If you are looking for a person who is registered with the military, then it makes sense to contact the military registration and enlistment office of the city where he was at least once registered. the new military enlistment office was kindly informed.) And along the chain you will reach the last, current one. From the last military enlistment office they sent me my home address. I found the "lost" exactly like that. If I did not know the exact address, I simply wrote on the envelope And the letter reached. I understand that this is not feasible in all cases, but maybe at least someone will be lucky, like me."

No need to be offended if the newly found relatives do not invite you to visit, you never know what conditions and circumstances they have. Nevertheless, if relatives live with you in the same city, it is advisable not to write letters to them, but to communicate personally. You should talk in a pleasant, relaxing environment, ideally at the home of the person you decide to ask, but something else may work. The main thing is that the interviewee is not in a hurry - a twenty-minute lunch break is not good for a serious interview, it is better to use it to set up a real meeting. If your relatives sometimes gather - for holidays, weddings, birthdays - this occasion can be used to the maximum.
The most convenient thing, of course, would be to record everything on a tape recorder, it is quite difficult to remember everything. At the same time, take twice as many cassettes as you think you need - the constant switching on and off is very nerve-wracking, write down pauses as well. At the very least, jot down key points in a notebook, at the same time jotting down questions that popped into your head during the story, don't interrupt. It is understandable that most people feel embarrassed when someone writes down their words, so the conversation must be conducted in such a way that the person is carried away by the story. If you have a camera, take it with you - you may be able to take pictures of some family heirlooms, documents, and the narrator himself. The tape recorder needs to be checked, at the same time accustoming the interlocutor to the recording - turn it on, say who you are, what date, with whom and what you are talking about, and then play this recording.
When making an appointment, warn that you will record everything and come with a camera, let the person prepare psychologically in advance. Well, do not forget to explain why you are doing all this, what the end result will be and whether it will be possible to see it. Do not make promises that you are not going to keep, if, for example, you are going to post the result on the Internet, warn about it, then, perhaps, they will tell you something “not for publication”.
When starting a conversation, talk about yourself. You need to establish contact, create a sense of comfort and connection between you and the person you are talking to. At this time, prepare a notebook or a tape recorder with a camera, if you are going to use them.
Prepare a list of questions, and invent such that they cannot be answered in monosyllables. The question: “Do you remember the names of your grandfather's parents?” is not good, it is very easy to get the answer “No”. Even the question: “What do you remember about your grandfather's parents?” Is not too good, you can get the answer: “Nothing!”. The question should sound so that it is answered as long as possible, therefore, you must first ask about the grandfather himself, about his character, about what he told about his childhood, and if he did not tell, then why, and then gradually move on to his parents. If you still get a one-word answer, try to clarify: “Why?”
Since each family is unique, it is impossible to make a list of questions that is suitable for everyone. But here are some topics that can be discussed.
When the surname appeared in the family, are there any stories about its origin, did it ever change? By the way, in order to competently discuss this topic, it is worth reading the historical background in the third part, the chapter is called “Is it possible to find out the genealogy by the surname”.
Are there traditional family names? What diminutive names were called ancestors and relatives, and where did they come from?
Did the family move from place to place, how many years has the family been living in this place, are there any family traditions associated with the place of residence, objects brought from the old place? What were the oldest things in the house when your interlocutor was little? Are there any family heirlooms? Is there any history associated with them? Who is in the old photos? Who, when and for what reason took these photos? Are there any old documents?
Were there any traditions in the family that disappeared or changed over time? What were they and where did they come from? How do you celebrate holidays in your family? On what occasions did the whole family gather? What did they do, what did they talk about? If it stopped, then why? Who in the family respected and expressed special respect to him? Were there breakers of tradition in the family, people who were not loved, feared, or those with whom contact was lost?
Are there any family peculiarities of colloquial speech, family jokes and words incomprehensible to others?
Are there any bright cases from the life of parents, grandparents, earlier ancestors, any relatives. Are there any legends about family ties with some colorful personalities and celebrities? Are there stories about neighbors and acquaintances? How did your ancestors meet and get married?
Are there any special family meals? Have any recipes been passed down from generation to generation? Where did they come from, how and why did they change over time? Was there any traditional holiday food? Does the family have any stories related to food?
How did various historical events affect the family, who in the family suffered or committed a heroic deed? Are there any awards in the family? What marriages could not take place if not for some historical event?
It is best to start with some simple question that you can answer without thinking - about the time and place of birth, or about some story previously told to you by this interlocutor.
Thinking up a question, try to imagine the reaction of the interlocutor. It is best to start conversations with those who obviously treat you well, with whom you feel good. During the conversation, you can learn something about other sources, something like: "Aunt Marina can tell a lot about him, she always liked this story." In general, the best way to find new sources of information is to ask those who first come to your mind.
At the same time, you don’t need to “get hung up” on a list of questions and strive to ask them all, ask those that fit the conversation. Listen carefully and show interest, nod and smile. If a person is thinking, do not rush, do not be afraid of silence. If a topic not envisaged by you arises, do not stop the conversation, everything will come in handy. Do not try to talk only about the past, but listen to everything that they want and can tell you. Encourage them to tell you stories and anecdotes. They are interesting even if they do not correspond to historical facts, they allow you to understand the history of your family in its entirety, with all the dreams and prejudices of your ancestors, with the meaning of their life and with the meaning of your family's existence.
But, of course, we must not forget about the goal. What is the purpose of your inquiries? But even if your goal is only to learn historical facts, do not shut up the interlocutor's mouth, let the conversation flow freely. The goal determines which questions to ask.
Encourage the interlocutor to use old documents, family photographs, even some household items if they have been preserved in a conversation - all this helps to remember.
When the conversation is coming to an end, review your list of questions, maybe during the conversation you did not touch on some topic. If the interlocutor is tired, do not insist on continuing, arrange the next meeting. Experience shows that the normal duration of a conversation is one to two hours.
When you return home, put your notes in order, systematize everything you have learned, especially note what will help you in your further search, but is not subject to disclosure. Be sure to write down from whose story you got the information, when and under what circumstances. Do not put it off, later you will definitely forget some important details. If you recorded the conversation on a tape recorder, mark the tapes.

In the article Mozharova N. "Lessons in genealogy"("Red Star" dated August 11, 13, 19, 24, 1993) it is proposed to prepare a questionnaire for conversations with relatives and write the following on the cards:
“At the top of the sheet we write the last name, first name, patronymic. For women, we also indicate the maiden name (nee such and such). The data follows:

• 1. Day, month, year and place of birth, and for the deceased also the day, month, year of death, place of burial.
• 2. Surnames, names, patronymics of the father and mother.
• 3. Surnames, names, patronymics of godparents (godmothers and fathers).
• 4. For those born before 1917 - estate (peasants, philistines, merchants, nobles).
• 5. Place of residence, in what years.
• 6. Religion (Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish).
• 7. Where was he brought up, what kind of education did he receive.
• 8. Places of work or service, titles, positions.
• 9. Whether participated in wars, battles, when, where.
• 10. What are the awards (insignia, medals, orders).
• 11. Surname, name, patronymic of the wife (husband).
• 12. Names, dates and places of birth of children, if possible, indicating the surnames, names and patronymics of the godfather and mother.

kinship terminology needed in order to understand old records and explanations of elderly relatives - most of the terms are not used now (and it’s even hard to believe that they were once used, they are so incomprehensible, but suddenly you have such old relatives ...)

• Grandmother, grandmother - the mother of the father or mother, the wife of the grandfather.
• Brother - each of the sons of the same parents.
• A godfather is the son of a godfather.
• Brother of the cross, brother of the cross, brother named - persons who exchanged pectoral crosses.
• Bro, bro, bro, bro, bro - cousin.
• Bratanikha - the wife of a cousin.
• Bratanna - brother's daughter, brother's niece.
• Bratova - brother's wife.
• Bratelnitsa - a relative in general, cousin or distant.
• Bratych - brother's son, brother's nephew.
• A widow is a woman who has not remarried after the death of her husband.
• A widower is a man who has not remarried after the death of his wife.
• Grandson - son of daughter, son; as well as the sons of a nephew or niece.
• Granddaughter, grandson - daughter of a son, daughter; as well as the daughter of a nephew or niece.
• Brother-in-law is the husband's brother.
• A grandfather is the father of a mother or father.
• The godfather is the godfather's father.
• Grandfather, grandfather - aunt after uncle.
• Dedich is the direct heir of his grandfather.
• A daughter is a female person in relation to her parents.
• The daughter named is adopted, pupil.
• Dshcherich is the nephew of his aunt.
• Dschersha - niece by aunt.
• Uncle - appointed to care for and supervise the child.
• An uncle is the brother of the father or mother.
• A wife is a married woman in relation to her husband.
• Bridegroom - conspiring his bride.
• Zolovitsa, sister-in-law, zolova - husband's sister, sometimes brother's wife, daughter-in-law.
• Son-in-law is the husband of a daughter, sister, sister-in-law.
• Godfather, godfather - see: Godfather, Godmother.
• A mother is a female person in relation to her children.
• The godmother, the mother of the cross - the recipient at the rite of baptism.
• Mother named - mother adopted, pupil.
• Dairy mother - mother, nurse.
• The planted mother is a woman who replaces the groom's mother at the wedding.
• Stepmother - another wife of the father, a stepmother.
• A husband is a married man in relation to his wife.
• The daughter-in-law is the son's wife.
• A father is a male person in relation to his children.
• The godfather is the godfather at the font.
• The named father is the father of the adopted child, the pupil.
• An attendant father, a planted father, a disguised father - a person who acts instead of his own father at a wedding.
• The father is the eldest in the generation.
• Stepfather - another husband of the mother, stepfather.
• Otchinnik, stepchich - son, heir.
• A stepdaughter is a daughter from another marriage in relation to a stepparent.
• A stepson is a step-son of one of the spouses.
• A nephew is the son of a brother or sister.
• A niece is the daughter of a brother or sister.
• Plemyash - relative, relative.
• The progenitors are the first couple known by pedigree, from which the genus originates.
• Ancestor - the parent of a great-great-grandfather, great-great-grandmother.
• The ancestor is the first known representative of the genus from which the genealogy is conducted.
• Matchmaker, matchmaker - the parents of the young and their relatives in relation to each other.
• The father-in-law is the husband's father.
• The mother-in-law is the husband's mother.
• Proprietor - a person who is related by husband, wife.
• In-laws are people who are married to two sisters.
• Cousin-in-laws are persons who are married to cousins.
• The sister is the daughter of the same parents.
• A sister is a cousin, the daughter of a mother's or father's sister.
• Sister, sister, sister - cousin.
• Sister, sister - the son of a mother's or father's sister, a sister's nephew.
• Daughter-in-law, son-in-law - son's wife, daughter-in-law.
• A woman in relationship is the wife of a brother-in-law, the wife of two brothers in relation to each other, a daughter-in-law.
• Spouse - husband.
• The wife is the wife.
• A son is a male person in relation to his parents.
• The son of the godfather (godson) is a male person in relation to the godfather.
• The son named is adopted, pupil.
• Father-in-law is the wife's father.
• Aunt, aunt - the sister of the father or mother.
• The mother-in-law is the wife's mother.
• The brother-in-law is the wife's brother.

• Grandchildren, grandchildren - about kinship coming from the third generation (also second cousin) or even further.
• Cousin - about kinship coming from the second tribe.
• Blood - about kinship within the same family.
• Homogeneous - about the origin from one father.
• One womb - about the origin of one mother.
• Full-begotten - about the origin from the same parents.
• Pra is a prefix meaning kinship in a distant ascending or descending order.
• Married - about origin from the same parents, but born before marriage, and then recognized.
• Native - about the origin from the same parents.
• Consolidated - about the origin of different parents.
• Adopted - a male person in relation to the adoptive parents.
• Adopted - a female person in relation to adoptive parents.

Keep in mind that all people remember the same thing in different ways, they name different years of birth and the names of the same relatives and ancestors, confuse estates and localities, as a rule they do not remember the names and events of the lives of other people's children, but an approximate one gradually emerges. picture ready for further study. To send a request to the archive, you need to know the following about at least one person: full name, year and place of birth (before 1917) and death, where he lived (to determine the church parish - the place of baptism), what he did (estate). In extreme cases, you can specify the approximate year of birth, then the archive will look through documents for several years, but it will also cost, respectively, will be more expensive (genealogical search in most archives is a paid service).

Our most remarkable experience in this sense was the case when a person for no reason suggested that all bearers of his surname were relatives. Therefore, we looked for namesakes for him in different cities, and he and we communicated with them, and it turned out that this surname comes from the local name of the type of activity, so that all its carriers are really relatives: although they do not have a common ancestor, they all lived in the same settlement, did the same thing and became related. Then it was proved by archival search.

Our most frustrating phone search for a customer was when for a man who had only very vague information about his father's parents and really wanted to know something about his ancestors, and as a result it turned out that his father was illegitimate, and The nationality of his grandfather categorically did not suit him. So if you are afraid to find some strange people among your ancestors, first tune in positively - knowledge is better than ignorance anyway.

Well, one more case, the most romantic. Although we were not looking for a relative, it makes sense to bring him - he proves that nothing is impossible. Communicating only by phone and e-mail, we found a Russian sailor to a girl from New Zealand, whom she met twenty years ago in her homeland (he served on a Russian ship), fell in love, could not forget, but knew only his first name, last name and title ship.

Now I have to learn the words

For centuries, genealogy has developed norms for the presentation of information about kinship in the form of various tables, murals, dossiers, cards, and established clear rules for filling out these documents: graphics, symbols, numbering, and so on. Now, of course, there are genealogy programs in abundance, most of which use the GEDCOM format, which has nothing to do with the centuries-old history of genealogy, convenient purely from a computer point of view for program compatibility (by the way, this format was invented by one sect, they say totalitarian, although , maybe not, but in any case, their invention conquered the world, and the sect itself is not so widespread). In programs, it is not at all necessary to understand anything in genealogical terms, the tree will draw itself, everything is very simple there. But don't you really want real genealogists to respect you?
If you want, then some of their wise words still have to be learned.

In ascending pedigree they start with a certain person, then go up the ascending steps or tribes to the father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc., from the known to the unknown.

In descending lineage starting with the most distant known ancestor and gradually moving on to descendants.

Male descendant ancestry indicates all the offspring of the ancestor, which occurred only from men, indicating the name of their spouses.

Male ascendant lineage looks like a line since only one male ancestor is shown in each generation. There is only one surname in male genealogies.

Mixed descending ancestry shows all the offspring of a given ancestor, regardless of gender.

Mixed ascendant ancestry shows all ancestors in the male and female lines. There is one person in the first tribe, two in the second, four in the third, eight in the fourth, and so on. exponentially, and each person belongs to a different genus, so that in the fourth, for example, tribe there are representatives of eight different surnames.

Pedigree can be formatted as tree. In the ascending trunk, the person from whom it is built is indicated, the branching - his parents, the smaller branches - grandfathers and grandmothers, etc. You can’t distinguish them from afar, but at the base of the descending ancestor, and in the crown - descendants.
In Western Europe, they used to paint their genealogical trees: men with offspring were written on a yellow background, those without children - on red, married women - on purple, girls - on blue. All the living were painted on a green background, men - on a darker one, women - on a lighter one. Men's names were written in rectangles or rhombuses, women's names - on circles or ovals. But this is not a rule, in Russia this was rarely done.

You can download one of the options for designing the genealogy of your family or clan in the form of a tree here: (the file is in pdf format, you will need Adobe Reader to open the file with a template to build your "tree of life"). If you wish, you can find stencils in .psd (for Photoshop) and any other formats on the Internet, incl. online family tree templates. You can download the above family tree template for free. We also have a program on our website for compiling with children, we recommend using it at the initial stage of studying your family tree.

Pedigree table - this is the same, but without any liberties and embellishments. Each generation is located strictly on one horizontal line. The seniority of persons in each generation goes from left to right. ascending drawing a table is more or less easy, descending difficult, interferes with the different number of names in each generation and the descendants of each person. In the 17th century, in genealogical tables in Russian genealogical books of the 17th century and Russian pre-revolutionary historical literature, the ancestor was placed in the top line, and then the generations of his descendants went down.
horizontal table goes from left to right: on the left is the ancestor or the person whose genealogy is compiled, and then - in columns, by generation, all his ancestors or descendants. The oldest descendants are always on top, and seniority is read from top to bottom.
Circular (circular) tables used in English and French genealogy. In the center is the person for whom the genealogy is being compiled, then the circle is divided in half, in one half of the paternal ancestors, in the other - on the maternal side. Pie tables are only ascending.
The tables use abbreviations and signs:
I. - name (patronymic excluded, restored by the name of the father)
F. - surname
T / P - title, profession (occupation, social status, specialty, titles, ranks, ranks, etc.)
* 1833 - born in 1833
+ 1891 - died in 1891
X 1890 - married in 1890
)(1888 - divorced 1888
(+) 1895 - buried in 1895.
Each name in the table is assigned a number.

Pedigree painting is a verbal retelling of the table, where information about each name is added. For each information, indicate the source from which it was taken. For each name, a number is placed on the left side in order. In Russia, genealogical paintings appeared at the end of the 15th century. In the forties of the 16th century, genealogical books appeared, compiled in the Discharge Order, which was in charge of appointments for military service. Under Peter I, the King of Arms office was created, which existed, changing names, until 1917.
I must say that professional genealogists are very sensitive to the numbering of pedigree paintings, they even say that one genealogist had a fight with another, discussing a slash or putting a dot after one of the numbers. I will tell you two ways of numbering, and you yourself will choose which one you like best. There are others, but there is no point in trying to embrace the immensity.
Suppose the most distant relative known to you is your great-grandfather Ivan Petrovich, who had a brother Stepan Petrovich and a sister Marya Petrovna. Ivan Petrovich had three children (one of them is your grandfather), Stepan Petrovich had two, and Marya Petrovna had ten. All these children got married and also had children.
So, let's start painting. In fact, the most distant ancestor known to you is Peter, the father of Ivan and Stepan Petrovich. We assign it number 1. We start like this:

I knee
1. Peter

For all subsequent tribes, the number will consist of either two digits, or as many digits as the number of the tribe. That is, either we first write the number of the parent, and then the serial number of the child, or we number all the relatives found in order, and write the number of the parent second. (Sometimes this parent number is written on the right, at the very end of the line). Here's what it looks like in practice:

I I knee. (containing your great-grandfather)
1.1. (or 2.1) Ivan Petrovich
1.2. (or 3.1) Stepan Petrovich
1.3. (or 4.1) Marya Petrovna

I I I tribe (containing your grandfather)
1.1.1. (or 5.2) Ivan Petrovich's first child
1.1.2. (or 6.2) Ivan Petrovich's second child
1.1.3 (or 7.2) Ivan Petrovich's third child
1.2.1 (or 8.3) First child of Stepan Petrovich
1.2.2. (or 9.3) Stepan Petrovich's second child
1.3.1. (or 10.4) Marya Petrovna's first child
And so on.

IV tribe (containing your father)
Children of all representatives of the third tribe.

Let us determine the number for the first child of the first child of Ivan Petrovich. According to the first method, this is 1.1.1.1. According to the second method. . . So, Marya Petrovna had ten children - numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. That is, it means that the first child in the next generation will be 21. And the number of his parent - the first child of Ivan Petrovich - 5. That is, according to the second method, the number of this representative is 21.5.
I think the second method is more complicated, but it is more common, despite the fact that if you find a new relative, you have to renumber everyone who is in tribes with a larger number. And according to the first method, you can immediately understand the entire chain of ancestors by number and you can add at least dozens of them.
I advise you to start using the first method, and then, if you are pleased to see the total huge number of relatives numbered in order, just renumber everything when everything is ready.
For each representative of your pedigree list, you must write everything that you know about him (her), including the spouse (wife) and his (her) parents and the source of information (if the sources are different). When you bring everything to its logical conclusion, make a general list of sources and make links.

Build your first trees

Tired of learning the terms, you can build your ascending tree, descending tree, from the oldest ancestor you found to the newly found distant relatives, the maternal tree (focusing on her maiden name), as well as the names of grandparents. It all depends on what you learned.
But it is possible that this is not true.

I constantly receive information from people who want to enter information about themselves on the IOP website. The most common problem that arises in this case is that almost nothing can be understood from their records. If you come to a relative whom you want to persuade to spend time searching for documents and photographs in the family archive, with a bunch of crumpled pieces of paper on which it is not clear what is written, he will not take your request seriously. So now, very briefly, I will tell you how to portray what you know at the moment, understandable to others.
The need to systematize information and subject it to computer processing arises quite quickly, especially if you try to collect information on all carriers of your last name. Which one to choose depends on what programs you are used to.
For analysis, you need one that can sort rows of information by any column. That is, word, Excel, or any database will do. And we also need some kind of genealogical program to bring in the formed branches of the tree.
Start a table.
The first column - last name, 2 - first name, 3 - patronymic, 4 - year of birth, 5 - place of birth, 6 - year of death, 7 - additional information, 8 - source number.
The program you're working in should be able to alphabetize all your information by place of birth, if necessary, or, let's say, in ascending order of year of birth, or line up people by patronymic if you're looking for someone's son or daughter.
Column 7 - additional information - should not at all contain all the information you know about the person, only the main one, which can somehow help in identifying it.
So you get started.
Let's say you're researching your father's last name.
First you look for this surname in all search engines, print out the pages where it comes across, number the source, enter the available information into your table, put the source in an envelope and carefully put it on the shelf. It's too early to start thinking. You don’t think about the order of placement either, just add one line after another to the table. There is no name and patronymic, there are only initials - write in the appropriate cells one letter at a time. No years of life - do not write them. In column 7, write, for example, the title of the book, if you found the author of the book that way. Or write whose friend it was, and in what city, if you found a mention of this surname, for example, in an article about some poet. If several people with the same last name are mentioned in one article, start a separate line for each, and write in additional information how they are connected. If you come across someone's pedigree, enter all its characters both in this table and in the genealogical program, in the "additional information" column write the name of the file with the tree.
Then you look up this name in all telephone databases, in databases of employees of various institutions, in dictionaries and encyclopedias, in the database of the registration chamber, in lists of wanted criminals, that is, everywhere. If, for example, a person came to you from a telephone database, write the phone number and address (do not forget the city) in the additional information.
Along the way, wherever possible, subscribe to news by this name. On Yandex, I know, you can, but probably somewhere else. Information on the Internet is updated so that you comb it less often, it is better to subscribe to the news.
Now you start to manipulate the table and think.
Sort by name - to match matching characters, why do you need the same person twice? By the way, full namesakes exist in abundance, so at the slightest doubt it is better not to combine. If short chains are formed from scattered information, create files for them in the genealogical program. And then you find that there is little information.
By the way, this is a titanic work. You do not forget to copy and save all your files on disks, floppy disks or other media convenient for you, not a single person is able to do this work twice.
Then you will go to the libraries. The information accumulated on the Internet is not enough to deal with all the carriers of their surname.
You go to Poklonnaya Gora and, according to all the memory books of all regions, write out the bearers of your last name. Do you feel the swing? If you have a lot of money and little time, hire students, pay them by the piece, but be prepared for the fact that they may accidentally make a mistake when rewriting - no one is safe from mistakes. Or you can try to persuade the employees of the electronic memory book to print out all the carriers of the surname for you, but they usually do not agree to this - they have more than enough normal orders, they do not have time to fulfill them either.
You go to the historical library and write out your namesakes from the memory books of all provinces, from various books beginning with the words "List ...", "Alphabet ..." or "Alphabetical list ...".
You enter all the information received into your table, periodically combine twins and pull out the resulting pedigree chains. Select the lines of those characters that have already fallen into some chains in some way.
Do you think this could make a collection of pedigrees? Can not.
To make a collection of pedigrees out of this staggering heap of material, you need to contact all the carriers of the surname under study, whose addresses you have found by this time, and invite them to join. One person can't handle it.
By contacting namesakes, you can somehow decipher information on the twentieth century and extract genealogical chains from it, but in order to find common ancestors, you still have to go to the archives - an extremely small part of the people who lived on earth got into print sources and the Internet . One can only hope that your titanic work will help you inspire your namesakes to undertake a joint archival search, otherwise it will all remain a collection of unrelated information, however, very impressive.

There are many programs to draw family trees. You can argue about their advantages and disadvantages for a long time, but I will tell you about the one that I like the most and which can be downloaded on the Internet for free - no theft, it's just a free GenoPro program. Its main advantages from my point of view are that it is very simple and with its help you can print your tree on paper to show relatives. And if you do not have a printer, you can simply redraw what happened. After talking with relatives, you can make corrections and additions, and go to the next relatives with a new version.
You can start building a tree from anywhere. When you install this program, there will be a lot of various buttons at the top, among them you need to select a button, when you hover over it, the words Family wizard pop up (a piece of a family tree and a magic wand are drawn there). When you click this button, a table will appear. You enter the father (Father) in the left side of the table, the mother (Mother) in the left side, by pressing the Add button at the bottom of the table add children, then press OK in the top right corner and the tree starts. You have a parent-child diagram hanging on the tip of your mouse, you set it up on the page, click on any empty space (so that nothing is selected) and continue.
If you right-click on any item in this tree, a menu will pop up. Properties is written below - by selecting this item you will change the properties of the person you have chosen, add something about him. Above it says: New mate, new parents, new son, new daughter - by selecting this menu item, you can add a new spouse to this person, add parents, son or daughter. By selecting the Family wizard menu item, you can immediately add one more spouse and children from this marriage.
Under the line it says Link as a parent, link as a child. By selecting this menu item, you will be able to attach this person to someone as a parent or child (this item will be needed when you already have a large tree).
It may sound complicated, but in fact it is incredibly simple, with a little experimentation, you will master this program to perfection.

To check whether a genealogy has turned out to be plausible, it is necessary to apply the laws of genealogy to its results. In each next generation, the number of ancestors doubles (this is called the law of doubling the number of ancestors), but at the same time, this law does not work at a sufficiently large time distance, some of the ancestors of people entering into marriage turn out to be common (this is called the law of decreasing ancestors). If six or eight generations of ancestors are found, the law of three generations should already be in force - the activity of each three generations should fit into a hundred years (however, you are unlikely to have reached such degrees on the basis of inquiries).

Why do you need all this?

Everyone has their own reason for studying the history of the family, often it is not fully realized, then the person answers the appropriate question - just wondering, if you want, etc. But in order to achieve such results that will satisfy you, you need to understand exactly what subconscious motives drive you.
People are often embarrassed by their own motives and goals, so appropriate techniques have been developed to identify them. I will offer you one of them, solely because it does not require outside participation and any costs. There are ways much more complex and scientific.
This will take a week. Five days, every evening you sit down alone at the table, take a pen and a sheet of paper (or sit down at the computer, open a text editor) and within five minutes (or ten if you are slow) as quickly as possible, without rereading, write what you want in connection with genealogy, kinship, knowledge of your ancestors, and all related areas. No need to concentrate and think, the goal is to write as quickly and as much as possible and stop, even in the middle of a word, when the allotted time runs out. Then you fold the paper and put it away on the table (save the file and close it). Do not read under any circumstances! Do not limit yourself if you accidentally write that you want to lose 20 kilos in connection with genealogy and buy yourself a new fishing rod, there is nothing terrible or stupid in this, that's what analysis is for. And so five days. On the sixth day, you read, do not cross out or erase anything, bring everything together (so the computer is more convenient, of course), dividing into topics. You don't draw any conclusions. Read, wonder and go to bed. And only on the seventh day you analyze, see which topic has the most points and then determine your main goal. Do not be surprised if it is completely unrelated to genealogy. In this case, you simply do not need to limit yourself to genealogy, well, for example, if the goal of your studies is to raise a harmoniously developed personality from a child.
On the seventh day, five or ten minutes will not be enough for you, because this is not the final stage.
From your main goal, you need to isolate specific goals, understandable to everyone around you and to you personally, and quite achievable, albeit not soon.
I can tell you what specific goals the Americans got, what their main goal was - it doesn’t matter, they kept their main goal to themselves.
So, examples of specific goals:
Once every five years, gather all members of your family in a specially rented hotel on the lake.
Create a museum of the history of the district in a nearby school with genealogical trees of all students.
Create a personal fund in the museum.
Create your own family history museum
Become a recognized genealogist by your last name, and suddenly - blue blood?
Turn family history into a way to improve the well-being of all family members, so that everyone you treat well will constantly receive additional income.
You should not copy other people's goals and say that you also want all this - specific goals should follow from the main one.
Having singled out a specific goal, it is necessary to break its achievement into stages and directions, draw up a plan and proceed to its implementation. The smaller the stages, the more pleasant it will be to implement the plan - the movement will be better noticeable.

Probably everyone thought about how to find out their ancestry by last name. Most often we know the names and surnames of our grandfathers and grandmothers. And we know absolutely nothing about the older generation. The difficulty lies in the fact that the archives are closed for ordinary users, the services of compilers are not cheap.

However, something can still be found. Today we will talk about various services that will help restore at least part of the pedigree and family history.

At first, you can look for information about your last name or Such dictionaries can be found on the shelves of bookstores. Or refer to online dictionaries. The only difference is that not complete dictionaries are posted on the network. And some surnames may simply not be there.

You will find information in dictionaries like the following: Elizarovs - Russian noble families. The first of them descended from the Tatar prince Egul, in baptism Vasily, who served Vasily the Dark against Shemyaka. He had a son, Elizar, whose descendants adopted the surname of the Elizarovs. Of these, Fedor Kuzmich, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, was a duma clerk, duma nobleman and okolnich, and in 1658 he was in charge of the local order; his brother Prokofy was in charge of the zemstvo order.

This kind of Elizarovs, apparently, stopped. Two other families of Elizarov date back to the 17th century. and included in the VI part of the genealogical books of the Kostroma and Novgorod provinces.

It is clear that this information will not help you find out your personal ancestry, but will indicate where to go next. In these dictionaries, you can get information about the region of origin of the surname, which means that you will figure out which archive to contact in the future.

In dictionaries, you can get information about the region of origin of the surname

Metric information from about 1790 to 1919 is stored in the state archives of regions, territories, republics and districts of the Russian Federation. In separate archives, parish registers have been preserved since 1703, the information needs to be clarified.

The archives are searched on a commercial basis. And anyone can request information about their pedigree directly.

The cost of compiling a family tree along one line in the archive of the Sverdlovsk region is 50 thousand rubles!

The main sources of data are registers of births of church parishes, revision tales, and confessional murals. As well as other sources with lists of names and surnames of local residents, genealogical books of the nobility in the provinces.

The order of prices for compiling archival certificates in the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region for April 2016 is as follows:

• According to the documents of the 18th century 1 archival reference 2 350.00
• According to the documents of the 19th century 1 archival reference 2 150.00
• Based on documents of the 20th century 1 archival reference 1,950.00

Viewing registers of births in order to identify documents (records) for genealogical queries:

• Registers of births of the 18th century for 1 year 890.00
• Registers of births of the 19th century for 1 year 590.00
• Registers of births of the twentieth century for 1 year 490.00

You can make a request to compile a family tree (painting one line of kinship) - the cost is 50 thousand rubles.

Information about your relatives can also be found in various electronic document banks.

There are entire resources where information about the dead, missing, award documents, lists of mass graves is published. You can even find

On the website of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense there is where you can find curious facts that the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who fought might not have known. For example, on the map, track the coordinates of the military path of the grandfather or great-grandfather, if there were injuries, see which hospital was treated and much more. Here is another one created by the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, where you can find information about those who fought in the Great Patriotic War.

Also on the Internet you can find lists of soldiers who went missing and were found recently, which will also help restore the history of the family. Information can be found here or here. At the same time, work is constantly underway and the data is updated. So, for example, on the second site, the last update was carried out on March 29, 2016.