Instructions

If you remember your full last name, first name and patronymic, date of birth and approximate location residence of your lost relative, try entering this data into any search engine. You might get lucky and in just a few minutes close person will be found.

There are all kinds of family tree sites on the Internet, some of which are completely free to use. One of these servers is the website of the All-Russian Family Tree (http://www.vgd.ru/), equipped with a convenient search and forum. Do not neglect any means to find a dear person. The more sites you visit, the more effective the results achieved can be.

You can also use the website of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (http://www.mvd.ru/). One of the most important missions of this government structure is to help people and search for citizens. You can also call or go to the police station. Believe that law enforcement officers will not remain indifferent to your problem.

Be sure to visit the website of the television program “Wait for Me” (http://poisk.vid.ru/). Over the years of its existence, this television show has helped reunite many loved ones. It is possible that they will help you too.

Try to find a relative on various social networks, on mail servers, in instant messaging programs. It is especially convenient to search for people on the Vkontakte website (http://vk.com/). Knowing the approximate age, place of birth or residence, the number of the school or university where a person studied, or the name of the organization in which he worked, you can quickly find him and restore contact. If you put in a certain amount of effort and spend a considerable amount of time, the relationship with the lost relative will definitely be restored. The main thing is not to lose hope of success and stop the search you have started.

Russia is the largest country on the globe in terms of area, but only the ninth in terms of population. Therefore, it is not surprising that sometimes in such a vast territory it is very difficult to find a person with whom any contact has been lost. But difficult does not mean impossible.

Instructions

Take a look at social media. The entire globe is entangled in a huge web of various social networks, and Russia is no exception. According to statistics, every fourth family in Russia has Internet access at home, and almost every Internet user is registered in one or more social networks. The most popular network of this kind in our country is the VKontakte website. Slightly behind it are the world's most popular Facebook, Odnoklassniki, My World and others. There is a high probability that you will be able to find the person you need through

December
2016

I’ll try to write in more detail about such services, including those already mentioned.

4. Something similar to address books, but somewhat different in essence - Memo books. They were published in pre-revolutionary times annually in almost every province. They indicated all the persons who held some position in the province, even a completely insignificant one - for example, a village doctor or some kind of land surveyor. Almost all publications have indexes. They are also posted on the Istorichka website (again, searching by keywords - names of provinces will help) - elib.shpl.ru

5. In general, “library search” is a completely underestimated thing for studying pre-revolutionary genealogy. The names of completely different people, including “ordinary” people, very often ended up in various types of printed publications - directories, lists, etc. There was, for example, an annual directory of persons convicted of any crimes, incl. small ones are long lists of first and last names with references to villages - very useful, again, for searching for any mention of a rare surname. The catalog of the Russian State Library is very useful for such searches - search.rsl.ru
Many pre-revolutionary publications there are digitized and indexed (but are not searched by ordinary search engines) - that is, simply by typing a surname and place, you can accidentally find a mention of ancestors.
In a similar way, you can use the Google book search engine: books.google.com

6. As for open Internet resources for searching archival documents, there are quite a lot of them, but the search for them is quite specific - in order to find something, you need to understand what exactly you are looking for. Archives are not libraries; the data in them is structured according to other principles - regionally, by type of document, etc. However, even if you don’t understand much about such documents, you can still find something without even leaving home.
Many regional archives have the so-called. AIS - automated Information Systems, in fact Database according to stored documents. The actual monopolist in their creation is the ELAR corporation (which also made the above-mentioned OBD and “Feat of the People” sites), so they are almost all similar in operating principle: in order to search for something, you must first register, and then use search filters to search documentation.
But not all AISs are the same - it all depends on the specific archive. In some archives, simply the names of documents are posted, and in others, these documents are digitized and available for viewing. Some archives do not have any auxiliary tools, some do, some archives preserve this or that type of source, some do not.

Here good examples AISov:
- AIS of the archives of the Yaroslavl region (many documents have been digitized, data from the general census of 1897 has been preserved for the Yaroslavl province, which recorded all the inhabitants of the province - its data is indexed and searched by a search engine on the website): ais.yararchive.ru
- AIS Voronezh Archive - 92.244.225.225:8082
- AIS of the Central State Archive of St. Petersburg (access to documents is paid, but digitized a large number of parish registers for the vast territory of pre-revolutionary provinces neighboring St. Petersburg) - spbarchives.ru
- AIS Samara Archive - cgaso.regsamarh.ru
- AIS of the Tyumen archive (Tyumen is one of the regions where the 1897 census data has also been preserved, which makes it easy to search for information about ancestors, even without special knowledge) - 109.233.229.20:81

A separate example of a service similar to AIS is the “Generations” website Perm region": pokolenia.permkrai.ru
This is the site where old documents(concerning mainly the Perm province) are not only structured and digitized, but also a simple and powerful search has been established by surnames, localities, etc. If your ancestors lived in the vicinity of Perm, you are lucky, “without leaving home” with skill you can find information about your ancestors immediately going back 100-200 years, even without special skill in reading pre-revolutionary documents.

7. A unique, but also useful service for finding information about ancestors - the site familysearch.org
This is a catalog of documents created by American Mormons: for their Mormon purposes, they are digitizing archives around the world, including in Russia and Ukraine. You need to understand the site in order to understand what exactly you are looking for, but I note that there is quite a lot of “indexed” information there - that is, data from archival documents is searchable. The main feature of the site is that many Russian and Ukrainian documents, although digitized, are not available for viewing by non-Mormons (not “from Russia”, but Russian ones in general - a proxy will not help). This is due to the official ban of the Russian and Ukrainian archival authorities, but nevertheless, theoretically, they can be obtained.

Almost everyone eventually develops a desire to learn more about their family and ancestors. Who were they and what did they do, what memories did they leave about themselves? But, unfortunately, few can boast of a good knowledge of their ancestry. In the daily bustle, people have no time to listen to the stories of elderly family members about distant and, as it seems, completely unimportant things. After all, you need to work, raise children, do household chores. Where can one patiently listen to grandmother’s memories of people who have long been dead?

However, with age, almost every person develops a craving for their origins.

Search for roots. Where to begin?

So how can you find out the history of your ancestors? You can ask questions to senior members of the family - they will tell you about their parents and grandparents. Elderly relatives will tell you much more than any archive, because they are living witnesses of history. It is better to record such memories on any medium or take notes, and only then systematize them.

Old photographs play an important role in restoring the history of one's ancestors. They are usually signed, and in this way you can find out what a relative looked like, with whom he communicated, and where he lived.

Diaries and letters must be collected. The stamp on the envelope may indicate where one of the ancestors worked or served, and the notes will help restore the chronology of events.

What can a surname tell you?

You can learn a lot about your ancestors by their last name. As a rule, she can tell about the origins of the family and indicate belonging to a certain class. U ordinary people, peasants and artisans, the surname was often formed from the name, profession, nickname or appearance, and among representatives of the nobility from the name of the family's possessions.

Special reference books contain information on the history of the surname. Sometimes it can say a lot about its bearers, because it is not without reason that the main character traits inherent in the family were reflected on the family coats of arms and seals

Using archives

Unfortunately, not everyone has relatives from whom you can learn about their ancestors. The surname, either by accident or on purpose, can be significantly changed. Some members of the nobility could give their children truncated or changed surnames. Entries in church books are also sometimes wrong. Therefore, for an accurate result you need to go to the archives.

in our country it has been going on since the 18th century. All important documents, such as marriage, birth and death certificates, were issued in two copies, one of which remained in the church, and the other was transferred to the depository.

Visiting the archive requires a lot of free time and hard work. Some of the departments are closed to regular visitors and can only be visited with special passes. The huge number of documents greatly complicates the task of reconstructing the history of the family. Those who do not have time to visit archives can turn to professionals for help.

But it is important to understand that before starting your search, you need to collect at least minimal data on your ancestors, find out both the last name and the year and place of birth. Without such information, even specialists are unlikely to be able to help.

Searching for relatives on the Internet

Some archival data has now been translated into electronic view, and therefore more and more people are trying to find out about their ancestors on the Internet. By surname and place of birth, you can find the burial places of soldiers who died or went missing during the war, and clarify the fate of relatives if information about them was posted on the Internet. If there is no data on the Internet, but you know for sure that it is in the archive, then you can try to write a request there. It is important to understand here that some documents are still classified as secret, and no one can provide this information.

On specialized sites dedicated to genealogy, you can find many useful tips where to begin. Recommendations will help you understand the confusing terminology of kinship, tell you what information and where to look for it, teach you how to systematize the data received, and based on it correctly draw up a family tree.

Drawing up a pedigree

All the papers and photographs found, collected in one pile, have an unattractive appearance. Therefore, all known information about one’s ancestors must be systematized. A generally accepted method is to compile a family tree, which is a diagram of all family ties.

There are certain design rules: the roots of a tree are the oldest representatives of the genus, the trunk is the main representatives, and the branches are descendants. Sometimes there is an opposite arrangement of family ties.

When compiling a family tree, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of inheritance of the family. In Russian families, it was transmitted only through the male line, and if there were no children in the family or only girls appeared, then the family was considered interrupted.

You can create a family tree either on your own or by turning to specialists for help. It will become a real gift for any family celebration and will be passed down from generation to generation, acquiring new descendant branches.

Moscow was not built in a day…

Compiling a genealogy is a painstaking task that requires a lot of time and a great desire to understand the history of one’s ancestors. As practice shows, not everything can be recognized by surname, because it could have undergone various changes or been lost for several generations.

Another difficulty is that much information was lost or deliberately destroyed in the whirlwind of bloody events of the 20th century. Revolution and wars that cost millions human lives, hundreds of thousands of children who find themselves in orphanages after the loss of their parents, and sometimes do not even know or remember their family - all this is a serious obstacle to establishing genealogical roots.

Great desire, patience and meticulousness are indispensable in this difficult task. Many people give up what they started in the middle, unable to get through the intricacies of family ties, great amount documents and information. But when the information collected bit by bit with difficulty begins to take shape, this becomes the best incentive to continue such a great cause as restoring the history of one’s Family.

Introduction to Genealogy

The ideal state of mind of an amateur genealogist, which guarantees him peace of mind, is to consider that genealogical research is in many ways interesting as a process that, moreover, can be continued indefinitely - you can even try to find your ancestors before Adam or find out the family tree of all the people who bear your surname. If you think so, then you will not be too upset by the fact that genealogy at the moment is a hobby, from the point of view of many, no more exciting than, for example, collecting stamps. All the relatives you find cannot become your like-minded people, just as there is not a single family in the world whose all members are obsessed with philately.
You can hope that a small part of your newly found relatives will want to participate in your search, a slightly larger part will listen to your stories with interest, and the majority will think that you are doing nonsense. Here, as elsewhere, the general statistical pattern of 80 to 20 applies - 20 percent of people show 80 percent of the interest in genealogy.

The best place to start genealogical research of your own family is... You'll never guess where.

From the purchase of stationery and audit

It is impossible to remember everything; all facts must be written down, indicating the source, and placed in envelopes and folders. Copies of documents, photographs and archival information will be sent there later, but that will come later. Even if you are a cool computer person and are going to scan everything and store it on your computer, you also need a paper archive. Don’t let B., of course, but suddenly the electricity goes out in Russia... Conduct an audit of old documents and photographs at home. Documents that contain genealogical information – Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Divorce Certificates, Death Certificates, Passports, Work records
Since under Soviet rule the population was, as they say, passportized, passport information can also serve as a source of genealogical information.

But now there is an opportunity to prepare to communicate with relatives.

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 researches ended at this stage. Well, first of all, think for yourself - why on earth would they do anything for you? It’s one thing when something serious happens, then relatives, as a rule, come to the rescue, but for the sake of fantasy... Genealogy is serious for you. And for them, quite possibly, something different. They have their own problems, they are in over their head, so they certainly cannot consider themselves obligated, for example, to first look for documents, then go photocopy and scan them, and then spend an evening, or even more than one, in order to be with you. communicate. Therefore, you need to think everything through.. Phone numbers can be found in telephone databases on the Internet, and more and more email addresses are available every day on our website. However, I should note that if there is no email address in the public domain, most likely we don’t have it either, or the person asked not to give this address to anyone. You can try to find his phone number in the telephone database or at his place of work, this is not too difficult. Or you can ask us, we will find it.
One of the site’s regular visitors, Ilona, ​​came up with the perfect letter, which almost all namesakes respond to, you can read it.

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 come into play - this is the first component of the site experience. We are not shy, we call, introduce ourselves, you can go to the website and see who we are, call us on the phone. But a person who is not shy and not limited in time can do all this himself.
One of the methods for searching for relatives, tested and sent quite 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. If he was deregistered, then they will tell you which military registration and enlistment office he transferred to (I even got the address the new military registration and enlistment office was kindly informed.) And along the chain you will reach the last, current one. From the last military registration and enlistment office they sent me my home address. I found the “lost” one this way. If I didn’t know the exact address, I simply wrote G. CITY, city military commissariat on the envelope. And the letter arrived. I understand that this is not possible in all cases, but maybe someone will be lucky, like me.”
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 - constant switching on and off gets on your nerves, record pauses too. At the very least, write down key points in a notebook, at the same time write down the questions that came to your mind during the story, and do not interrupt. It is clear that most people are 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 - perhaps you will be able to photograph some family heirlooms, documents, and even 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 the date is, 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, don’t forget to explain why you are doing all this, what the end result will be and whether it will be possible to watch 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 this, then perhaps they will tell you something “not for publication.”
When starting a conversation, talk about yourself. You want to establish rapport, create a feeling of comfort and connection between you and the person you are talking to. At this time, prepare a notepad or tape recorder with a camera, if you plan to use them.
Prepare a list of questions, and invent ones that cannot be answered in monosyllables. The question: “Do you remember what the names of your grandfather’s parents were?” is not suitable, it is very easy to get the answer “No.” Even the question: “What do you remember about your grandfather’s parents?” is not very good; you can get the answer: “Nothing!” The question should sound so that it takes as long as possible to answer, so you must first ask about the grandfather himself, about his character, what he told about his childhood, and if he didn’t tell, then why, and then gradually move on to his parents. If you still receive a monosyllabic answer, try to clarify: “Why?”
Because every family is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all list of questions. 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 discuss this topic competently, it is worth reading historical information in the third part, the chapter is called “Is it possible to find out the pedigree by the last name.”
Are there traditional family names? What diminutive names What were the names of your ancestors and relatives and where did they come from?
Did the family move from place to place, how many years has the family lived in this place, are there any family legends associated with place of residence, items 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 a story associated with them? Who is shown in old photographs? Who, when and for what reason took these photographs? 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 did your family celebrate holidays?
On what occasions did the whole family get together? What did they do and what did they talk about?
If it stopped, why? Who in the family was respected and showed special respect to him? Were there people in the family who broke traditions, people they didn’t like, were afraid of, or people with whom contact was lost?
Are there any family peculiarities of spoken language, family jokes, or words that others don’t understand?
Are there any significant incidents from the lives of parents, grandparents, earlier ancestors, or any relatives? Are there legends about family ties with some colorful personalities and celebrities? Are there any stories about neighbors and acquaintances? How did your ancestors meet and get married?
When coming up with a question, try to imagine the interlocutor’s reaction. 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.” And in general, The best way find new sources of information - ask those who first come to mind.
At the same time, there is no need to “get hung up” on the list of questions and try to ask them all; ask those that are relevant to 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 comes up that is not foreseen by you, do not stop the conversation, everything will come in handy. Don’t try to talk only about the past, but listen to everything they want and can tell you. Encourage people to tell you stories and jokes. 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 the existence of your family.
But, of course, we must not forget about the goal. What is the purpose of your questions?
But even if your goal is only to find out historical facts, do not silence your interlocutor, let the conversation flow freely. The goal determines what questions are worth asking.
Encourage your interlocutor to use old documents, family photographs, even some household items in the conversation, if they have been preserved - all this helps to remember.
When the conversation comes to an end, look through 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 for 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 learned, especially note what will help you in your further search, but is not subject to disclosure. Be sure to write down whose story you gleaned information from, when and under what circumstances. Don't put it off, you will definitely forget some later

important details . If you tape-recorded the conversation, label the tapes. In the article by Mozharov N.
"At the top of the sheet we write the last name, first name, patronymic. For women, we also indicate the maiden name (nee so-and-so). The following is the data:

• 1. Day, month, year and place of birth, and for the deceased also the day, month, year of death, place of burial.
• 2. Last names, first names, patronymics of father and mother.
• 3. Last names, first names, patronymics of the godparents (godmothers and fathers).
• 4. For those born before 1917 - class (peasants, burghers, merchants, nobles).
• 5. Place of residence, in what years.
• 6. Religion (Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish).
• 7. Where you were brought up, what kind of education you received.
• 8. Places of work or service, ranks, positions.
• 9. Did you participate in wars, battles, when, where.
• 10. What awards does he have (insignia, medals, orders).
• 11. Last name, first name, patronymic of the wife (husband).
• 12. Names, dates and places of birth of children, if possible, indicating last names, first names and patronymics godfathers 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 - father's or mother's mother, grandfather's wife.
• Brother - each of the sons of the same parents.
• Godbrother is the son of the godfather.
• Brother of the cross, brother of the cross, brother named - persons who exchanged pectoral crosses.
• Bro, bro, bro, bro, bro - cousin.
• Bro - cousin's wife.
• Bratanna is her brother's daughter, brother's niece.
• Bratova is her brother's wife.
• Brother - a relative in general, cousin or distant.
• Bratych is a brother's son, brother's nephew.
• A widow is a woman who has not entered into another marriage after the death of her husband.
• A widower is a man who did not marry after the death of his wife.
• Grandson - son of daughter, son; and 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.
• Grandfather is the father of the mother or father.
• The godfather is the godfather's father.
• Grandfather, grandfather - uncle's aunt.
• Dedich is the direct heir of his grandfather.
• A daughter is a female person in relation to her parents.
• The named daughter is an adopted child, a pupil.
• Dsherich is his aunt's nephew.
• Daughter's aunt's niece.
• Uncle - assigned to care and supervise the child.
• Uncle is the brother of father or mother.
• A wife is a married woman in relation to her husband.
• The groom is the one who has betrothed his bride.
• Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, sister-in-law - 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.
• Godmother, mother of the cross, is the recipient of the baptismal ceremony.
• The named mother is the mother of the adopted child, the pupil.
• A milk mother is a mother, a nurse.
• The planted mother is a woman who replaces the groom's own mother at the wedding.
• Stepmother is the father's other wife, stepmother.
• Husband - 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.
• The father is spoken to, the father is imprisoned, the father is mummered - a person speaking instead of his own father at a wedding.
• The father is the eldest in the generation.
• Stepfather is the mother's other husband, stepfather.
• Fatherlander, stepfather - son, heir.
• A stepdaughter is a daughter from another marriage in relation to a stepparent.
• Stepson is the step-son of one of the spouses.
• Nephew is the son of a brother or sister.
• Niece is the daughter of a brother or sister.
• Nephew - relative, relative.
• Progenitors are the first known pedigree couple from which the family originates.
• Grandfather - parent of great-great-grandfather, great-great-grandmother.
• The ancestor is the first known representative of the genus from which the genealogy is traced.
• Matchmaker, matchmaker - parents of young people and their relatives in relation to each other.
• Father-in-law is the husband's father.
• Mother-in-law is the husband's mother.
• Proprietor - a person who is a member of family relations by husband, wife.
• Brothers-in-law are persons married to two sisters.
• Cousins-in-law are persons married to cousins.
• The sister is the daughter of the same parents.
• Sister - cousin, daughter of mother's or father's sister.
• Sister, sister, sister - cousin.
• Sestrenich, sister - son of mother's or father's sister, sister's nephew.
• Daughter-in-law, son - son's wife, daughter-in-law.
• The wife of a brother-in-law, the wife of two brothers in relation to each other, the daughter-in-law.
• Spouse - husband.
• Spouse - wife.
• A son is a male person in relation to his parents.
• Godson (godson) is a male person in relation to the recipient.
• The named son is an adopted son, a pupil.
• Father-in-law is the wife's father.
• Aunt, aunt - sister of father or mother.
• Mother-in-law is the wife's mother.
• Brother-in-law is the wife's brother.

• Grand-grand-grand-grand-grandchild - about a relationship originating from the third generation (also second cousin) or even further.
• Cousin - about kinship coming from the second generation.
• Blood - about kinship within the same family.
• Homogeneous - about descent from the same father.
• Monouterine - about descent from one mother.
• Full-born - about descent from the same parents.
• Pra is a prefix meaning kinship in distant ascending or descending order.
• Wedded - about descent from the same parents, but before born of marriage, and then recognized.
• Native - about descent from the same parents.
• Step-by-step - about descent from different parents.
• An adopted person is a male person in relation to the adoptive parents.
• Adopted is a female person in relation to her adoptive parents.

Please note that all people remember the same thing differently, they call different years births and names of the same relatives and ancestors, they confuse classes and localities, as a rule they do not remember the names and events of the lives of other people’s children, but gradually an approximate picture emerges, ready for further research. 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 - place of baptism), what he did (class). As a last resort, you can indicate an approximate year of birth, then the archive will look through documents for several years, but it will cost more (genealogical search in most archives is a paid service).

Our most remarkable experience in this sense was a case when a person, out of the blue, assumed 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 all its bearers are really relatives: although they do not have a common ancestor, they are all lived in the same locality, did the same thing and became related. This was later proven by an archival search.

The most upsetting thing for a customer in our telephone search was the case when for one person who had only very vague information about his father’s parents and really wanted to find out something about his ancestors, and as a result it was discovered that his father was illegitimate, and His grandfather’s nationality categorically did not suit him. So if you are afraid to discover among your ancestors some strange people, first be positive - knowledge is better than ignorance in any case.

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 email, we found a girl from New Zealand a Russian sailor 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, surname and title ship.

Now I have to learn the words
Over the centuries, genealogy has developed standards for the preparation of information about kinship in the form of various tables, lists, dossiers, cards, and established clear rules for filling out these documents: graphics, symbols, numbering, and so on.

Now, of course, there are genealogical programs in abundance, most of which use the GEDCOM format, which has nothing to do with the centuries-old history of genealogy, and is convenient purely from a computer point of view for program compatibility (by the way, it’s funny, 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 the programs it is not at all necessary to understand anything in genealogical terms, the tree will be drawn on its own, everything is very simple. But don’t you really want real genealogists to respect you? If you want, you still have to learn some of their wise words.

In ascending lineage starting with a specific person, then going through ascending steps or generations to father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc., from the known to the unknown.

In descending genealogy starting with the most distant known ancestor and gradually moving down to the descendants.

Male descent indicates all the descendants of the ancestor, descended only from men, indicating the name of their spouses.

Male ascending ancestry looks like a line because only one male ancestor is shown in each generation. There is only one surname in male genealogies.

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

Mixed ascending ancestry shows all male and female ancestors. There is one person in the first tribe, two in the second, four in the third, eight in the fourth, etc. in geometric progression, and each person belongs to a different clan, so that in the fourth, for example, tribe there are representatives of eight different surnames..
In the ascending trunk, the person from whom it is built is designated, the branch is his parents, the smaller branches are his grandparents, etc. You can’t distinguish them from a distance, but at the base of the descending ancestor, and in the crown are the descendants. In Western Europe, they used to color their family trees: men with offspring were painted on a yellow background, those without children - on a red background, married women - on purple, girls - on blue. All living people were painted on a green background, men on a darker one, women on a lighter one. Male names

they wrote in rectangles or rhombuses, women's - 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 pedigree 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 for building your “tree of life”). If desired, you can find fablons on the Internet in .psd (for Photoshop) and any other formats, incl. online family tree templates. The above family tree template is completely free to download. We also have a program on our website for compiling together with children; we recommend using it at the initial stage of studying your family tree. Pedigree table - this is the same thing, but without any liberties or embellishment. Each generation is located strictly on one horizontal line. The seniority of persons in each generation goes from left to right. Rising drawing a table is more or less easy, downward It’s difficult, it’s hampered by 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 being compiled, and then - in columns, by generation, all his ancestors or descendants. The eldest descendants are always placed 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 the ancestors are on the paternal side, in the other - on the maternal side. Circular tables are only ascending.
Abbreviations and symbols are used in tables:
I. - given name (patronymic is excluded, restored by the father’s name)
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 - this is a verbal retelling of the table, where information about each name has been 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 Rank Order, which was in charge of appointments to military service. Under Peter I, the Heraldry Office was created, which existed, changing names, until 1917.
I must say that professional genealogists are very sensitive to the numbering of genealogical records; they even say that one genealogist got into a fight with another, discussing a slash or a dot after one of the numbers. I will tell you two methods of numbering, and you will choose for yourself which one you like best.
There are others, but there is no point in trying to grasp the immensity.
Suppose the most distant relative you know 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 gave birth to children.

So, let's start painting the mural. In fact, the most distant ancestor you know is Peter, the father of Ivan and Stepan Petrovich. We assign it number 1. Our beginning is as follows:
I knee

1. Peter

For all subsequent tribes, the number will consist of either two digits or the number of digits that corresponds to the knee number. That is, either we first write the parent’s number, and then the child’s serial number, or we number all found relatives in order, and write the parent’s number 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 knee (containing your grandfather)
1.1.1. (or 5.2) First child of Ivan Petrovich
1.1.2. (or 6.2) Second child of Ivan Petrovich
1.2.2. (or 9.3) Second child of Stepan Petrovich
1.3.1. (or 10.4) Marya Petrovna's first child
And so on.

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

Let's determine the number for the first child of the first child of Ivan Petrovich.
According to the first method it 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, the first child in the next generation will be 21. And the number of his parent is the first child of Ivan Petrovich is 5. That is, according to the second method, the number of this representative is 21.5.
I think the second method is more confusing, but it is more common, despite the fact that if you find a new relative, you have to renumber everyone who is in the tribes with a higher 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 recommend using the first method first, and then, if you like to see the overall huge number of relatives numbered in order, just renumber everything when everything is ready.

For each representative of your pedigree, you need to write everything that you know about him (her), including his spouse 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 studying the terms, you can now build your ascending tree, descending tree, from the most ancient ancestor you found to the newly found distant relatives, a tree on your mother’s side (based on her maiden name), as well as on the names of your grandparents. It all depends on what you learned.

But it is possible that this is all untrue.
The need to systematize information and subject it to computer processing arises quite quickly, especially if you try to collect information on all bearers of your surname. What 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 enter the formed branches of the tree there.
Create a table.
The first column is the last name, 2 - the first name, 3 - the patronymic, 4 - year of birth, 5 - place of birth, 6 - year of death, 7 - additional information, 8 - source number.
The program you work in should be able, if necessary, to arrange all your information alphabetically by place of birth, or, say, in ascending order of year of birth, or arrange people by patronymic, if you are looking for someone's son or daughter.
Column 7 - additional information - should not contain all the information you know about the person, only the basic information, which can somehow help in identifying him.
So here you go.
Let's say you're researching your father's last name.
Then you search for this name in all telephone databases, in databases of employees of various institutions, in dictionaries and encyclopedias, in the registration chamber database, in lists of wanted criminals, that is, everywhere. If, for example, a person came to you from a telephone database, write the telephone number and address (don’t forget the city) in the additional information.
Along the way, wherever possible, subscribe to news by this name.
On Yandex, I know, it’s possible, 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 begin to manipulate the table and think.
Sort by name - to combine matching characters, why do you need the same person twice? By the way, full namesakes exist in abundance, so if there is the slightest doubt, it is better not to combine them. If even short chains have been formed from scattered information, create files for them in a genealogical program. And then you discover that there is not enough information.
By the way, this is titanic work. Don’t forget to copy all your files and save them on disks, floppy disks or other media convenient for you; no person can do this kind of work twice.
Next you will go to the libraries. The information accumulated on the Internet is not enough to figure out all the bearers of your last name.
You go to Poklonnaya Hill and write down the bearers of your surname in all the memory books of all regions. Do you feel the scope? 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 immune from mistakes. Or you can try to persuade the employees of the electronic memory book to print out for you all bearers of the surname, but they usually do not agree to this - they have more than enough normal orders, and they do not have time to fulfill them either.
You go to the historical library and write out your namesakes from the memorial books of all the provinces, from various books beginning with the words “List...”, “Alphabet...” or “Alphabetical list...”.
You enter all the information received into your table, periodically combine doubles and pull out the resulting pedigree chains.
To make a collection of pedigrees out of this staggering pile of material, you need to contact all carriers of the surname you are researching, whose addresses you have found so far, and invite them to join. One person cannot cope with this.
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 will still have to go to the archives - an extremely small part of the people who lived on earth ended up in printed sources and the Internet . We can only hope that your titanic work will help you encourage namesakes to undertake a joint archival search, otherwise it will all remain a collection of unrelated information, however, very impressive.

There are many programs that you can use to draw family trees . You can argue for a long time about their merits and demerits, but I’ll tell you about the one that I like best and which can be downloaded on the Internet for free - no theft, it’s simple free program GenoPro.
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 your relatives.
If you right-click on any element of this tree, a menu will pop up. At the bottom it says Properties - by selecting this item you will change the properties of the person you have chosen and add something about him. At the top it is written: 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 another spouse and children from this marriage.
Below the line it says Link as a parent, link as a child. By selecting this menu item, you can 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 plausible genealogy has been obtained, it is necessary to apply the laws of genealogy to its results. In each subsequent generation, the number of ancestors doubles (this is called the law of doubling the number of ancestors), but at the same time, at a sufficiently large time distance, this law does not apply; some of the ancestors of people who marry 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 effect - the activity of every three generations should fit into a hundred years (however, it is unlikely that you have reached such degrees based on questioning).

Why do you need all this?

Everyone has their own reason for studying family history, often it is not fully realized, then the person answers the corresponding question - he’s just interested, he wants to, etc. But in order to achieve 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 or any costs. There are methods that are much more complex and scientific.
It will take a week. Five days, every evening you sit down alone at the table, take a pen and a piece of paper (or sit down at the computer, open a text editor) and for five minutes (or ten if you are slow) as quickly as possible, without re-reading, write what you want in connection with genealogy, family ties, knowledge of your ancestors and all interrelated areas.
There is 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 on the table (save the file and close it).
Do not read under any circumstances! Don’t 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’s nothing scary or stupid in that, that’s what analysis is for. And so on for five days. On the sixth day, you read, don’t cross out or erase anything, put everything together (which is why the computer is more convenient, of course), dividing it into topics.
You don't draw any conclusions. Read, be surprised and go to bed. And only on the seventh day do you analyze, see which topic has the most points and then determine your main goal. Don't be surprised if it's 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 identify specific goals that are understandable to everyone around you and to you personally, and quite achievable, even if not soon.
I can say what specific goals the Americans achieved, 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 area at a nearby school with family trees of all students.
Create a personal fund in the museum.
Having identified a specific goal, you need to break its achievement into stages and directions, draw up a plan and begin to implement it. The smaller the stages, the more pleasant it will be to implement the plan - the movement will be more noticeable.

What kind of person are you?

Options for formatting results

What surprised me most was the method with the boxes.
A box is wound for each ancestor. Some documents (not all), some photographs, letters, objects are placed in it. The point is to open the box and feel the touch of time, to understand what kind of person this ancestor was. Result genealogical research in this case, a closet filled with boxes that can be lovingly opened.
One the only woman I came up with a group family photo, I’m not sure that anyone has repeated her experience, it’s even difficult to describe. In the process of research, she always looked for images of her ancestors and relatives. Then she ordered a wooden box from the workshop, without a front wall, but with a lid into which glass was inserted vertically (according to the number of generations she was going to find). She pasted photographs of ancestors from this generation onto each glass, inserted them into a frame and admired the crowd of her ancestors and relatives from all generations at once.
I don’t know what global goal she was pursuing. Perhaps she was just very lonely.
The options that involve publishing books are quite interesting (the goal is simply to generate income or to generate income in order to organize a meeting of relatives).
For example, a family cookbook might include not only the recipes themselves, but also stories about how the family recipe came to be, where the ingredients came from, and how and why they changed over time. It may also include stories about the traditions of joint holidays, about how holiday dinners were organized. Recipes for winter preparations may include stories about the traditions of collecting or growing the products needed for this. Family photographs will make this book extremely colorful.
There are examples of books about some craft traditions (with photographs of family members performing the necessary actions) that have had great success.
That is, for Americans, most often these are books about how to do something, with a lot of photographs, but there are exceptions. For example, if one of the family members is an artist and everyone else has a sense of humor, a comic book may appear about the entertaining adventures of the family throughout its known history.
If the goal of research is to establish contact with children, most often children are involved in collecting information and formatting the results, it doesn’t matter at all what exactly the result will be (it’s best if the child himself comes up with the method of registration), what’s important is the process. A child, of course, cannot work in archives, but he can take photographs and scan, work with computer programs, interview relatives and record the results on a tape recorder, you can travel with him to the homeland of your ancestors, sit at the table and sort through the treasures found, and so on and so forth. similar. Often, as part of this goal, parents organize a genealogy club at the school where their child studies.
If the goal is to establish contact with relatives (all or some of them), most often Americans are engaged in making genealogical gifts and souvenirs for various dates and anniversaries. Some people do this on their own, producing a single copy of a book with text and scanned photographs. Some turn to professionals and give family trees in frames for hanging on the wall for birthdays. Gift options are extremely numerous. It even goes as far as gilding the first shoes of the baby-great-grandmother, which miraculously survived to this day. I'm not being ironic at all, this is a real example.
That's it, enough examples.

Today I’ll tell you about searching for ancestors through remote access. I know many people who are interested in their roots, but do not have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a full-fledged archival search, visit the archive, and conduct genealogical research using primary sources.

What resources are there for free online ancestor searches?

There are several resources. Today I’ll focus on FamilySearch. Why? The fact is that the resource is in English. And at first I didn’t pay attention to him. I was skeptical about why the organizers of the resource should help us domestic genealogists. But when communicating with colleagues, it turned out that they use the resource for research. And I registered on it. There is little information from Russian sources. But you know, the field of genealogical research itself is so complex that any information is valuable. For professional genealogists, this resource is an additional opportunity to write bibliographic references and create relationships by surname, and for those who are curious, it is a game. Sitting on the resource for 2-3 hours on Sunday, entering different names, is interesting and exciting.

Access to information for the Russian-speaking community is sometimes closed, sometimes opened. In March 2017, the resource opened information on the Tula, Tver, and Simbirsk provinces, and this news instantly spread across genealogical forums and communities. Private genealogists rushed to download photos of parish books and revision tales in order to slowly understand the records. If only we could see pictures of the books themselves. Ragged, burnt edges. You look and really understand the value of the sources of the past. You can see for yourself if you go to the resource.

Brief reference to the FamilySearch resource.

FamilySearch is a large genealogy organization. Site materials: books, microfilms, publications are provided both for a fee and free of charge. The organization's activities are aimed at the benefit of the family, to help private researchers and specialized societies. FamilySearch has been collecting, preserving and publishing content for more than 100 years.

Is it serious to play searching for information about ancestors on FS?
Yes and no. I am sure that you, the reader, are not indifferent to the history of your family. It is so? But there is no time to work in the archive. You now live in a completely different region than your ancestors. I don’t have the skill to read the handwriting of metric books. There is no money to hire a professional genealogist. And yet, it’s interesting. What if there is information specifically based on your family name? The probability is small, but it is there.

Let's play a genealogical search for ancestors.

I’ll tell you how to organize a search by last name online for free.

Step 1. Register. It will take 2-3 minutes.

Step 2. Go to the search (menu) and the entries on the left

Step 3. Enter your last name and country

On the left you see an advanced search, do not try to fill in all the fields at once, just enter your last name and country. If there is a lot of information, then you can reduce it with specific basic data. If there is not enough information, then most likely the game for this surname is over, try searching for another one.

Step 4. Correct the source data, generate results and look at the data

Conclusion
An interesting area of ​​activity of the resource is indexing. I gave brief information about this event in an article about the arbitration of historical and family documents.

So we wondered about seriousness. You can judge this for yourself. But even if, when searching for information, you begin to remember surnames on the female side, you will already give your brain work.
For several of my friends, the game ended with serious genealogical research.

I wish you exciting searches and successful finds. And if you suddenly realize that you need to make family tree, then contact us, the professionals of the Pedigree Detective Bureau, for help.

You can write to us at