Any Geneology buffs out there?

[BrooklynKnight]

I not too long ago discovered that my grandfathers father (on my fathers side) changed their last name from Altshuler (or Alshuler, not sure exactly) to Borko.

This most likely happened before my grandparents/parents moved here. My Greatgrandfather took the name from his friend, whos last name was Barka or something similar (Its Ukrainian), after he died, in order to avoid Jewish purges.

Anywho. I've been a bit curious about the name I could have had. My true last name only goes back 2 generations and I'd like to see what Info i can track down from that end of my genetic tree.

Anywho, Does anyone know a free Geneology site? All the ones i found require you to pay or give credit card info in order to see the results. Also those sites didnt really have info from Russia's Pre WW2 era. (My Grandfather fought in WW2 and lost 3 brothers).

Err, anywho. Anyone got info that can help?

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I've gone quite of a bit of amateur genealogy on my family. But since none of my ancestors (so far) was from Russia (or the Soviet Union), I've never looked for resources on that area.

One of the best sources for free information used to be the USGenWeb Project. They also had stuff outside the US, so don't let the name deter you. They subsequently got bought by rootsweb.com, so now some of it may link to pay sites.

Their link to outside of the US data is the WorldGenWeb Project, which eventually gets you to the RussiaGenWeb Project. I've never used it, but I hope it's useful for you.

Hope this helps!

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Thanks

but. most of the links on those sites are dead.

:-(

ah well.

 

[Umbran]

Also those sites didnt really have info from Russia's Pre WW2 era. (My Grandfather fought in WW2 and lost 3 brothers).

Err, anywho. Anyone got info that can help?

You may be out of luck there. A great deal of data was lost in Eastern Europe during WW2. Of what remains, most of it has never been put into electronic format. You can search the internet all you want, if nobody's ever been to the church or town hall where you family had kids, taken all that info and put it into a database, you won't learn much.

And that is if the data was ever taken in the first place. Pre-WW2, there were a lot of births and deaths that simply went unrecorded.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Thanks

but. most of the links on those sites are dead.

:-(

ah well.

Did you at least post a query on the message board? That link is working and some people are responding to the queries there.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Thanks, i'll consider it. Though I think in the end it would cost me money to get anywhere.