The following article was written for the R Club Journal and reprinted in the New Rusyn Times. It offers beginning family researchers a comprehensive primer for starting their search.

Genealogy has become a very popular hobby in the United States recently. It is the second most popular topic on the Internet, and the third most popular hobby in the U.S. The ease of communicating and doing research over the Internet has certainly contributed to its popularity. Looking up family history is very easy if you are Irish, Italian, English, French, German, or almost any other nationality that one can think of, but for many of us are who belong to the FOCA the task is a little more challenging. I am talking about those of us whose ancestors came from “Austria-Hungary”. We are a group whose ancestors lived on land that had been taken over by many political groups, the borders kept changing and they never had their own country. Many scholars argue about where our people originated from, where their language came from, and what nationality we are. To simplify this matter I will just say that if your ancestors said that they were from Galicia or Austria-Hungary, chances are that they were from the Carpathian Mountain region of what is now southeastern Poland, northeastern Slovakia, or western Ukraine.

Our people called themselves by many names - Rusyns, Ruthenians, Rusnaks, Austrians, Lemkos, etc. Until about five years ago I considered myself “a kind of Russian” or maybe “Slavic”. I’ve since come to learn that I am not Russian – although my religion is Russian Orthodox. I am not Ukrainian - although my European relatives live in Ukraine. And, I am not Polish - although my ancestors’ villages are in Poland. My understanding now is that I am Carpatho-Russian or Carpatho-Rusyn. Having gone that far into this issue, I will leave the rest of the nationality debates to the scholars.

I hope to give those of you who are interested in genealogy some tips on how you can find out more about your ancestors of any nationality – with some extra information for those struggling to search for their Carpatho-Russian/Carpatho-Rusyn ancestors. Before we begin I have three warnings: 1) Be open-minded with the information that you see. Many mistakes have been made on official and unofficial documents with dates, ages and names. You many have to be a little creative in your interpretations and become a sleuth; 2) Document where you find your information so that you can go back and recheck those facts if you need to; 3) Be careful - genealogy is addictive!

Your immediate goal should be to find the following information on your immigrant ancestors:
1. Full Name
2. Date of Birth
3. Ancestral Village

Here are some American resources that will help you find this information:

1. Family Members. This should be your beginning point. Ask your relatives questions about what they remember of family stories and family history. Ask them if they have any documents in their possession that would give facts and clues about the generations who came before them. Ask to see any pictures they may have. If there is black paper glued on the backs of pictures you can scrape it off with a razor blade without damaging possible writing. Don’t wait to interview your relatives – do it now. They are your most valuable resource. Information in record books will be there tomorrow – your relatives might not be.

2. Church Records. Your church books are an excellent source of information. The church records often list the ancestral villages in their baptismal, marriage and death registers. They may also give the names of the parents of the immigrants. Find out where your immigrant ancestors worshipped and contact the priests in those parishes to research their archives. Many of the old records will be in Latin and Church Slavonic/Russian. You may need some help to translate them. Also ask to see old church anniversary books for pictures and clues.

If you are lucky enough to have ancestors who attended Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Cathedral (Wilkes-Barre, Pa) their records were microfilmed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The records go from the 1880s to 1933. The microfilm number is 1671291. You do not have to be a Mormon to view their microfilms. The cost of renting any of their microfilms for viewing at their facilities nationwide for about a month is only $3.75 per film. You can check their directory online for their microfilm holdings at familysearch.org and go into their library collection. They have many records of our villages in Poland and Slovakia microfilmed as well.

3. Vital Statistics Certificates. Begin your search for birth, marriage and death certificates at the town hall archives where the events took place. Sometimes they give the place of origin in Europe for these individuals. Old marriage license applications often list the parents’ names.

4. Naturalization Records. Immigrants were eligible to seek US citizenship after being a resident in the US for five years. The Declaration of Intent gives information about the date of arrival, ship, place of birth and date of birth for the immigrant. Unfortunately naturalization papers are usually only found for males. Prior to 1922 the spouse would automatically become a citizen with their husband. Naturalization records are usually found in the county courthouse where the immigrant resided, or in the US District Court closest to his residence.

5. Federal Census Records. There are Federal Census records for 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930 can now be viewed. Some states, such as New Jersey, took state census records in 1905 and 1915. The National Archives offices have the Federal Census Records on microfilm, but you may be able to find them closer to you than that. Check with your local library or county historical society to find them. The LDS Family History Centers also have census records on microfilm and can be ordered for $3.75 each. Census records are interesting to go through, especially for the boarders who lived in the houses. Many times you will find extended family or in-laws living with your ancestor or next door. These records will tell you when your ancestor arrived in the US, their occupation, how long they were married and who their children were, along with other information – depending on the census year. Ancestry.com has a website that you could pay for to see census records online.

6. Social Security Index. Once you have your immigrant names and ballpark dates of birth or death you can go online for free at rootsweb.com, familysearch.org, or ancestry.com to search for your ancestors. You can request a copy of the immigrant’s Social Security application, but that will cost $27.00 per record.

7. Cemetery records. Cemetery records and records kept by funeral directors can sometimes uncover cause of death, parents name, and even maiden names for your female ancestors. The tombstones themselves can give you lots of information. An article in The New Rusyn Times about Rusyn Immigrant Gravestones reported that some of our cemeteries have gravestones on which the immigrant’s villages of birth or where they emigrated from were included. St. John the Baptist cemetery in Mayfield, Pennsylvania, has 60 such tombstones!

8. Ships Records. The ships manifests are an excellent source of information on immigrant ancestors. Depending on the year of arrival, the information could include the age of the immigrant, if married or single, village where they came from, nationality, race, and to whom and to where in the US they were going. Listings from about 1906 may be two pages long. Check the previous or next pages on these for these records. Also records beginning about 1906 list a relative they are leaving behind in Europe. Usually the father is listed. If the mother is listed that may be a clue that the father had already passed away. (Clues are just everywhere!) These records can be viewed at National Archives offices. An easier way to look up passenger manifests is at the Ellis Island Database (ellisislandrecords.org). This is a free database of 24 million digitized records. You will have to register to see these records, but registration is free and easy online. As you probably have found out already, because of the language problem, our people had many mistakes with the spellings of the names and incorrect dates and ages.

A fellow by the name of Steve Morse developed a method of finding hard to find individuals with his one-step system. It can be found at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/ellisshort.html. Try both his gray form and white form. Here you can search the database by village and/or name. You can also search by a “sounds like” method rather than an exact spelling. This may take a longer time but be patient. The results are worth the wait. If you are interested in setting up a website for your ancestors’ village this can be very helpful. You can also search a village such as “Pielgrzymka” by typing in just the first few letters of the village “Pielg” since the spellings of the villages are also quite varied!

Now that you have established your immigrant ancestors’ names, approximate birth dates and their villages of origin, here are some resources to help you find more information about your European ancestors and hopefully delve back a few generations:

1. The Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base. Carpatho-rusyn.org. You can surf through links to many sites with a wealth of information about your Galician ancestors, their history and their land. Two very helpful links at this site are under “Reference Areas”. “Genealogy” gives you a list of people who are researching particular families and villages who you might want to link up with. Right under that is the “Resource Guide to Lemko Villages and Surnames.”

Hopefully by now you know the name of your ancestral villages. You can now find them on this list. Click on the village and you will see a list of people who owned land in that village in the year 1787 from the Austrian Cadastral Records. It is very exciting to see your name on a list dating back as far as 1787. This page will also tell you if the LDS had microfilmed the records from that village. If you are lucky and they did, that page will give you the microfilm number. Unfortunately this website has not been updated in a very long time, but it is still an extremely valuable resource.

2. Jewishgen Shtetlseeker. Jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/. Once you know the name of your villages, you will want to know exactly where they are on today’s maps. This website will tell you exactly where your village is, and what villages are within a specific radius of your village.

3. LDS Family History Library. As mentioned above, the Mormons have done extensive research in genealogy and have microfilmed their holdings from Poland and Slovakia among other places all over the world. Look at their website at familysearch.com to find out if your villages have been microfilmed by them.

4. Churches. If there is still a church in your ancestral village you can try writing to the priest there to see if they have their old church records. If they do not, do not be discouraged. Two sets of records were kept back as far as 1787. In most cases you can find your village records in the civil records.
5. European State Archives. The Polish State Archives records directory is located at Archiwa.gov.pl/index.eng.html. Information about the Czech Republic and Slovak state archives can be found in links from cyndislist.com/Czech.htm. The Polish Genealogy Society of America has a website at pgsa.org with a very helpful site for writing letters in Polish at pgsa.org/letter_eng.htm.

6. Maps. Maps of the Lemko area and other parts of Poland can be found at lemko.org/maps100/index.html and Jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/. For maps from the Czech Republic and Slovakia again refer to cyndislist.com/Czech.htm.

RELATED WEBSITES:

The Carpatho-Rusyn Society - www.carpathorusynsociety.org/ This non-profit organization founded 8 years ago is promoting awareness of Carpatho-Rusyn culture. They have over 1400 members with chapters across the country. They have many very interesting programs that welcome non-members as well as members. They also have two tours planned. One is a 14-day Lemko Homeland Tour that will focus on Lemkovyna between Krynica and Sanok. The itinerary also includes visits to Lemko villages and churches in the Magura Forest and Bieszczady Mountain Regions, Auschwitz, Wieliczka Salt Mines, Krakow and a Lemko Vatra (folk festival). Another tour scheduled is the Rusyn Cultural Tour to Eastern Slovakia

The New Rusyn Times - www.carpathorusynsociety.org/publication.htm This is a very informative newsletter published by the Carpatho-Rusyn Society six times a year. It is an excellent source of information on genealogy and Rusyn history and customs. It also includes Rusyn news from America and Europe, including information about our churches.

The Galicia Genealogy Mailing List - (hosted by former FOCA member from Syracuse – Laurence Krupnak). www.topica.com/lists/galicia

The Rusyn Genealogy Mailing List – www.groups.yahoo.com/group/rusyns

The Carpathian Connection – www.tccweb.org/

The Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base – www.carpatho-rusyn.org

Lemkos – www.lemko.org

Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogy – www.halgal.com/

Russian Brotherhood Organization – www.rbo.org. The very informative RBO records from 1920 – 1960 may once again be put online. Check their website in the near future.

Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogy Web Site – www.rusyn.com.

Dictionary of Lemko Surnames - http://www.lemko.org/genealogy/krasovskiy/namesUS.html