FamilySearch in partnership wihth Ancestry, MyHeritage

Few months ago there was news of FamilySearch and Ancestry.com working together to obtain over 2 billion records. Here is an announcement by FamilySearch.

I had expected MyHeritage to join the effort and sure enough, yesterday in their blog they mentioned it too. Information comes from Europe, Asia, South America.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Lithuanian Genealogy Research

As I mentioned before, Gubernias were composed of Uezds. Let's say your family came from Lithuania.

Under the Russian government, Lithuanian territory consisted of Vilno, Kovno and portions of Suwalki gubernias (the later with the center in Poland).

Let's do the following exercise:

1. Using the map below identify which gubernia your ancestral uezd belonged to. This is important not only while looking at gubernia-level documents but also to note there are two major historical archives in Lithuania located in each of it former center.
   

   Finding the ancestral shtetl on the map bears sentimental value. Here is very detailed Russian-Language map of Kovno Gubernia. No English equivalent seems to exist but there is always Google maps.

2. Visit Litvak SIG database and do the search remembering these search tips. Whenever possible widen your search since it's better to go through extra results and throw it away then to miss an important match.

3. Next is to find other people with the interest in the same uezd. You are in luck since Litvak SIG has a dedicated page for district-level groups. These groups collect funds to retrieve and translate records. They ask for $100 membership to support their efforts which is much cheaper price then hiring professional researcher (in my opinion).

4. Spend more time at LitvakSIG site, subscribe to their newsletter and get more insights.

Good Luck!