Finding Jewish Ancestors in Belarus: Difference between revisions

Finding Jewish Ancestors in Belarus (view source)

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 ==Find the Town==
-In order to research your family in Belarus, it is essential that you have identified the place where they came from. It is not enough to know only ‘Belarus;' you must know the town name and the district/province name. The name of a nearby larger town can also be very helpful.
+In order to research your family in Belarus, it is essential that you have identified the '''actual town''' name of where they came from. It is not enough to know only ‘Belarus;' you really need to determine the town name and hopefully, the district/province name. The name of a nearby larger town can also be very helpful.
-One of the best ways to determine information about your ancestor's pre-immigration origins is to investigate records in the country of immigration. Records that might give clues about your ancestor's birthplace include vital records like marriage or death, vital records of children or spouses, census, synagogue records, obituaries, naturalization/immigration and so on. Find a Wiki page for the country, state, or county that your ancestor immigrated to in order to discover what types of records might be available for the area they lived in. See [https://www.rtrfoundation.org/archdta11.shtml this page] on Miriam Weiner's Routes to Roots page for additional tips on finding your ancestor's hometown.
+Some ways to determine your ancestor's pre-immigration origins is to interview elderly relatives. Also search records that might give clues about your ancestor's birthplace which include ''Ship Arrival Records'' (aka Passenger Manifests), especially if your immigrant ancestor arrived after July 1907 (when the manifest was expanded from one page to two pages of information); if your ancestor came before July 1907 AND they departed from the port of Hamburg, then search the ''Hamburg Ship Arrivals'' which often include town of origin. Other sources for ancestral town names are: ''World War I Draft Registrations, World War II Draft Registrations'', and ''Social Security Applications''; among the citizenship documents, search the ''Declaration of Intention'' and the ''Petition for Naturalization'', both of which often include town of origin, arrival data (date of arrival, name of ship, port of departure, names of relatives, and sometimes, a photo). Secondary sources for locating ancestral town names are marriage records, obituaries, and other documents such as cemetery records. In Jewish cemeteries, the burial plots are often named after a town of origin and people tend to be buried in these specific plots. '''Note''', keep in mind that usually a husband and wife are buried in the same burial plot, but often only one of them originally came from that town.
 See the [https://www.rtrfoundation.org/admindist.shtml Administrative Districts and Divisions] article on Routes to Roots Administrative to learn more about jurisdictions in the Russian Empire and their modern-day equivalents.