With this announcement, two new Surname Databases have been created and are searchable
on the Routes to Roots Foundation website at www.rtrfoundation.org.
These two new databases evolved from vast amounts of material that I acquired during my 30+ years of working in the
archives of Poland and the former USSR.
The first of these databases is the standard Surname Database
and was compiled from spreadsheets of indexed lists of names for various towns.
The second database is an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Surname Database that was
created by using OCR technology to scan the contents of various Cyrillic-lettered directories (telephone directories, business directories, etc.).
The search of this database is done using the spelling in Cyrillic
letters, but the search form lets you enter the name in Latin letters and transliterates it
into Cyrillic for you.
Both of the databases can be searched in various ways. They both allow for searching for exact matches but they also allow
for searching for non-exact matches such as matches that start with or matches that contain a sequence of letters.
One benefit from such non-exact matches is that you can pick up the female ending of a Russian name.
For example, the female form of the male surname Odnopozov is Odnopozova. In this case, a contains search or a starts-with
search for Odnopozov will pick up both the male and female forms.
Standard Surname Search -- Name lists from historians and heads of Jewish communities
(both handwritten and typed); name lists from books and name lists from various archives.
OCR Search -- Business Directories, Address Calendars, Telephone books, typed name lists,
name lists from books and name lists from archives.
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List of Collections
The List of Collections was created geographically
(Belarus, Bessarabia/Moldova, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine);
and Romania (partial).
Sweden (survivors from other countries transported to Sweden)
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Collection Description Page
There is a "Collection Description Page" for each collection with varying information.
It includes links to other sources for that collection, as well as document images, town images
or other relevant information and/or images.
A link to the Collection Description Page will appear on each Search Results page.
