Any chance of locating extended family in Ukraine, if so, how???

April 9, 2022 4:05 AM

My stepmothers mother Fled Kyiv 100 years ago as an evacuee with her aunt. Stepmum is devastated to see this history repeating. I am wondering if there is any way of tracking if any family are still there/fleeing? We have very little to go on - BUT Aunty was a Doctor! Can't have been common? There has to be records about her?

We have her mum's aunts death certificate (she died in Prague after fleeing to there). I have the DOB of my stepmums mum, thats pretty much it (we may have the odd photo tucked away).

I am guessing Ukrainian organisations/Red Cross etc will be wanting to focus on closer connections than this..? Is it a pointless exercise? We are in the UK and would like them to know we are here, if possible, if anyone is still there.

Happy to talk by me mail also.

posted by tanktop to Human Relations (2 answers total)

Many of my maternal relatives immigrated from Ukraine to Canada around 1910, so a similar time period. My mother is very interested in genealogy and took a trip to Ukraine with my uncle and a cousin about 8 years ago to visit some of the places they came from. Prior to the trip, she had done research here.

The towns they visited were in Western Ukraine and they had a translator with them. In general, they found it very difficult to find any records. The Churches they thought might have had records had had them shipped to some central place during soviet times. They had issues where names had been changed, e.g., parts of the name dropped off to make it shorter, or inconsistent spelling due to switching from roman to cyrillic alphabet.

I wish you luck, but my mother, in peace time, found it hard to find any additional information on Ukrainian relatives.
posted by ice-cream forever at 6:07 AM on April 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

The Kyiv Genealogical society recently posted on /r/Genealogy offering their services - Kyiv Genealogical Society "RODOSLOV"
posted by sarahdal at 9:35 AM on April 9, 2022 [1 favorite]