How to find out about your ancestors

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the Slavic tradition, a son, sitting on his father's lap, sat on the lap of his grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather and all his ancestors, and the father held in his arms not only his son, but also his grandson, great-grandson and all future descendants - such a projection into eternity in both ends created a special measure of responsibility …

Earlier, until about 1917, in almost every house in the Russian Empire and in Europe, there were portraits of relatives on the walls: grandparents, great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers, and other great-grandfathers. Many families kept pedigree records and books. And what happened after the armed coup d'etat of 1917 in Russia (and after similar events in other parts of Europe)?

In many dwellings, in the most prominent places (walls, tables, etc.), images of "leaders" and "politicians" appeared. The cult of the Rod (family) was destroyed, the veneration of ancestors was destroyed, a good tradition was destroyed …

After the 1960s, young people began to place images of their idols in their homes: singers and singers, actors and actresses, showmen … This continues to this day. And this is an indicator of a decrease in the level of rationality and sanity in society. The absolute majority (99%) of these idols - in various ways, spread the UNHEALTHY, UNRANGEABLE and destructive scenario of existence.

Where there is no reverence for ancestors, there is no and cannot be health and life. This is one of the reasons why people's health is not very good. Just as a tree cannot live and bear fruit without roots, so we cannot be healthy and happy without the memory of our ancestors. And yet, the study of their origin helps to know the mistakes that the ancestors made, which means that it becomes possible to avoid these mistakes. Considering all this, the revival of the good tradition of cognition and veneration of the Family is the way to improve the health of society!

Do you know who your great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers were, and the great-great-grandmothers, great-great-grandfathers? Do you know what they did, what class they belonged to, where they were born? And where are they buried and in what condition are their burials?

I'm sure not all readers know this. But this is so important - to remember the ancestors, to know their life and existence, to pass this information on to children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is important that subsequent generations of the clan remember their ancestors and know their origin. And it is especially important to be grateful for the fact that many generations of ancestors helped us to be born, and therefore to live.

Since 2014, I deliberately started looking for information about my great-great-grandfathers. My grandmothers and grandfathers, who could tell a lot about great-ancestors, have already passed away. And our parents know very little about our ancestry. Therefore, you have to look for information on your own. It is not easy, but very exciting. For example, I managed to find out that my great-grandfather Repyev Kuzma Vasilievich lived in the Tula region, in one of the villages until 1920-30. My grandfather, Alexey Kuzmich Repyev, was born there. And then their family moved to Moscow.

Some information I was able to learn about another line of my family. In the address-calendar of Moscow for 1914, it is mentioned that at 10 Malye Kamenshchiki Street, Ivan Fedorovich Syrov lived. This is my great-great-grandfather, the father of my great-grandmother. From the directories "All Moscow" for 1914 and 1917, I learned that the father of my great-grandmother owned a shoe shop at Moscow, st. Bolshie Kamenshiki, 21. Young, but talented craftsmen worked for him there - they made and repaired shoes to order. I found the very house in which my great-grandmother lived with her sisters and parents until 1917 (my great-grandmother was then a little girl). The house looks very solid, but modern. It was built in 1885. Now the house is uninhabited, it houses offices and a bank. Nearby there are trees that, perhaps, have been growing since the beginning of the 20th century and have witnessed all the events … And around there are only modern houses, high-rise buildings. It turns out that the house of my ancestors is the only preserved pre-revolutionary house on Malye Kamenshchiki Street.

In general, I was very happy with this find. And I immediately thought that it would be great to return this house to the family and make it residential again. After all, my great-grandmother's family was evicted from there immediately after the 1917 Revolution because of the “prosperity” of the family.

After that, I found out how my great-grandmother met my great-grandfather. When her family was evicted from the old house, they settled in a barrack (house 24) on Bibliotechnaya Street. Their neighbors were the Shibaev family. The Shibaevs also had children. Children grew up, talked, walked, made friends. I learned that in the courtyard company, my great-grandmother danced folk dances best of all (she especially loved to dance "the gypsy"), and the Shibaevs' son, Nikolai Ivanovich, performed songs best of all. Apparently, such talents brought them closer together and they got married. Here's a nice story.

I have disclosed to you some of the results of my research in order to show that studying your Family is a really exciting, interesting and rewarding business. If you also want to start researching your origins, then here are a few ways you can do it:

1) Through your family's archive. This is the easiest way to find information about relatives. For example, we have a lot of documents, letters and photographs left in our family from ancestors and great-ancestors. For example, we found these materials in grandmother's old wardrobes. Many photos are signed. Surely your families may have such materials.

2) Through the registry offices. If your family did not have any documents about great-ancestors, then you can contact the registry office, next to which they then lived. The archives of these institutions can store data on dates of birth, place of birth and place of residence of ancestors. There you can also find out the maiden name of your great-grandmothers. This is also important to know in order to have a more complete picture of her ancestors and her origin. But keep in mind that in the archives of the registry offices there is only data from 1918 (records of birth, death, marriage). To get a certificate from the archive at the registry office, you need to pay a fee of 200 rubles for the provision of public services. And if you want to get a certificate of birth, death or marriage of your great-ancestors, the fee will be 350 rubles.

3) If your great-grandparents lived in Moscow, then you can look for information about them in the Central State Archives of Moscow. This Moscow archive also contains information about those who lived in Moscow and the Moscow province until 1917. Archive requests are paid.

4) Through local archives. For example, if your ancestors lived in the Tula region, then information about them may be in the state archive of the Tula region.

From my experience, I advise before contacting a specialized institution (archive or "registry office"), try to remember or ask your relatives for the exact date of birth, last place of residence and full name of your ancestors. This will make your search easier.

Now, I continue to search and study information about my ancestors, and I am only at the beginning of this path. I feel that there are still many unexpected discoveries ahead. I hope that my story will become for you that Spark that will ignite the fire of knowledge in you. I wish you success in this noble cause!

The photographs show the very house in which my great-ancestors lived for some time before the "revolution" of 1917.