Your family tree

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

- Why do people buy a lottery ticket? Obviously hoping to win. So I am: I am digging and digging and I hope to find something interesting. For example, information about a famous person may suddenly surface. Or information that you still didn't have the slightest idea about. And it’s just interesting to plunge into the past at least for a while. Somehow, in search of information about my relatives, I reread the files of old newspapers and constantly came across notes about the industrialist Litvinov - he gives a ball, then he is engaged in charity work … And he became so dear and familiar to me that, after reading his obituary, I really got upset…

Valery Petrov, chief specialist in genealogy of the Russian Dynasties program and the founding father of this very program at the Institute of Public Relations, became interested in genealogy while still a student of the history department of Moscow State University:

- Only in those days genealogy was a disgraced science - unnecessary knowledge about relatives could be very dangerous: what if your grandfather was some kind of merchant? Or a manufacturer? Or has his brother gone to America? What then should I write in the questionnaires?..

The "executed" general served Hitler

Nowadays, everyone wants to know their ancestors, and preferably of noble blood, and so that up to the 7th generation (although genealogists usually calculate them before the 9th): according to some esoteric theories, it is seven generations of ancestors that have a special influence on a person's personality. Sometimes family legends turn out to be the purest truth. Sometimes it's the other way around.

- Once a client was looking for information about his grandfather - the alleged White Guard General Polyakov, who was shot in 37th. It was possible to unearth not only the reliability of kinship, but also the most interesting story of the life of this very grandfather. In the fight against the Reds, the captain rose to the rank of general - chief of staff of the Don Army, that is, a person equal to Denikin. When the army was crushed to smithereens, the Cossack circle decided to remove from all posts the commanders who could not resist the "hicks". Attempts to get to Kolchak did not lead to anything. And then our hero left for Prague, worked there in the municipality as a simple official before the start of the war. Managed to serve Hitler. And at the end of the war, Polyakov and his comrades were offered by representatives of the British army to surrender: in exchange for renouncing all orders and military merit, they promised freedom and a new civil passport. Polyakov agreed, went to America, where he was elected ataman of the Don army, where he died in 1967. And the family thought that he was shot …

Sometimes some very mystical motives lead to the search for a person's pedigree.

For example, one man was never interested in ancestors. But somehow I went on a canoe trip with my friends. He returned home, and he was downright stuck on the desire to learn at least something about his relatives. Shoveling through the archives, he discovered that during the war his father was buried on the banks of the same river where he sailed in a kayak in the summer.

Man's business

Any genealogical research rests on three whales: names, dates, and places of birth. The absence of at least one component often makes searches impossible: it is impossible to find traces of Ivan Petrovich Kozlodoev from Bolshoye Vasyuki without knowing when he was born - at least approximately. And it is impossible to find the same Kozlodoev, who was born on May 25, 1912, if it is not known where this significant event took place.

They usually look for the male line: the female one usually breaks off when the maiden name changes.

The search for a pedigree (and in 9 tribes there are about 300 ancestors) is a long, troublesome and expensive business. Sometimes it takes three or four months from the moment the application is sent to the archive until the response is received. Within this period, the first response with a request for an advance payment, a transfer of an advance payment, a second message from the archive with a request to deposit the remaining amount, re-sending of money, and only then - receiving a long-awaited letter with the result of searches can be met. Sometimes, however, in small provincial towns, archivists shove through mountains of papers and do not even demand money for it. But sometimes the price rises to $ 300 for a piece of paper. Therefore, you can brag to your friends about your documented roots not earlier than in a year or two - and even then, if you entrust all this work to specialists. For 3000-4500 euros.

Genealogists themselves

Actually, due to the rather high price, it is mainly people who are not poor who can afford to confirm family legends with archival documents, decorate the living room with a colorful family tree or make a pleasant gift to elderly parents. There is, of course, another option: to look for your roots yourself.

“For a much smaller amount - 500 euros - we are ready to advise people if they themselves will carry out correspondence and travel through the archives,” says Natalya Rybalkina, manager of Russian Dynasties. - But there are not many such applicants …

There are enough difficulties on the way of an amateur genealogist. Then there is no uniformity in the archives, and it is very problematic to find any document. Then this document is simply not handed out - due to dilapidation. Either for the 18th century it is impossible to find metric records, because at one time someone decided that there was a need for metrics of people living nowadays - and you have to look for confession sheets, census records, revision tales …, adults changed their names and surnames on a whim - after the revolution, some Fedka Kozyavkin easily became Theodor Grindberg, or forcedly - during the repressions.

A similar thing happened with the descendants of Emelyan Pugachev. After his execution, Catherine II issued a decree: to all his numerous children, replace the surname Pugachev with Fools. So, today the Durakovs are more likely to be the descendants of a famous rebel than the Pugachevs.

Even more amusing is the situation with the descendants of Hannibal. All of them - almost a whole village - demanded to assign them the name of their ancestor. Nicholas I did not believe and sent an official there to check. Everything turned out to be true. And then the emperor, in order not to encourage debauchery, ordered them to assign the surname Hannibal, but read it backwards: Labinnag.

Seek and find

Every person has a father and mother. 2 grandparents. 4 great-grandmothers and 4 great-grandfathers. 16 great-great … Well, and so on … At a certain stage, our ancestors mix and become common - accordingly, we can safely assume that throughout Europe we have a myriad of distant relatives. Do not believe? It has been documented that, for example, Sergei Mikhalkov is the 14th holy brother of Nicholas II, Arkady Gaidar (Golikov) is a relative of Mikhail Lermontov, and the well-known Yegor Gaidar had one grandfather Arkady Gaidar, and the other - the storyteller Bazhov. Who knows, maybe you are a distant relative of the Queen of England? And your seven-year cousin lives with you on the same staircase …