Great service

I was very much interested in learning a bit more about my maternal grandfather's family. I knew exactly when and where (Yasinya) he was born so I decided to do some research on my own. Unfortunately, I did not get very far. It is nearly impossible to get anywhere by contacting the local archives/archivists. While many European countries have digitalized their archival records, Ukraine has not. Furthermore, while I had sucess corresponding with archives in Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, I got nowhere in Ukraine. I tried writing an email to the various regional archives but they never bothered to respond. So, I decided to see if I can find a local who has experience and knows his way around. I found Maxim's contact information and decided to send him an email. He responded very fast and shortly thereafter, after a few email exchanges, he was on his way to see what he can find.

He managed to find whatever information was available and very quickly. Unfortunately, the Jewish records for the town that my grandfather was from have all but dissapeared, but Maxim did manage to find information in the civil records, which were maintained from 1895 until the late 30s. He found my grandfather's birth record as well as those of his brother and a few cousins.

I would definitely recommend Maxim to anyone interested in researching/obtaining records for this part of the world. You are not going to get anywhere with the archives on your own so it is best to hire someone local who has access to and experience in researching the archives. Maxim is very professional. He responds immediately to your emails. He thoughtfully answered my million questions and he really seems to know the history, the archival system, the way things work. It is very evident that he has a lot of experience in this area.

Thank you very much, Filip. Hardly I can add something, I agree with every your word.

On public genealogic boards if someone wants to make reputation of online guru quickly, he/she as usually publishes address of archive and their email. But unfortunately no one publishes statistics of successful replies. I bet this number is nearly equal to zero.

Today state archive has few months long lines of internal inquiries, these are so called “social references” and they have priority because they are urgently needed for various legalizations. In this situation private foreign genealogic inquiries are neglected.

No smiling girl in uniform waits to answer foreign emails, reality is opposite. In most cases to get anything from archive without costly travels, one will need help of researcher or lobbyist.

Filip, I wish you luck in further research of your family history.

Hello Filip,

yes, it is a great service that a person makes on-site for search the archive.
Mentality in old Soviet country is very different than in our countries, and the notion of public service does not really exist, despite all the people are very friendly.
I do not know that place you look?

but the records after 1930 are to in ZAGS (civil status) in the capital of the district of the village sought.

I do not know if Maxim also offers this service ?

David, I would explain it this way. State archives are system allowed for foreign contacts, they have gateway although it’s inactive most time. You know it because you’re one of people who successfully got access to.

Contrary, regional registry offices system is designed for internal use only, actually, direct contacts with foreigners are not allowed for them.

There are ways how to bypass this and other restrictions but it will take considerable effort.

Anyway, registry offices are sending the oldest stuff to archives, in 10 years all essential information will be available. Today border is mid or late 30s, tomorrow we will move it to mid 40s and so Hungarian-Czech-Hungarian age records will be disclosed.