East Central European Genealogy and Local History:
Sources for Research

Introduction - Geographic Sources - Non-English Geographic Sources - Emigration and Immigration
Ethnic Communities in America: - General Sources - Selected Internet Sites
Genealogical Guides and Handbooks: - General - Austrian and German - Croat, Serb, and Slovene
Czech and Slovak - Hungarian - Jewish - Polish - Romanian

Selected Internet Sites

Umbrella organization for genealogy societies focusing on Eastern Europe. Maintains active Web pages with links to specialized groups. Posts detailed information on individual regions and updates on current research.

Clearinghouse for Jewish genealogy worldwide, with extensive information on Eastern Europe. Useful links to special interest groups (SIGs) and other valuable sites.

Pinpoints even the smallest settlements in Eastern Europe. Soundex system helps user by identifying all possible sites based on variant orthography. Database provides coordinates, and linked maps give approximate locations.

Directs researchers to regional facilities (with information concerning their services and holdings), describes record types (including immigration and naturalization records), and provides some limited digitized data. Describes NARA policies with regard to genealogical research and lists NARA publications for sale (primarily microfilm). Offers links to useful Web sites.

Highly regarded Web site for American genealogy. Provides links to sites focusing on ethnic groups of central and eastern Europe.

Home page for the emigration project of the State Archives of Hamburg, Germany, that will digitize lists of passengers who embarked from Hamburg ports. Archive plans to post the entire list covering the dates 1850 to 1934. Hamburg, along with Bremen (for which little information is extant), was a primary port of exit for East Europeans.

Excellent site for Polish genealogy. Especially helpful links for geographical research.

Part of the network of Web sites maintained by volunteer genealogists to answer questions about research in specific regions. Links to sites dedicated to individual countries and regions.

The Society is headquartered in Chicago. Includes links to databases containing the Dziennik Chicagoski death notices, Haller's Army index (World War I), Jubilee Book index, and indexes to the surnames and death claim files of the Polish Roman Catholic Union insurance records.

Web site for genealogical activities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Provides access to the Church's extensive genealogical databases (Ancestral File, International Genealogical Index, and others) and the catalog of the Family History Library. Under "Browse Categories" a section entitled "Research Support" offers research guides to genealogical research in various countries and regions, including Central and East Europe.

Originally compiled by the Genealogical Society of Bergen County, N.J. Describes source materials, methods of research, and links to other useful sites.

Expanding database of translated "yizkor books," memorial books written after the Holocaust as tribute to communities destroyed in the Holocaust. Most were originally published in Hebrew or Yiddish. Books may include biographies and photographs, history of settlements, traditional stories, and details concerning the impact of the Holocaust on specific communities. For materials not available online, library holdings or the name of a contact person may be provided.