The Legacy Tree Genealogists Blog

Hand-picked, tested and trained, our professional genealogist team knows how to find your story. We search the world for answers. Find the un-findable. And we’re experts at everything from tracking down rare international records to analyzing DNA test results. Based near the world’s largest family history library in downtown Salt Lake City, we also work with researchers and archives around the globe. Contact us today if you would like help discovering your ancestors!

Finding Your Soldier of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 (Eastern Front of WWII): Part II

August 21, 2020 by Michelle - Legacy Tree Genealogists Researcher Leave a Comment

Did your ancestor serve during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45? Learn more about their Soviet military service using this free resource!Last week in Part I of our two part series, we introduced Pamyat Naroda (Память народа), a website hosted by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Министерство обороны Российской Федерации) to honor the participants of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, commonly referred to as the Eastern Front of World War II in English-speaking countries. The Red Army mobilized millions, including 23% non-Slavic minority soldiers and almost eight hundred thousand women, between 1941 and 1945. Using the Online Help ToolsPamyat Naroda has a dual-language option of Russian and English. A comprehensive overview for each thematic portion can be accessed on the Russian-language page, How to Use “Memory of the People” (Работа с сайтом ИСК «Память народа»). The English version of the How to Search page, you will only find very brief overviews of each …

Finding Your Soldier of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 (Eastern Front of WWII): Part I

August 14, 2020 by Michelle - Legacy Tree Genealogists Researcher Leave a Comment

Did your ancestor serve during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45? Learn more about their Soviet military service using this free resource!Many descendants of Eastern European immigrants who landed on North American shores in the first wave of immigration soon found that their relatives who stayed behind were no longer citizens of the historical empires who had ruled over them. With the changing borders through the Interwar period to the beginning of World War II, the citizens of the new Soviet Union were thrust into military service for their country by 1939. If you have ancestors who immigrated from the occupied Baltic nations or what were known then as other Soviet Socialist Republics, odds are they had family members or friends that were conscripted into the Red Army.Personnel of the Red ArmyDuring the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45 (Russian: Великая Отечественная война), the Red Army conscripted almost 30 million men into the existing troops, totaling about 5 million at the …

Meet Rachel, Project Manager for Legacy Tree Genealogists

August 10, 2020 by Legacy Tree Genealogists Leave a Comment

Meet Rachel, one of Legacy Tree Genealogists talented project managers!Rachel Derenthal comes to Legacy Tree Genealogists with a background in business, accounting, and family history research. She originally obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Middle East Studies and Arabic from Brigham Young University however her post graduate jobs pushed her towards the field of business and accounting. In 2016 she decided to switch career paths and enrolled in the Family History Research program at Brigham Young University-Idaho with a specialization in British Isles research. While working towards this degree she was hired as a Southern States researcher with Ancestry ProGenealogists and gained experience working with DNA and brick wall cases.In 2019 she and her family moved to New Jersey where she started her own genealogy company which focused on immigrant and African American heritage cases in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. She has given lectures on navigating genealogy websites and …

Pathways to Membership in The Jamestowne Society

August 7, 2020 by Rebecca - Legacy Tree Genealogists Researcher 1 Comment

Many are under the impression that to become a member of the Jamestowne Society, one must have an ancestor who was a first settler of the Jamestowne colony. Although that is one route to join, the Jamestowne Society provides six pathways to membership! Learn more about them.The Jamestowne Society, founded in 1936 and incorporated in 1958, is a lineage society based in Richmond, Virginia with the mission to discover and record the names of early Virginia settlers and their descendants. They work to promote restoration of historical records, documents, objects and edifices, and bring members into closer association through activities and the organization of state companies (see the full mission statement at http://www.jamestowne.org/). To date the society has over 10,000 members.On 6 December 1606, the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery sailed from England with 104 boys and men to establish what would be known as Jamestowne, the first permanent English settlement in …