How can I find documents from early WWII ?

Question

I'm looking to find birth records from 1909 in Russia and also marriage records from early WWII in possibly Germany or Poland. Actually any German occupied country at the time. Anyone know how I can go about it or where to start?

Answer 1

You might try www.footnote.com

www.accessgenealogy.com

Yahoo search has 516,000 listings for "1909 birth records, Russia"

www.ancestry.de is the German site of ancestry.com (may need a world membership to see any records, however--which I do, if you'd want to email me the names, etc)--records are in German.

Answer 2

Here are a few forums with queries from people who have begun search in those areas, you might consider reading through the threads and posting your own query(ies):

http://genforum.genealogy.com/russia/

(if you add WWII to your search, you'll see there are 102 matches)

http://genforum.genealogy.com/germany/

http://genforum.genealogy.com/poland/

(Again, to narrow down the search results so they're relevant and helpful to you, type in a last name or a year or "WWII" or ideally, the name of the town your ancestors came from).

There are many records available at www.familysearch.org (a free site), and at ancestry.com (many of us on here are subscribers, and we like to try to help!)...

I hope you find this helpful - - good luck in your search!

Answer 3

This is a standard for any genealogy research..  you have to be explicit, as to the exact location and time frame.  For the areas you mention, they were in frequent fluctuation.. ie Poland was part of Germany (and Russia) for many years.  Thus.. you almost must have the town/ village, and find where it is NOW located.  Given the war situation, you realize, of course, that many churches or other record locations, will have been destroyed.

Break research into bite sized pieces.. that is how you will find it.