FAQ

Genealogical societies are formed to help their members do their own research by providing publications and advice on where to look and how to proceed.

All family history research starts with yourself and your family. Once you have learned what you can from your family, a genealogical society with like interests can help you with the next steps. If your ancestors are from eastern Europe, the East European Genealogical Society can assist you to further your research with helpful tips and other research support, monthly meetings, and a quarterly journal to steer you in the right direction.

Our Society does not have translators on staff, but we do have resources to assist our members with translation services.

If you know the general area or have a name of a town that you cannot find on Google maps, our New Members Package has many tips and tricks to assist. Our Surname-Village Database may have your village listed with people who are already doing research in that area. Still stuck? We're happy to provide additional guidance to our members when requested.

It isn't that simple. Even if a surname sounds German, Germans immigrated from virtually all parts of central and eastern Europe. Slavic surnames (Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, etc.) were often misspelt and could have originated from many different countries. Information about from where your family came will be found in documents and sources created after immigrating. Our Society provides helpful information to members about this subject in our New Members Package and through individual help.

There are many names of areas in central and eastern Europe which are no longer used or official. These were mostly province names of the Russian (Volhynia, Bessarabia, etc.), Austrian (Galicia, Bukovina, etc.), and German (Prussia, Pommerania, etc.) empires prior to WWI. Other names sound more familiar but can be misleading. For example, "Congress Poland" was part of the Russian Empire but this land now only makes up part of Poland. The EEGS helps members identify these and other homeland areas. This is often the first step in pursuing your European genealogy. Maps showing pre-WWI empires and provinces are included in the New Members Package.

Memberships are non-refundable and non-transferrable. Should you no longer wish to remain a member, you are still able to enjoy the benefits of membership until your membership expires.

The journal is only available in print format at this time.

East European members receive our quarterly journal East European Genealogist, four free queries per year in our journal (one per issue), free access to our monthly meetings, the New Members Package which is full of helpful tips and tricks to assist with your research along with submissions to the Surname-Village Database. You will also be able to order past issues of the East European Genealogist and receive discounts for any seminars. See our Membership page for more details.

Our Society covers the former (pre-WWI areas) Austro-Hungarian Empire (Bohemia, Bukovina, Galicia, Hungary, Moravia), German Empire (East Prussia, Posen, Silesia, West Prussia), Russian Empire (Bessarabia, Congress Poland, Ekaterinoslav, Grodno, Kherson, Kiev, Volhynia), and Romania. These areas translate into the following current countries:
• Austria
• Belarus
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic (Czechia)
• Estonia
• Germany
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Moldova
• Montenegro
• North Macedonia
• Poland
• Romania
• Russia
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Ukraine
Our member interests are generally in modern day Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

At this time, only EEGS members may purchase back issues of the East European Genealogist. Members can order online (when logged in) or via postal order using the order form here.

Our Society currently holds its monthly meetings online through Zoom. These meetings are restricted to members. We are investigating options for hybrid meetings and do plan to return to some in-person meetings where we can welcome the public. Watch the Events calendar and blog postings for location details.

This publication is no longer available from the distributor, McNally Robinson. We hope to offer a digital version for sale through our website soon and are working to find an alternative for a print version. We regret any inconvenience.

The East European Genealogical Society collection is located in the Special Collections Room, 5th floor, University of Winnipeg Library, Centennial Hall, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba. The University Library hours are here. The EEGS holdings index is here.

The EEGS map collection comprises three series: Generalkarte von Mitteleuropa (1:200,000) maps, Karte des Deutschen Reiches (1:100,000) maps, and Oblast Topograficheskaia Karta (1:200,000) maps. The collection is held in the map library of the University of Winnipeg. Details of the map library.

Only members of the East European Genealogical Society may submit data.

You would only submit your ancestral information if you want to collaborate with others researching the same villages and/or surnames. Think of this as “cousin bait.”

No. Your entries in the database are accompanied with a unique, unidentifiable code that corresponds to you.

Visit our Browse Collections page and when logged in you will be able to add your entries there. Also, you can download this submission form and complete it. The form is fillable so you have the option to print it and mail it in or you can e-mail the completed form to the Society. Don't forget to include your contact information in case the Coordinator needs to reach you.

Yes. The Coordinator will review your data and attempt to include official place name spellings for a particular country and time period.

No. All characters are rendered in the Latin alphabet with no diacritics. When searching the database, simply use the closest equivalent Latin letter. For example, if you wish to search for Łódź, search instead for Lodz.

In these cases, it is not possible for us to provide contact information for the member. The member has let their membership lapse more than two years. To comply with Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, we will not contact those members.