Practical Genealogy 

The Seminar in Practical Genealogy Festival Event is a discussion about where to start if you wish to study your own heritage and family free. During Soviet times, the older generation within many families were forcefully severed from their younger relatives and growing family heritage, as a result of which a rift between the generations was introduced into society.

What is hidden in our family archives? How can we retrieve our family “secrets”? Is there anything new we might discover even from that well-known photo of our grandmother? Would it be possible to see the case file of a grandfather who was repressed by the regime? The Head of the School of Practical Genealogy and Vice-President of the Russian Genealogical Society, Alla Krasko (St. Petersburg) will answer these and other questions.

The seminar will introduce us to the main steps in genealogical research:

• Study of our family archive and questioning of living family members;
• Work in libraries, with published source materials;
• Applying to archival sources for genealogical information.

The festival will also boast an exhibition, dedicated to family genealogy.