News Archive

More than 105,000 records were uploaded in February, from hundreds of towns –Shenderovka, Balin, Vinnitsa, Proskurov, Starokonstantinov, Rovno, Tulchin, Ovruch, Yekaterinoslav -- and, as always, many many towns from Kyiv guberniya! These records encompass census, birth, marriage, deaths, and divorce data. For details about these documents and the towns they cover, please review the records spreadsheet http://tinyurl.com/ywk456pn. They are ready to search.

The Ukraine Research Division of JewishGen proudly introduces Karen Steinfeld as the newly appointed Towns Director. Ms. Steinfeld, a seasoned Business Development executive with over 40 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry, recently retired and has enthusiastically embraced new genealogical endeavors with her newfound free time.


Inspired by the mini-series 'Roots' and driven by the loss of her grandfather, Karen embarked on her genealogical and family history journey in 1982. Even after more than four decades of research, she remains dedicated to solving mysteries and exploring new family lines.

Residing in Rockville, Maryland, Karen has been an integral part of the genealogical community, serving as the Town Leader and KehiliaLinks manager for Moshny since 2014. In her role as Moshny Town Leader, she spearheaded a document acquisition and indexing project that contributed over 900 new vital records, spanning from 1845 to 1918, to the Ukraine Research Division Database.

A proud member of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Washington and the Jewish Genealogy Society (New York), Karen is currently leading a collaborative project for JGSGW and the JewishGen USA Research Division. This initiative aims to provide online access to over 10,000 records in the Jewish Names in the U.S. State Department Files (RG 59), focusing on the protection of the interests of US citizens abroad during the period 1910-1929.

The Ukraine Research Division extends its sincere gratitude to Chuck Weinstein, former Towns Leader, for his years of unwavering commitment and support. His contributions have been invaluable to the division's mission and objectives.

During the 18 months of our project, we have uploaded a total of more than 2 Million Ukraine records to the JewishGen website. See January details below.

More Great Reviews from Researchers
It’s so gratifying to hear positive news from researchers of our site. Here are just a few:

•“Thank you for the update! I'm finding lots of new records for my family, yay! :-) “
•“...records like this one, including my great great grandfather’s are astonishing!”
•“I'm absolutely delighted with all the records from Ukraine that are going online, since half my ancestors are from Ukraine.”
•“For the first time in 23 years of research I have finally found a vital record for someone in my great-aunt's family (her brother). I have made a $100 donation. Keep up the great work!”

January 2024 Uploads
We are in the process of loading more than 104,000 records from hundreds of towns -- Yampol, Mikolaev, Kamyanets-Podolsky, Fastov, Malin, Lutsk, Gaysin, Odessa, Vinnitsa -- and many many from Kyiv guberniya! These records encompass census, birth, marriage, deaths, and divorce data. They will be available in a few days. We will announce on the JewishGen Discussion List when they are ready to search.

Thank you! Great Response to Offer for Donations of $100+: Still Open
We want to express our appreciation for donors contributing $100; we are prioritizing the transcription of records from your specific towns or areas. To facilitate this process, please send an email to pberenson@jewishgen.org with your town information after making your donation here, to Ukraine Documents Acquisition and Translation Project.

Thank you! Thank you!
We extend our gratitude to all who have generously donated over the past months to support this project. Your dedication to JewishGen's ongoing efforts to transcribe all available records is greatly valued.

Great Reviews from Researchers

It’s so gratifying to hear positive news from researchers of our site. Here are just a few:
“I was excited to find some new records in the new release of Ukrainian Jewish records this month. “
“I look forward to exploring the new records every month and I appreciate all your efforts in this great project.”
“I want to thank you and JewishGen for so much help I've gotten through the info and especially the records I found on the site.”
“After I saw your note this morning, I searched the Ukraine site again, by town, by birthdate, by surname -- and saved lots of new PDFs! There was so much more than I've found before! And that's why I sent in my $100 payment!”

December Uploads

We uploaded 146,197 records from hundreds of towns, including Korostishev, Ladyzhinka, Yelisavetgrad, Germanovka, Talnoe, Yampol, Kharkov, Levkov, Chudnov and many more! These records encompass census, birth, marriage, deaths, and divorce data. For details about these documents and the towns they cover, please click on this link to see the spreadsheet of this month's records.

Special Contribution

Again, we thank volunteers Igor Lekhtman and Michael Ishal for their work and generous contribution of the Zhitomir area marriage record translation, which is uploaded this month.

New Offer for Donations of $100+ Still Open

While we have a substantial number of records awaiting transcription, we want to express our appreciation for donors contributing $100 or more by prioritizing the transcription of records from your specific towns or areas. To facilitate this process, please send an email to pberenson@jewishgen.org with your town information after making your donation to Ukraine Documents Acquisition and Translation Project.

At the IAJGS Jewish Genealogy conference in London this past summer, we were excited to present the first annual Ukraine Research Division award to Gary Pokrassa for his leadership upoading and preserving all the relevant files from Alex Krakovsky's Wiki. We are so grateful to

Gary and his team for all they are doing to further our collection and translation of Jewish records for JewishGen. Mazel tov Gary!