Special Projects

While we endeavor to keep the majority of our data acquisition / translation projects within the District / Guberniya Research Groups, sometimes that is not practical from a coordination or funding standpoint.

For example, where a particular list is very large it may be treated as a project by itself, distinct from the District / Guberniya Research Groups.  Funds were raised for the City of Kaunas family list 1858-1915. This had its own $100 US required contribution and this list alone was expected to cost in the range of $10,000. The translations were completed in September, 2010 and the data is now accessible through the Kaunas District Research Group and the ALD.

Our newest special project is the Vilnius Household Registers, which was announced at the IAJGS Conference in Warsaw in August, 2018. Our webpage for this can be found at https://www.litvaksig.org/research/special-projects/vilnius-household-registers. Project Coordinator (and Coordinator of Records Acquisition & Translation) is Russ Maurer, who can be reached at vhrproject@litvaksig.org. The Lithuanian Central State Archive (LCVA) collection includes over 13,000 Vilnius household registers containing millions of lines of detailed information about Vilnius residents and visitors to Vilnius during the interwar period. We have begun to index these records and work out the many details necessary to create a practical project. Because of the enormous scale of this new project, it will take years to complete.  However, information will be made available in batches - and the information in the VHR section of our website (link provided above) will help you to determine whether a particular batch is of interest to you.

Another example of a special project is the Internal Passport (IP) Project. This is a translation project of a collection of files rich with family information for those people who resided in independent Lithuania in the interwar period (1919-1940). The vast majority of these projects were originally organized by shtetl and were funded separately by shtetl. In some cases, the District / Guberniya Research Groups helped fund the translations.

A contribution of $100 to the Research Group in which your shtetl is located will provide you with access to all Internal Passport files translated to date, except for the city of Vilnius.

All Internal Passport files known to exist for all shtetls, except the city of Vilnius, have been translated and are accessed on the District Research site for each Group.

The site for the City of Vilnius Internal Passports http://donors.litvaksig.org/site/vilnius-internal-passports has been created. A $100 contribution is required for access. Contact Eden Joachim for more information if necessary.

The Internal Passport Project was founded in 2007 by Howard Margol after he  discovered these documents on a trip to Lithuania. Howard coordinated the project until July 2015, when he decided he was no longer able to continue. During his tenure, Howard oversaw the translation of more than 200,000 entries and was working toward his goal of finishing the translation of the city of Vilnius passports. LitvakSIG will continue the translation work and see the project through to reach Howard’s goal.

List of Current Special Projects:

Return to a summary of all LitvakSIG Projects.