Heritage AIGuides
Tracing family history in Russia and the former USSR
Plain-English guides to archives, records and family traditions, written for descendants abroad and for anyone researching roots in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.
The product is currently available in Russian for families in Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Genealogy & research
How to Keep Your Family Roots After Emigrating: Russian-Speaking Families Abroad
Relatives in different countries, children forgetting the language, stories there is no one left to tell. How to keep a family together across distance.6 min readReadGenealogical Tree Online: How It Differs From a Simple Family Tree
An online genealogical tree is more than a list of relatives. It is a research tool with sources and generations. The differences, and where to begin the search for ancestors.5 min readReadRussian Confessional Lists (Ispovednye Rospisi): Filling Gaps in Ancestor Research
The register for the year you need is missing and the nearest census is far away, so the search stalls. Confessional lists, the yearly record of parishioners by household, can close that gap.5 min readReadHow to Find the History and Origin of a Russian Surname
The meaning of a surname and the history of your family are different things. Where to find real answers instead of a paid, pretty “surname certificate”.5 min readReadHow to Read Old Russian Handwriting (Skoropis): First Steps
An old document looks unreadable until you learn skoropis. It is not a cipher but a different hand, and it is read like a language. Concrete tips on where to begin.5 min readReadHow to Find Russian Peasant Ancestors: Landowners, Revision Lists and Surnames
Most of us descend from peasants, and they are the hardest to trace: there were no surnames and records followed the landowner. A clear order for untangling the line.6 min readReadHow to Find Russian Ancestors by Surname for Free: Open Databases and Pitfalls
A surname is a thread, not a button. To find Russian ancestors by surname for free, add a place and a time to it. Which open databases really help, and where the catch is.5 min readReadHow to Find Long-Lost Relatives: Distant Cousins with Roots in Russia
Somewhere there are people who share a great-grandfather with you. How to find them: from family questions and side branches to forums and a DNA test.5 min readReadRussian Surname Search: Where to Start When Looking for Your Ancestors
A surname search rarely gives an instant result: surnames repeat, and before the 19th century Russian peasants often had none. How to search properly.5 min readReadHow to Structure a Family Tree: From a Diagram to a Living Story
A tree can be drawn in an hour, but in a diagram a person turns into an entry. Which structure to choose, what to record for each person and what brings the tree to life.5 min readReadHow to Request Records from Russian Archives: Metric Books and Revision Lists
When open databases are not enough, the next step is an official request to a state or regional archive. How to write it, where to send it and what to realistically expect.7 min readReadHow to Build a Family Tree from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Structure Guide for Beginners
Which generation to begin with, how to mark incomplete data and remarriages, and how not to get lost when the family grows.7 min readReadRussian Genealogy for Beginners: How to Start Your Family History
You don’t need to dive into 18th-century archives at once. Professionals work the other way round: from themselves into the past, confirming every name with a document.5 min readReadThe FAN Method: How to Find an Ancestor When There Are No Records
The ancestor seems to have vanished and there are no direct records. Then you look for them not in their own documents but in other people’s: as a godparent, a witness, a neighbor. This is the FAN method.5 min readReadWhat Are Russian Metric Books (Metricheskie Knigi) and How to Work With Them
Metric books are the main source for genealogy in pre-revolutionary Russia. What is written in them, why you look by parish, and what makes them hard to read.5 min readReadHow to Find and Read Russian Parish Registers (Metricheskie Knigi)
The metric book is the genealogist’s document number one. What a single birth entry gives you, what marriage and death entries add, and where to look for the books.5 min readReadHow to Find a WWII Soldier Ancestor on Pamyat Naroda (Memory of the People)
If your great-grandfather fought, his trace almost certainly survives, and it can often be found in minutes. What to enter on Pamyat Naroda and what you can learn there.5 min readReadWhere Russian Surnames Come From: A Short History
Why there are so many Ivanovs, where the endings -ov and -in come from, and why peasants got surnames last. A short history of Russian surnames and why it matters for research.5 min readReadRevision Lists (Revizskie Skazki): How to Trace Russian Ancestors Through Tax Censuses
A revision list shows not one person but a whole household at once: who lives there, their ages, and who is related to whom. Revision lists can take you back to the early 18th century.6 min readReadHow to Start Finding Your Russian Ancestors: 7 Steps for Beginners
Tracing ancestors feels so big that many people never begin. Here are seven concrete steps that take a beginner from themselves to the archives.6 min readReadHow to Make a Free Online Family Tree for Your Family: Step by Step
You can build a family tree online for free in one evening. Here is where to start, how to place the generations and where to add photos and memories.5 min readReadYandex Archive: How to Search for Ancestors by Surname Online
Part of the archive records can now be searched by surname from home. Yandex Archive reads even handwritten church books. Here is how to use it and where its limit lies.5 min readReadHow to Request Ancestor Records from ZAGS in Russia (Great-Grandmother’s Birth Certificate)
Parish registers ended in 1918, and everything after that is held by ZAGS. How long ZAGS keeps records, why an extract beats a certificate, how to prove kinship and why you can now apply at any office.6 min readRead
Family archive
Questions to Ask Your Grandparents and Relatives About Family History
The most valuable family stories often sound ordinary: told over a cup of tea, beside an old photograph, in answer to a question someone finally asked in time.5 min readReadHow to Store Old Family Photographs So They Do Not Deteriorate
Old pictures fade and stick together. Where to keep them, how to arrange them and why you should never write on the front with a pen: simple storage rules.5 min readReadHow to Start a Family Archive in One Evening: No Boxes, Guilt or Rush
A family archive does not have to begin with a big overhaul of the past. Sometimes one evening, five photographs and an honest wish not to lose the warmest things is enough.6 min readReadHow to Digitize a Family Archive: Photos, Documents and Handwritten Records
Digitizing a family archive is more than scanning. Where to start, how to caption photos and where to keep the result so you don’t lose it again.5 min readReadHow to Digitize Old Family Photos at Home with Just a Phone
You can digitize old photos at home, without a scanner. What to shoot with, how to set the light to avoid glare, and how not to damage a fragile original.4 min readReadHow to Preserve the Voice of a Loved One: Simple Ways to Record It
A voice is the first thing to fade from memory, often within a couple of years. Recording it is easy and needs no studio, only a phone. Concrete ways, and where to find a voice in old video.4 min readReadHow to Preserve Old Family Photos: Protect the Print and the Story Behind It
Old photographs deteriorate faster than they seem to. How to store, digitize and caption them so they are not lost to the next generations.4 min readReadHow to Get Relatives Involved in a Family Archive Instead of Doing It Alone
The most common way to give up on a family archive is to carry it alone. How to bring relatives in carefully, without turning it into an obligation.5 min readReadA Message to Your Descendants: How to Make a Family Time Capsule
A time capsule does not have to be a box buried in the ground. It is a way to say something important to people we may not live to meet. What to include and how to tie it to a future event.5 min readReadFamily Tree for a School Project: How to Make One with Your Child in One Evening
The “make a family tree” assignment usually arrives two days before the deadline. Here is how many generations you really need, how to start the chart, what to ask grandma and what to avoid.5 min readReadA Living Family Tree: How to Connect People, Photos and Stories
A family tree comes alive when it holds more than lines of kinship: faces, events, family stories, habits and small proofs of love.6 min readReadOnline Family Archive: Keep the Story of Your Family, Not Just the Photos
An online family archive is not a cloud folder of photographs. It is a connected story of the family: who is who, what people remember and what has survived.5 min readReadHow to Preserve the Memory of a Loved One Who Has Passed: Gentle Steps
When someone close is gone, you want to keep them, but it is unclear where to begin. A few concrete, gentle steps: photographs, voice, stories and dates in one place.5 min readReadQuestions to Ask Your Grandmother About Family History (While You Still Can)
Concrete questions for your grandmother about childhood, people and turning points, and why the name and birthplace of a great-grandfather can save you months in the archive.5 min readReadInterview Questions for Your Parents: How to Record Their Memories While There Is Time
Recording your parents’ memories sounds like a big project, so it never gets done. In fact you can begin with one topic and one voice recorder.5 min readRead
Family traditions
How to Preserve Your Wedding Story for Your Children and Grandchildren, Not Just the Photos
A photo album on a phone is easy to lose. How to preserve the story of the wedding itself — how you met, the proposal, the guests’ speeches — for decades ahead.6 min readReadHow to Preserve Family Recipes and the Stories Behind Them
Grandmother’s pie recipe is easy to copy out, but the story almost always goes missing with it: who cooked, for whom and on what occasion. How to keep both.6 min readReadHow to Record Your Parents’ Memories: Interview Questions and Tips
The memories of parents and grandparents are the most valuable and the fastest-vanishing source of family history. Here is how to record them well.4 min readReadFamily Memory Gift Ideas for Parents and Grandparents
Gifts for relatives that do not sit on a shelf: from a birth card for a newborn to a shared family archive for grandparents.6 min readReadFamily Traditions: How They Start and How to Keep Them
Family traditions are rarely invented. They grow out of repetition. Here is where they come from, why they vanish so easily and how to write them down so they can be brought back.5 min readRead
Health & heredity
How to Find Out What Illnesses Your Ancestors Had
Often nobody is left who remembers what your ancestors were ill with. Here is where to look: who to ask, what to check in documents and death certificates, and what to write down.5 min readReadHeart Disease in the Family: When Heredity Is a Signal
An early heart attack or stroke in a close relative is more than a sad page of the past. It is a signal worth hearing. Which cases matter and what to do with them.5 min readReadIs Diabetes Hereditary? What to Know About Family Risk
Parents had diabetes: will I? How risk differs for type 1 and type 2, what is inherited and what you can actually influence.5 min readReadWhich Diseases Run in Families? Why Your Family Health History Matters
Which conditions are more often linked to heredity, and why a family health history is a practical tool for a conversation with your doctor rather than a reason to worry.6 min readReadHow to Collect Your Family Medical History in One Evening
What to write down for each relative, whom to ask, and why the age an illness began matters more than the diagnosis. You can gather a family medical history in an evening.5 min readReadInherited Diseases vs Genetic Predisposition: What Actually Runs in Families
Diseases are passed on in two different ways: directly and as a predisposition. Which conditions are linked to a family’s genes, and which pattern is worth noticing.5 min readReadIs Cancer Hereditary? What Your Family History Can Tell You
It is not cancer that is inherited but, in some cases, a predisposition to it. Which patterns in a family history matter and what to do if cancer has affected close relatives.5 min readReadFamily Medical History: What to Tell Your Doctor
When a doctor asks about illnesses in your family, the answer can change decisions. Here is what to tell them, what you are allowed not to know and how to prepare in advance.5 min readRead
About the project
Digital Legacy: How to Pass On Not Just Files but Warmth
Digital legacy is not gigabytes in the cloud. It is a chance to leave your family a clear, warm and organised story in which files do not lose their meaning.6 min readReadDigital Legacy: What Happens to Your Family Photos, Messages and Memories
Family memory is now scattered across dozens of services. Why that is risky, and how to gather an archive in one reliable place.6 min readReadWhy We Built Heritage AI: A Quiet Home for Family Memory
Heritage AI grew out of a simple student worry: families have photographs, documents, voices and stories, but almost no place where they become a living, careful picture of loved ones.4 min readRead