How to Find Long-Lost Relatives: Distant Cousins with Roots in Russia

Almost everyone has relatives they do not know about: third cousins, descendants of a branch that moved away, kin lost through relocations and time. Somewhere there are people who share a great-grandfather with you. You can find long-lost relatives, and there are several ways to do it.

Start with what you know

Ask the older generation: who moved where, who had brothers and sisters, with whom the family lost touch. Often the “lost” branch is alive in somebody’s memory — the subject simply has not come up for years.

Follow the side branches

Most people search only for direct ancestors, but living relatives are found through the side branches: the children and grandchildren of your grandparents’ brothers and sisters. In metric books (metricheskie knigi — parish birth, marriage and death registers) and in censuses, a direct ancestor is always listed next to his brothers and sisters, and they have living descendants today.

Databases and forums

On VGD (the All-Russian Genealogy Tree, the oldest Russian-language genealogy forum), people post the surnames they are looking for and find each other through a shared family line. FamilySpace and similar services let you search for people with the same surname or from the same area. Sometimes a single match on a rare surname and a place is enough.

DNA

Kinship DNA tests compare you with other people in the database and show matches, from close relatives to very distant cousins. This is how people find kin when no documents are left at all: the shared ancestor shows up through genetics, and the tree is completed from records.

Be gentle

A search sometimes leads to unexpected stories, and for your new relatives your letter is a surprise too. Write kindly and give people time to answer. In Heritage AI you can add the relatives you find to your shared family tree. A free research plan is available at /en.