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Friday, December 30, 2005
VRI Web Site Update
Today I added a research query form to the "Contact Us" page. Please feel free to contact me using this method.
This form automatically generates an e-mail message from the information you provide. I will respond to these inquiries as
soon as possible.
Monday, December 12, 2005
First Vilna Records Sent for Translation
The vital records [b,m,d,v] for the city of Vilna for the years 1861 through 1865 were sent out today for translation.
These records are in the queue behind Rasein, Pumpenai and Shirvint. I expect the translations of these records will be coming
to us in the late spring as they are so great in number.
The records sent out were limited to 5 years worth due to available funding. It is entirely appropriate for anyone interested
in Vilna vital records who has not yet contributed to do so now. I expect it will take many more months to raise an amount
to allow another 5 years of record translation unless we receive some matching grants and others follow suit and
meet the challenge. If you are interested and able to fund such a grant, please contact me. All others considering donating
should not hesitate to do so now - we've got some special surprises coming for the New York conference in August, but for
all this to continue for such a large record set, we need your support now. Please avail yourselves of the online Donor Form
which you can find on the Downloads page. You can either mail or fax your donation. The mailing address is given on the form.
It is the end of the year, and what better way to support our project than to help fund the continued translation of
approximately 160,000 vital records for Vilna! LitvakSIG is a 501(c)3 corporation and donations are tax-deductible in the
US to the extent allowed by law.
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Mikhalishok added to Translation Queue
The vital records for Mikhalishok have been added to the translation queue, since we have enough funds to translate the
initial set of records [approximately 20% of all town records]. A shtetl Coordinator is needed for Mikhalishok. Please contact
me if you are interested.
Sunday, December 4, 2005
VRI Records Distribution - MOLETAI
Today the entire set of VRI translations for the town of MOLETAI were distributed to qualified donors. Moletai is
the first town to have a completed distribution. In addition, there are Vilna County records which have a high proportion
of records for MOLETAI. As a result, we are continuing to raise funds for this town. These additional records will be submitted
for translation once sufficient funds have been received. Thanks go to Cheryl Sofer, the Moletai Shtetl Coordinator, for accelerating
the fundraising that ultimately allowed for this "first place finish".
Friday, December 2, 2005
Frequently Asked Questions
Today we announced the site and have received several hundred hits along with many questions. In an attempt to answer
these questions and disseminate the information to a broad spectrum of researchers, I've created an FAQ page. Please take
a look at this page and send me any queries you would like to see answered.
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The Vital Records Indexing Project grew out of the newly gained access to the Lithuanian Archives
in the late 1990s. The Archives and the Family History Library [FHL or Mormons] came to an agreement which allowed
the filming of the metrical register books. These books cover the 19th Century and include 20th Century
records through 1915.
LitvakSIG came to agreement with the Archives and the FHL which provides LitvakSIG with digital images
[TIF files] of the vital records in exchange for translations we produce.
The Records
The images
contain records for 100 towns which were in Vilna and Kovno gubernias, with a few towns from Suwalki gubernia as well. Prior
to conversion to digital format, the records were contained on 225 microfilms. There are approximately 200,000 unique images
and with an average of 4 records per page, there are approximately 800,000 records in total. This estimate is after subtracting
20% of the films to account for the approximate number of duplicate pages, register book cover pages, etc. The list of towns
represented was developed by FHL and JewishGen and posted to the JewishGen web site. Updates to this list have been required
and LitvakSIG maintains the current version of this information – more on that later.
The Translations
The images provided to LitvakSIG are organized by the microfilm they came from, rather
than the town the records cover. LitvakSIG received the films as digital images and began translating various films. It was
immediately apparent this was not an efficient way to proceed, since records for many towns exist on a single film [sometimes
over 10 towns per film]. We have taken the 200,000 images and have reordered the images by town. We are now better able to
coordinate the translations on a town by town basis.
The Translators
The beginning of the translation effort saw a few volunteer translators come forth, although
the primary need is for paid translators. The project is of such a large scope it is necessary to employ paid translators.
Some of the translations submitted by volunteers are of good quality, whereas others had to be scrapped. We are currently
reformatting and correcting some of the early work to save that which is useable.
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