ODESSA ARCHIVES RESEARCHERS
The UKR-Odessa-Gen list developed out of the Odessa Study Group of JewishGen which it left and regrouped under the auspices of Rootsweb. The group in any form has been in existence for four years. Yosef Farbelovitch is the current moderator of the lists and co-ordinates payments. Art Blutstein co-ordinates the research requests. This is completely voluntary work.
The list serves as an exchange of information on Odessa, on genealogy, and as research center. Research is done by an archivist in the Odessa State Archive with whom we have an arrangement. This archive holds records for Jews. From 1875 to 1922 all other records have been destroyed in various wars. These records are ONLY for the city of Odessa - not suburbs.
Being part of an Odessa State Archive research group is provided to members of the UKR-Odessa-Gen-L or D Mailing Lists only. At your request your name is added to the waiting list which is kept by Art and you are assigned a number. When your turn comes, Art will notify you and the process begins.
We have had a great deal of success in the Archives. There are few documents other than birth, marriage, and death that could still be indexed and we are hoping to make that a project at some point.
When you are informed that your number is in the next group, you will receive a form via e-mail to fill in. You will send that form to Art. You will be advised of the exact fees for your research once you have been notified that you are in the next group. Since Galina’s passing (see below), we are contacting researchers in Odessa to arrange for them to continue offering the services that Galina provided so conscientiously.
You will send your fees in a check either drawn on an American bank or on a bank with a correspondent bank in the U.S. No foreign checks, money orders, etc. (banks charge extraordinary fees to cash them, sometimes as much as $25).
When your research is done, you will be contacted before the results are sent, for your approval.
Yosef (UKR-ODESSA-GEN-admin @ rootsweb.com)or Art meandart @ earthlink.net" will be pleased to answer your questions at any time.
Who was Galina? Read Anita Citron’s telling of the story:
> Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 22:31:00 -0400
> From: anitac47 @ optonline.net
> To: ukr-odessa-gen @ rootsweb.com
> Subject: [ODESSA] Galina and I
>
> Someone expressed interest in how Galina and I became friends.
>
> In 1998 I was fishing about for a researcher in Odessa. I had
> contacted one of the well known researchers (whose name I can't
> recall). He said he didn't work in Odessa but gave me Galina's name.
> At that time I only had her snail mail address. I wrote to her, she
> wrote back. Incredibly she found an absolute ton of information on
> my little NADWORNY family--it was the only Jewish family in Odessa
> with that name but managed to be recorded in everything and everywhere.
>
> To be honest, I don't recall how it grew, but I going to say when I
> took over the Odessa list on JewishGen I contacted her about working
> with a group. She seemed happy to hear that and really didn't know
> how to go about doing it. So we discussed costs, etc. and somehow she
> felt she could trust me. We set up the exchanges, etc. Art Blutstein
> was an equal partner in setting this all up but he seems to prefer me
> being the out-front partner.
>
> And so, over the last 9 years, Galina and I have been friends. I
> realized it was bershert when she said she loved cats (I had 6 at the
> time). She told me of her life (and life stinks in Ukraine) and I
> told her of mine. We discussed politics (Ukrainian politics were of
> international interest after that poisoning attack). We discussed her
> trips to whatever countries trusted her to enter (it seems western
> European countries don't trust Ukrainians to leave after their
> vacations). I offered to sponsor her for a trip here but she would
> have had to shlep to Kyiv for the visa and there was a good chance
> she wouldn't get it because she didn't have assets and family enough
> to guarantee her return to Odessa. I had actually planned to go
> there this past spring but I ended up ill.
>
> I sent her medicine for her psoriasis (sp), the list sent her cat
> food and bought her a computer. List members have helped her with
> her computer by having their friend in Odessa stop by her place. She
> had written a book which I have a copy of. She sent me a lovely
> picture magazine of old Odessa. I have a photo of her which I can't
> attach (no attachments on list mail). The irony is that the picture
> shows her with her friend, a reporter. This friend was later murdered
> as seems to be the case in Russia and other former communist countries, sadly.
>
> We became part of her life and made it better. She had one good
> friend from her youth but that friend had a dairy farm and offered
> Galina a place to retire. The joke was that Galina couldn't see
> herself hanging out with cows in her old age.
>
> She truly, truly shared in the joy we felt when relatives were
> located in the archives. That really made her happy. She would exult
> to me in emails when she found material.
>
> And that, folks, is the story.
>
> Anita Citron