1. Contents of this Data Base

1.1 What records are in this data base?

The data base contains information about the Jews who lived in Estonia before 1941. Recently this was extended to 1955 (only for those who supplied their personal information by themselves).

1.2 Why only 1941?

Because of the privacy laws.

1.3 Does the data base contain all names?

Regretfully not. There are several reason for that: a) not all records are available; b) not all people were registered; c) not all available data is entered yet - work in progress.

1.4 Are the dates (birth, marriage, death) according to the old or new calendar?

The dates are as they were written in the source document. For the old records (before 1918) taken from the birth / marriage / death registers, they are usually old calendar dates, after 1918 - new calendar dates. The new date is old date plus 13 days.

1.5 Why some data is written in different languages (estonian, russian, english)?

Normally it is written as it was in the source. But this is not good, and I plan to change all texts to English in the future.

1.6 What information about the person is contained in the data base?

Full Name, birth date and place, father's name and data, mother's name and data, spose(s) name(s) and wedding data, divorce data, death data and place, sources of information. The family name (surname) is mandatory, the rest of information appears when available.

1.7 How are the names written? In what language?

All names are written in latin letters plus special estonian letters like ä, ö, ü, õ. Š and Ž are not used, SH and ZH are used instead.



2. Using the program

2.1 How to perform search for particular person?

If you know the family name and the first name, you can search by this two parameters. Enter the family name (surname) into the first white window (Family name). Enter the first name in the second white window (First Name). Use one of the following searching methods for the field:
"is exactly" - means that the search will be performed exactly on the string that you entered. Keep in mind, that in the data base the name can be spelled differently from what you know.
"sounds like" - means that the search will be performed using soundex method. Soundex is a method of finding matches that sound like the item being searched for although they might be spelled differently. We are using Daitch Mokotoff soundex method here. Keep in mind that soundex search may produce much more results.
"starts with" - you can enter only the first letter(s) of the name, and the matching will be determined by these letters only.
"contains" - you can enter just part of the field, starting from any place. For example, if you only know that the name ended with 'stein' you can enter just that and the result will be all names that contain 'stein' anywhere in the name (all like Stein, Steinfeld, Rutstein etc will be shown).
If you do not know the first name or want to search for all persons with a particular family name, just enter the first field (Family Name). You will get all the persons who have any relation to that family name (surname, mothers maiden name, spouse name).

2.2 What Family Name should I specify for a woman (married name or maiden name)?

Search is performed on 3 names: person's surname (maiden name for a married woman), woman's married name or mother's maiden name. If any of these names matches the string you have specified, that person will be shown. In that way one can get a picture of a whole big family.

2.3 I entered the fields, pressed 'enter' and nothing happens, why?

You have to press search button to submit the data.

2.4 Can I search by the place of birth?

Yes, of course. You can search by any field shown on the screen or by any combination of the fields. Do not forget to clean the fields before doing the next search (you can press reset button).

2.5 How can I see additional details about the person I found?

Press the link with surname and you will get full available data about that person.

2.6 It looks like I get several records for the same person, why?

There could be several reasons for that: a) there is a separate record for death only. Until it is proved that it is the same person, I can't merge these records; b) A person was married several times. For each marriage a separate record is shown; c) several sources have different data. Until the firm prove is obtained, the records can not be merged.

2.7 What are the various source or src fields in the details?

This indicates the source of information (birth record, archive etc). All the sources can be seen here

2.8 I see garbage instead of estonian letters ä, ü, ö, ö. Why?

You have to view this page encoded as UTF-8. In your browser click View -- Encoding (or Character Encoding or Text Encoding) -- UTF-8 (or Unicode UTF-8).



3. How can I help to complete the data base?

3.1 Whom should I inform if some people are missing from the data base, or information is not correct?

You can send the message to Mark Rybak by clicking the link with his name on the search panel.

3.2 Do I need to include some proof?

Yes, please include the scanned copies of the relevant documents. If no documents - the information will be accepted from the first degree relatives only.

3.3 What to do if I do not use computer too often?

You can send the information by mail to the address of the museum. Estonian Jewish Museum, Karu str. 16, Tallinn 10120, Estonia

3.4 Are you really interested in getting additional information?

Yes, very much. We would really appreciate your help.

3.5 How can I help the museum and this site and data base financially?

The details about the contribution possibilities are here