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New Routes To Your Roots: Jews can now explore archival treasures long. denied.
BARBARA PASH LOCAL NEWS EDITOR
ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN REA
When Carol Rombro Rider wrote to the archive in Riga, Latvia, searching for old family documents, she never expected to get a reply. Six months later and much to the Pikesville amateur genealogist's amazement, she received a package of about a dozen documents and a bill for $40 -- quite a bargain for that amount of material.
The breakup of the Soviet Union and the loosening of Communist rule over Eastern Europe have opened up a wealth of new resources for Jewish genealogists. It isn't easy and it usually isn't as cheap as Mrs. Rider's cache, but possibilities now exist that didn't before.
"Five years ago, I would have said forget it," Gary Mokotoff, president of the worldwide 55-group Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, said about researching Russian-Jewish roots. "Now it's possible to get records and it's getting easier as time goes by."
The newly available information comes as interest in Jewish genealogy hits a record high, according to Mr. Mokotoff, who publishes Avotaynu (Hebrew for "Forefathers"), a New Jersey-based magazine on the subject. "Ten years ago, there were only 15 Jewish genealogy societies in the United States. Today, there are 45," with about 4,000 members, he said.
Mr. Mokotoff says that everyone from twentysomethings to retirees attend genealogy meetings. Often, the interest is jump-started by a specific incident, like a chance meeting with a distant relative or, for Mr. Mokotoff, a letter from Israel listing all the Mokotoffs in Tel Aviv. "I started wondering if I was related to them," he said.
"The motivation is wanting to know more about your personal heritage -- where did I come from? What was it like?" Mr. Mokotoff said.
Tracing Jewish roots first became popular in the 1970s with the publication of Dan Rottenberg's book, "Finding Our Fathers." But many people didn't try for several reasons.
"They thought all the records had been destroyed in the Holocaust. No one in the family remembered the original name. While Communism was in effect, it was virtually impossible to get records," especially for people of Russian ancestry, Mr. Mokotoff said.
That thinking no longer holds. Not only...