[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] EWZ indexing update

[Karl Krueger]

Thank you for this update Dave. I wondered how far along the Odessa project was on this and now you have given us a good idea. Since I research mostly in EWZ52 I can attest that about half of those records are really Polish Volhynia and Galicia so by comparable terms there would be the equivalent of around another 350 films worth of information coming from Soviet states sitting in that set. However, they are mixed in with the "current-day Polish" records so any film from EWZ52 will also contain people from the eastern half of Poland as well. Essentially 1500 films cover eastern Poland and the Soviet states. Anyone who has worked with EWZ should understand the enormity of this effort and I highly commend the indexers of the Odessa project for even trying to undertake this. Having half of the Soviet records completed, in my opinion is a monumental feat in itself already.

Dave Obee <daveobee at shaw.ca> wrote:A couple of weeks ago there was a brief discussion about the
Einwandererzentralstelle (EWZ) microfilms, and the indexing that is being
done, and being posted on the www.odessa3.org web site.

Here's a quick update. The indexers have completed 450 of the EWZ50 series
films, which is a set of films not available through the Family History
Library system. The series includes multi-page immigration applications from
ethnic Germans living in Russian territory, as Russia was defined in 1939.
(In other words, Polish Volhynia is not included.) With 450 films indexed
and posted, the volunteers have passed the halfway mark. That is tremendous
news for virtually all of us doing research in Russian Volhynia.

The files were filmed in alphabetical order, but the indexing goes much
deeper than that -- including the names of mothers, grandmothers and the
like. That increases your chances of finding people.

I have been using the EWZ films since 1997, and they have been a tremendous
help in my research. The indexing takes an already great source and makes it
much more accessible. A few months ago at the National Archives in Maryland,
which has a full set of the films, I went back and forth several times
between the microfilm machines and the computers, where I could quickly
check for more possible hits.

Now, while the work is more than halfway finished, there is still much work
to be done. How can you help? If possible, get involved with the indexing
itself. If you don't have the time for that, you can always buy one or more
of the films, and lend them to the people doing the indexing. That's what I
have done -- indexes to many of my films are already posted on the Odessa
site, thanks to the work of others.

If anyone is not up to speed on the EWZ films, a basic cheat sheet is here:

http://www.genealogyunlimited.com/daveobee/ewzmain.html

Thanks to everyone who has helped on this.

Dave Obee

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