[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Expropriations and EWZ records

[Dave Obee]

Further to the discussion on these two subjects:

Re expropriations-- Irene has the names from a bunch of villages on her
site, and I have the names from a few villages on my site, but the ultimate
list was compiled by Brent Mai and published by the AHSGR about six years
ago. These lists were all based on the newspaper that is held at the
archives in Zhitomir; copies of the list were one of the first important
documents we got out after the fall of Communism. The master list in the
newspaper brought together a huge amount of lists that had been published
over the previous year. Virtually every issue of the paper for six months or
so had a list of names. I did a comparison of some of the interim lists and
the master one, and it appears the master lists does indeed include all of
the names published before it, although with a different numbering system.

The newspaper published a few names after that master list as well, and for
several people gave a huge amount of information, dealing with assets rather
than with family history, unfortunately for us. I copied the entries for a
couple of the people, and someday will actually get around to having them
translated.

The archives in Zhitomir also has files that on first glance provide the
same information that was published in the paper -- but the lists in these
files DO NOT match the ones published. I have seen a variation of about 40
per cent, which is significant if you're looking for a person who is on one
list but not another. I have extracted the names for a couple of my
villages, and will try to get more done this summer.

Re EWZ -- The Odessa3 site has a wonderful index, and I don't know offhand
the percentage of films covered, but it is a long, long way from being
complete. About 50 of my EWZ50 series films are being indexed by the
Mennonite historical society here in B.C., so that information will be added
to the master database at some point down the road. The index is a superb
idea -- I have even used it while at College Park, where all of the films
are held. The key series are in alphabetical order, but the index includes
people other than the principle person, so it is possible to get deeper into
the files. (For example, if you want to find people whose mothers had a
specific maiden name.)

The EWZ files do include information on the deportations during the First
World War, although of course there are times when the places listed are not
quite as concise as we would like.

Dave Obee