Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto

How to Read and Interpret Russian Birth-Marriage-Death (BMD) Documents

David Price

Wednesday, 23 February at 7:30 pm. ET.

Virtual Meeting: Join from Home

Virtual doors open at 7:20 pm. ET.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto is very pleased to present a Joint Special Interest Group (SIG) Virtual Meeting on

How to Read and Interpret Russian Birth-Marriage-Death (BMD) Documents

Long-time JGS Toronto member, David Price, has graciously volunteered to give a presentation on how to read and interpret Russian documents. 

As this is of interest to those doing research in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia & Belarus (and beyond), we would like to invite all members and guests to this special joint SIG meeting.

David Price is a volunteer Cyrillic translator for ViewMate and JRI-Poland. Although he does not speak Russian, he can extract names, dates and towns. David has contributed to: Kielce-Radom (K-R)-SIG Journal, Bessarabia Vital Records Project noted on the Mila Begun Volunteer Wall of Honor, and recently for Kielce-Radom projects run by Judy Golan for JRI-Poland. He has been a member of JGS Toronto since 1998.

David says:

“I don’t speak a word of Russian but I do cryptograms all the time. Jumble the letters of the alphabet, make up a secret message, and I will crack the code and solve the message. I am a retired math teacher. The strategy I use comes from my probability lessons. What does this have to do with reading Russian? It is exactly the same game, except p=r, n=p, c=s, u=I, etc. always, the letters of the Greek alphabet transliterated. You will also need to know one Hebrew letter, shin. I don’t have to speak Russian to read it. Knowing the rules of the ‘game’ and a lot of practice reading cursive Russian handwriting (five years until you get good at it!) have allowed me to volunteer to extract Russian Jewish BMD records. One also needs keyword lists such as for occupations, dates and marital status. Voila!  My talk will include handouts of the Greek alphabet, keyword lists, and excellent translation aid websites. What more can you need?”

To register, please go to jgstoronto.ca/register

You will then receive an immediate acknowledgement plus the link to access the event on 23 February.

The presentation will be recorded. It will be available to JGS Toronto members in the “Members Only” section of the Society website a few days after the event. It will also be available to non-member registrants for one week after the event in the “Registration” location.

To our guests, consider joining our membership for only $40.00 per year by Clicking Here or consider a donation by Clicking Here to assist us in continuing our mission providing a forum for the exchange of genealogical knowledge and information. (Canadians receive a CRA tax receipt.)

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Jerry Scherer

Vice President, Communications

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