The Routes to Roots Foundation describes itself as: A Genealogical and Family History guide to Jewish and civil records in Eastern Europe, making it a terrific resource for those with family ties to Eastern Europe.

Given the upheaval through the years throughout the Eastern European countries, that area isn’t the easiest in which to carry out research. Faced with a number of languages other than English, the Cyrillic alphabet, the migrations of families in the areas and topped with loss of records during wars, it seems an overwhelming task to locate genealogical records.

There is a wealth of information, easily accessed using the categories on the left side of the home page or the town search boxes on the right.

I have no roots in this part of Eastern Europe (mine are in Slovakia), so I browsed the Town search for archive documents and entered Krakow, Poland.

Thirty different record groups appeared! I then decided to try Divorce since those records are often very difficult to find or access almost anywhere. I was very surprised:

There is actually a collection of divorces that took place in Krakow between 1811-1852 which are housed at the State Archive in Krakow!

Next, I checked out Tax Lists:

Again, I was very surprised to find that there are tax records dating back to 1796. I wish my grandparents’ villages in Slovakia had these. I could take my family lines back one more generation.

Next, I chose Weiner for a surname search:

Seventeen record sets came up.

Although these links do NOT open to the original record images, they do open for documents explaining more about the records and where they are located. Essentially, they are similar to library guides.

If you have Jewish roots in Poland, Moldava, Ukraine, Lithuania or Belarus, it is well worth the time to browse this website. You might just find a genealogical treasure or two!