Litvak VRT more

Subject: LitvakSIG VRTFrom: HOMARGOL@aol.comDate: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:43:03 ESTX-Message-Number: 3In the Dec. 21st issue of the LitvakSIG Digest Bill Yoffee makes the following points.<<>>In the same Digest, Sonia and David Hoffman did an exceptional job inproviding some of that information for the towns they are the Coordinatorsfor under Aaron Roetenberg, LitvakSIG VRT Coordinator for the KovnoGubernia. Perhaps some of the other town Coordinators will find the time to do likewise. Please remember that we are all volunteers and wedo as much as we can to help the cause.In an effort to respond to Bill Yoffee, and to provide a little insight into the "workings" of acquiring English translations of Lithuanian records, I offer the following information.At the present time, the following LitvakSIG town or area coordinators have the following number of translators working on vital records:Howard Margol & Aaron Roetenberg - (Kovno Gubernia) - 7Sonia & David Hoffman - (Kovno Gubernia) - 1Joel Ratner - (Vilna & Suwalk Gubernias) - 3 or 4Olga Zabludoff (Kedainiai Vital Records) - 1Coordinators who have translators working on other types of records:Howard Margol & Olga Zabludoff (revision lists) - LVIA - 3Olga Zabludoff - (revision lists plus other lists) - KRA - 2Howard Margol - (Internal Passport Records) - 4As you can see, a shortage of translators is not the problemalthough a few more qualified translators will always be welcome.Records that are available to be translated - anyone can go toMiriam Weiner's web site www.rtrfoundation.org , search the database, and see an index of most existing records. While not perfect, it is the most complete and accurate index that exists with a few exceptions. For filmed vital records, the best source is www.familysearch.orgRecords that have been translated, in the process of being translatedor scheduled for translation, or not completed due to a lack of funding.These lists would be too lengthy to be incorporated into a message onthe digest. Joel Ratner has done an exceptional job in creating a "Blog"mainly pertaining to VRT for Vilna and Suwalk Gubernias. Go to www.litvaksig.org and scroll all the way down to VITAL RECORDS. Clickon it and you will see a wealth of information. Aaron Roetenberg aaronrb@comcast.net has informed me that he could use more VRT Town Coordinators for the towns in the Kovno Gubernia. Please contact Aaron and volunteer your services - it is not a time consuming process you will get yourself involved in.When all is said and done, the bottom line to getting records translated is, CONTRIBUTIONS OF MONEY. All of us are not happy about the continuous need to ask for donations but it is the only way records will be obtained. Whether it is me, Aaron, Olga, Joel, or whoever, we do not decide which records to have translated next based on our personal likes or dislikes. The amount of money that has been contributed is the deciding factor. If less than a total of $500 has been contributed, for a particular town, the records for that town cannot be translated. Recently, because of the weakness of the dollar, acquiring records has become even more costly in many instances. Also,we have had another problem. Larger numbers of records are available for the large cities. Yet, the smallest number of contributors are the researchers for those cities. It is difficult to understand why that is so but that is the situation. I repeat - the key is CONTRIBUTIONS. Without your monetary support, the efforts of the Coordinators will not be fulfilled. Check out the availability of records you are interested in, contact your District or VRT Coordinator to find out the needs, and make your contribution. With your help, the rest of us will do what we volunteered for and will obtain records for you.Howard MargolPresident, LitvakSIG----------------------------------------------------------------------Subject: Pagarai (Pogir)From: ruth