SOAR

The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) is an international organization dedicated to the discovery, collection, preservation, and dissemination of information related to the history, cultural heritage and genealogy of Germanic Settlers in the Russian Empire and their descendants.

Internet technology now permits SOAR to provide the broad dissemination of many of the AHSGR records and to implement the SOAR vision to provide KEYWORD / SOUNDEX access to AHSGR information. Here you will find obituaries, census and cemetery records, family group cards, maps, newspapers, photos, reference books, surname charts and AHSGR publications (Newsletters, Journals, Clues and Work Papers).

Information is available for persons from multiple German Russian regions, including Volhynia, Black Sea, Volga, Ukraine, Poland, Bessarabia, and Caucasus and includes obituaries from all 50 states, especially those with large concentrations of Germans from Russia such as North Dakota, South Dakota, California, Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, and countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Canada.

Click Membership Plus to subscribe or renew a subscription to Membership Plus for unlimited and free record downloads.

SOAR information can be searched by keyword or any combination of keywords, including and/or searches utilizing SOUNDEX. With SOUNDEX, words do not have to be spelled exactly as indexed, but can sound like words indexed in our databases. Keywords can be names of persons, places, etc. The obituary database was indexed with keywords such as surname, given name, locations of events such as birth and death, plus significant dates such as birth, marriage, immigration or death. In addition to search by keyword, many databases allow from and to date range searches by publication date and in some cases by birth and death dates. The databases are updated daily as new files are made available.

To view information about our available / searchable databases, choose a database from the list below and click on the “Go” link.

Go...

Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 6 or higher) and for Macintosh users Firefox (version 12.0 or higher) are the only recommended browsers for use with SOAR. Users with the Vista and WIndows 7 operating system must disable the User Access Control (UAC) when operating with SOAR (see the SOAR FAQ for an explanation of how to disable UAC).

Searching our databases is a free resource for AHSGR members and non-members. Electronic images of the actual records are available for purchase according to our member or non-member fee structures. The fees are for the cost of the preparation, indexing, search and download functions for the records. To view our member and non-member fee structures, Click Here or on the “SOAR Fee Structure” link on the navigation bar on the left side of this site.

To become a member of AHSGR and be eligible for the member fee structure on all purchases, and enjoy all the benefits of our AHSGR members, please Click Here or on the “AHSGR Membership” link in the navigation bar to learn more about becoming a member. If you are a current member of AHSGR and have not requested your User ID and Password, send an e-mail message to soarlogin@ahsgrsoar.org and request them. Be sure to include your name and mailing address for verification purposes. The information will be e-mailed to you within approximately 10 days. To visit the AHSGR Home Page, Click Here or on the "AHSGR Home" link in the navigation bar.

To begin searching our SOAR databases, Click Here or on the "Search SOAR" link in the navigation bar.

Copyright law strictly prohibits distributing any parts of a surname chart digital download without explicit license by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.

One copy of a surname chart download may reside on a single computer at the download designated site in addition to a backup copy. Copyright notices must not be removed from any component of the surname chart if present.