by Grace Dumelle, Genealogy and Local History Assistant

When Eileen Douglas started digging into her grandfather's origins, she didn't know much. They'd had a very loving relationship, but he never talked about coming to America or the family he left behind. He passed away at the start of her teen years, well before she thought to ask questions and get documentation.

My Grandfather's House is Douglas's personal documentary of her search for answers into Sam Nadel's life. I was privileged to see the film at a recent screening in Chicago, attended by Douglas and her producing partner Ron Steinman. Both are veteran journalists who create commissioned films under the banner of Douglas/Steinman Productions.

The search begins with stories from Douglas's mother and old photos from cousins. Sam came from a city called Kaunas (a.k.a. Kovno), nicknamed "Little Paris" before World War II. It is the second-largest city in Lithuania.

The photos show an affluent family, at odds with the working-class occupation of butcher that Sam followed in the U.S. A neighbor coincidentally comes from the same city and provides insight as to what life was like.

It's instructive to see how the oral history from living people gets filled in and verified. Links are made, barriers overcome. Douglas travels to Lithuania with her daughter and finds rich rewards at the Kaunas Regional Archive - internal passports with photos; voting records; tax maps detailing the families living in each house. Incredibly, she's able to find relatives who were deported to Siberia, and a nephew of her grandfather who's his spitting image. Standing on the site of the family home now means so much more because of all that's been learned. It's one of many high points in a richly patterned film.

Douglas began researching in November 1998 and took her trip the following summer, August 1999. She and Steinman created a twenty-minute pilot to raise funds, completing the film five years later. They took no salaries and paid $50,000 out of their own pockets - a true labor of love. At the Chicago appearance, Douglas discussed times when the personal and professional collided. For instance, it was difficult to get her mother to tell family stories on camera in a way that made for good filmmaking. Another instance was during editing, when Steinman had to ask Douglas to leave the room.

For current research in Lithuania, Douglas advises patience, as the archive is inundated with queries (she was given priority because of her film project). But digitization is moving forward, and an agreement with the Latter-Day Saints is in place for filming records. Fees are now charged by the archive and go to preserve materials.

My Grandfather's House is an enjoyable, instructive place to start for beginners with roots in the former USSR. 72 minutes in length, it's available as a DVD rental for groups at the cost of $75 (Cinema Guild distributors, www.cinemaguild.com). For a personal purchase, call Cinema Guild at 1-800-723-5522 and ask for the home video price.

Researching Eastern European Roots at the Newberry

You'll follow the same path Eileen Douglas did for the best chances of success. Talk to living relatives, gather home materials, and find all possible documentation on the U.S. lives of immigrant ancestors. Once you're ready to investigate the other side of the Atlantic, the Newberry holds many resources for your search:

Online pathfinders provide overviews of our holdings for these groups:

http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/bohemian.html

http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/jewish.html

http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/polish.html

For others, search our catalog on www.newberry.org with "(Ethnic group) - genealogy" as a subject term.

Explore our collection of gazetteers and maps to find names of towns now located in different countries. For example, our maps of Lithuania date back to 1613. Go to our online map catalog, http://www.biblioserver.com/newberry/, and search on the name of country or region.

For translations, choose from dictionaries, glossaries and other aids in Hungarian, Slovak, and Ukrainian, to name a few. Specify "(Name of language)" as a subject term in the Newberry catalog.

For vital records, see what the Family History Library in Salt Lake City holds. Records on microfilm and microfiche may be borrowed through the Newberry for a small fee ($5.50/reel of microfilm, $0.15/card of microfiche). Go to http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp and do a place search to see what's available.

Our helpful reference staff will be glad to guide your search. Come in soon and learn more about your Eastern European roots!