Semionoff Vitaly

Genealogical Search Worldwide

Semionoff Vitaly (Cемёнов Виталий), professional Russian genealogist, born 1978 in Moscow. I am a specialist in genealogy and family history research in Russia and Ex-USSR countries. Were your ancestors from Russia or ex-USSR countries? Are you looking for a genealogy specialist in Russia? Look no further! I can provide a wide variety of services:
 

Archive Research

Document Translations

From old to modern Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Old Slavic (Handwritten texts)

Tailor-Made Genealogical Tours

Living Relative Searches

Military Genealogy

Village Photography

Genealogical research

I conduct international, including Jewish heritage genealogical research across the entire territories of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaidzhan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. I can also work in the Baltic states and EU countries such as Poland, Germany, Austria and France.

Before doing military service, I traveled extensively, backpacking in more than thirty countries. In 2003 I graduated from Moscow State Lomonosov University Department of History, Sub-Department of Ethnology. In 2002 I accomplished an internship in the Moscow Office of The United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR 2002), before doing an internship in Dushanbe in the Office of The International Organization for Migration (IOM-MOM Tajikistan 2002).

From 1999 till 2002 I worked for Russia’s most popular TV show Zhdi Menya ('Wait for Me'), which reunites families broken apart by finding missing relatives. Over three years of my work, I mannered found more than 200 people. For our work “Wait For Me” was awarded a “TEFFI”,  the highest award in Russian television.

I have worked as a genealogist since 2009 and am registered with the Moscow Tax Service as an independent businessman. Since this time I have carried out more than  450 research projects, with a high degree of success.

Since the beginning of my work I start archive access right activism and archive protection aсtivism. Access to the Russian archives is still heavily restricted and, sad to say, has become worse  since the beginning of Russian-Ukrainian conflict. On the  other side, archives are very poorly maintained, a problem that needs more public attention.

My book

I have published several books that are available for free online, in line with the Public Source Movement,  though printed copies are available to buy.

  • The Voenkomat Project (The Draft Point Project) vol. I - III (2016-2018): Historical documents from Draft points of Cossack regions of The Chechnen-Ingush Republic 1939-1945)
  • The Genealogy Semionoff's Codex (2018): One of the most widely read genealogical books in Russia, and a bestseller with 260 books sold, while full pdf and epub copies are available for free download.
  • Let's Travel Responsibly! (2019): First book in Russian about responsible travel.
ВВЕРХ