Questionnaire

The name the claim runs through. Everything in the file is built around this person, so it is the most useful single thing on this form — and we will use it below instead of “your ancestor”.

Emigrant families almost always carry at least one altered spelling.

Any form is fine. A year on its own, or “around 1900”, is useful.

Village or town, the name it had at the time if you know it, and the country that place is in today.

Both names if you have them, including the mother's name before marriage. Archives index birth registers by the parents, and it is often the only way to tell one identically named child from another.

Just the chain of relationships, in your own words: “my mother's father's mother”, or “my father's father”. Say whether each step runs through a man or a woman — the old law treated them differently, so it changes what we look at.

An approximate year is useful even if you are not certain. If he/she moved within the country, or to another part of Yugoslavia or the monarchy, before emigrating, please say so — for the Croatian and Serbian emigrant routes the place he/she left from matters more than the place he/she was born. If you know the port, the ship or the route, add it.

A year and a country is enough. A death certificate is a required document in most of these procedures, and knowing where to order it saves a month.

If he/she moved more than once, tell us about each one. If you know the exact date, please give it — and whether a husband, wife or children were named in the same papers.

The date matters as much as the fact. Until well into the last century a woman in most of these countries lost her citizenship on marrying a foreigner, and the marriage date decides whether the next child was born to a citizen.

An old passport, an identity card, a certificate saying which town he/she belonged to, a citizenship certificate, a military or work book, a census or register entry, a consular registration. Even a photograph of a page helps us know what to ask an archive for. Please describe it here rather than attaching it.

Service in a foreign army, a public office held abroad, a formal release from citizenship, a long absence, a deprivation, an adoption, a name changed on arrival, a return to the country — these are the points at which a line usually breaks, or is rescued.

Which record, from where, and roughly when. Two requests to the same archive cost money and can delay a file by months.

This tells us how many authorities will be involved and how long the paperwork is likely to take.

A few words, conversational, or fluent. Any certificate you already hold is worth mentioning.

Whatever you think matters and we have not asked about, in any language you like. Take as much space as you need — there is no limit here. Please do not paste in documents or certificates; we will ask for those once we are working together.

The name we should use when we write back.

So a lawyer can reply to you. We use it for this enquiry and nothing else.

Where you live decides which office would handle your file and what paperwork it will want.

If you know how and roughly when you acquired each one, add that too.

A year is enough — we do not need the day or the month. Most of these routes have no age limit at all; one or two do, so knowing your year tells us at the start which ones to look at for you.

A name at birth, a maiden name, a name changed on arrival, or a different spelling used before the family emigrated.

Names and years of birth are enough. For anyone under 18, a first name and a year only.

Some routes do not run through an ancestor at all. Ukraine counts a person who was born on the territory, or lived there, before 24 August 1991, and counts a brother or sister as well as a parent or grandparent; Bosnia and Herzegovina counts anyone registered as resident there on 6 April 1992.