What is FEEFHS?
FEEFHS, or the Foundation of East European Family History Studies, understands itself as a portal to research in Eastern and Southern Europe, including the German territories that are no longer part of the German Empire.
This non-profit organization will, according to its president, Thom Edlund, “direct the energies of the organization toward indexing and other record discovery projects," expanding the offerings of the FEEFHS Web site as a resource to all East European researchers. As a Foundation, the organization will be able to "coordinate and collaborate its efforts with others wishing to participate with or fund such projects." FEEFHS will continue to place a high level of emphasis on providing educational opportunities to researchers.
Each year in summer a conference is held, that lasts several days. In these conferences the participants are taught about resources and the how-to skills.
By and by, many wonderful resources are added on the FEEFHS website, making it easy to find genealogy-relevant information for specific countries or territories. Video-based resources will be added, as time and finances allow.
A monthly newsletter is sent out with short articles about the areas or depositories relevant to the countries on which FEEFHS concentrates. Please add your name to the list of subscribers to the FEEFHS monthly newsletter.
What Type of Information Can Be Found on the FEEFHS website?
By and by the content on the FEEFHS website will be extensive in several areas. It will provide you with downloadable maps of specific areas, links to various depositories and genealogical societies, online tutorials, information on ethnic or religious groups, as well as other categories, such as immigration.
To find the content to your ancestors’ country or area of origin, you can start by selecting Resources from the main menu and choose the area or topic you are interested in. You may also start by selecting Regions, also on the main menu. From there, just follow the links that seem appealing and in alignment with your area of interest.
For conference attendees a link will be provided to view the photos taken during a specific conference. These photos can be downloaded for your continued enjoyment.
Who are the FEEFHS Presenters?
The individuals that presenter during a FEEFHS conference are genealogical researchers that either work in this field full-time, or having been engaged in personal or client research for quite some time, in several cases, for decades. A large number of presenters are accredited as professional researchers through either the Association of Professional Genealogist (APG) or the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). The individual presenter biographies can be found on the website. Articles written by those presenters can often be accessed from their biography page.