Employing Geeospatial Genealogy to

Reveal Ressidential and Kinship

Patterns in
i a Pre
Pre-Holocaust
Holocaust
Ukraainian Village
Digital Humanities Workshop
University of Kansas
September 2011
Stephen L. Egbert
Karen G.R. Roekard

Karen Roekard
Karen with Father
Patrick Desbois (l.)
and
dM
Marco G
Gonzalez.
l
Father Desbois is the
author of Holocaust by
y
Bullets and the
founder of Yahad-In
Unum. Marco is the
Executive Director of
Yahad-In Unum.

Overview
Rawa Ruska
Geospatial
p
macrogen
g nealogy
gy
Cadastral maps from
m the Austrian Empire
GIS for geospatial macrogenealogy
Google Earth applica
ations

Rawa Ruska
Rawa Ruska, Ukraine, located on the Rata

River near the Polish

h border (Galicia)
Founded in the mid-ffifteenth century
Over time its governa
ance shifted among
Austria-Hungary, Polland, Nazi Germany, the
USSR, and now Ukra
aine
Long a mixed town of Polish, Ukrainian, and
Jewish inhabitants
inhabitants, n
now it is almost entirely
Ukrainian
4

Galicia - 1897
Rawa Ruska

Rawa Ruska and World

W
War II
Site
Sit off a Nazi
N i prison
i
camp for
f French
F
h POWs
POW
Located on the RR trrack to the nearby Belzec

extermination
t
i ti camp
Jews of Rawa Ruska
a were killed at nearby
execution
ti sites
it (th
(the Holocaust
l
H
t by
b B
Bullets)
ll t ) or
at Belzec
Poles
P l were d
driven
i
ou
utt near the
th end
d off WW II
by Ukrainian nationalists
Now
N
th
the site
it off a G
German memorial
i l cemetery
t
for soldiers killed in WW
W II
6

Rawa Ruska Lo
ocation Map
ocation

G
Google
l Maps
M
7

Rawa Ruska Maarket Day,

Day 1910

View probably looking ssouth

Getty Images
8

Another View of the

the Rynek

Photograph Karen G.R. Roekard

9

Geospatial Genealogy
We have termed the linkage of records used

for family history rese

earch with geospatial
science, including GIIS geospatial
genealogy.
Builds on a growing field
f
within Historical GIS
of using
g GIS for g
gene
ealogical
g
research and
visualization
Goal: Visually rebuild
d lost settlements and
communities, lost patterns, and rediscover
lost people
10

Micro vs.
Microvs Macrog
genealogy
Microgenealogy
Mi
l
i ffa
is
amily
il hi
history
t
research
h th
thatt

begins with a single individual

i
and works its
way out and back to build a family tree
Macrogenealogy, in our
o view, looks beyond
individual family trees by combining data from
a range of genealogical sources to create
what Wagner calls a community
community forest
forest.

Examines a wide ra
ange of relationships within
a community as the
ey are revealed in the
historical records e
economic, social, cultural,
and political relation
nships and patterns.
11

Some of Our Geneaalogical Data Sources

Vital records
Tabula Registers
g
Kollel Galicia records
s

12

Vital Record Exam

mple: Marriage

Photo
ograph Karen G.R. Roekard
13

Tabula Registers Record

R
of Contracts

Indexes

Full Contracts

14
Photographs Karen G.R. Roekard

Kollel Galicia (Jeruusalem) - Donations

15
Photographs Karen G.R. Roekard

The Key 1854 Caadastral

adastral Map

Photograph Karen G.R. Roekard

16

Cadastral Mappinng
Cadastral maps show
w the boundaries and

ownership of land pa
arcels

Primary purpose: ta
axation

Typically
yp
y they
y also sh
how,, or are linked to,,

building numbers or addresses, property

values,, and other info
ormation
Austrian Empire perfformed extensive
cadastral surveying in the 1800s

17

GIS & Geospatial M

Macrogenealogy
GIS provides the eng
gine for building the

spatial community fo
orest of relationships
throughout a town orr region
GIS also p
provides the
ep
power for database
creation, query, and visualization
BUT, genealogy data
abases are designed for a
different purpose and
d reconciling them is one
of our key challengess

18

GIS Databases
In GIS databases, the key piece of

information is location, whether it be latitude

and longitude or othe
er map coordinate
system.
Everything else in the
e GIS database is tied to
the location

E.g., street address

s, the name of the property
owner,, the number of occupants
p
of the home,,
the value of the property, the size of the home,
etc.
19

Putting Cadastral Maps

M
Into GIS
Start with scanned or photographed cadastral

map
Georeference/rectify cadastral map (i.e., fit it
to a map
pp
projection
j
a coordinate system)
and
y
)
Digitize houses and other
o
features result is
a vector data layer in
n GIS
Add database inform
mation from genealogical
records attribute
attribute data
d
(names
(names, dates
dates,
places, events)
20

Geospatial Genealogy Hand Drawn Map

Jewish Householders Off Rawa Ruska, 1854

21
Photograph Karen G.R. Roekard

Rawa Ruska Cadasttral Map

Red houses are

brick
Yellow houses are
wood
Lot numbers listed
for each house or
building.
Photogra
aph Karen G.R. Roekard

22

Building the Spatial

S
Database
Digitizingg the Houses

23

Completed House GIS

GIS Layer

24

Rawass House Dataabase

Rawa
abase

25

Linking Lot Numbeers

ers to House Numbers

Israel Grauer

House Number

Lot Number

26

Attribute Database

27

Simple Query for One

One House

28

A Second Query byy Location

29

Querying by Surnam
me Slepakura - 1
me

Photograph Stephen Egbert

30

Querying by Surnam
me Slepakura - 2
me

31

Querying by Surnam
me Slepakura - 3
me

32

Query for Jewish R

Residents
esidents

33

Map of Jewish Resiidents,

idents 1854

Photograph Stephen Egbert

34

Cadastral Maps in Google

G
Earth
Cadastral maps (or any
a accurately surveyed

maps) can be added into Google Earth as

Image Overlays
A slider can then be used to adjust
j
the
transparency of the cadastral
c
map, letting you
compare it with prese
ent-dayy satellite imagery
g y
It becomes a tool to see
s which features in
former landscapes sttill remain and which
have disappeared.
35

Rawa Ruska - Googgle Earth View

High resolution
satellite imagery
added in late 2009
36

DigitalGlobe Win
nter Scene
nter

37

Using Google Earth

h to Reveal Changes
Ghost features: lands
scape features that no

longer are visible

Relict features: surviv
ving features or remnants
of features

38

Ghost
Ghost Features
Features

The bu
uilding
g in the
middle of the town
square
e and the
synago
ogue (right
center)) have both
disappeared.
Most of
o the
building
gs fronting
the tow
wn square
are als
so gone.
g

39

Relict
Relict Features
Features
The two Christian churches,
Sct Josef and Sct Maria are
still standing.

40

Yizkor Books
Yizkor books are boo
oks compiled by

Holocaust survivors in
i memory of their
communities destroyyed in the Holocaust
Valuable source for reconstructing
r
gp
preHolocaust life

41

Yizkor Maps
Many Yizkor books in
nclude sketch maps

highlighting key featu

ures, especially those that
were important to the
e Jewish community
Although
g not drawn to
t scale, Yizkor maps
p
identify other specificc sites of ghost and relict
features

E.g., ritual baths, sc

chools, cemeteries

42

Map from Rawa Ru

uskaYizkor Book
uskaYizkor

43

GPS Returning H
H
Home
Home
Many of us desire to visit the sites of historical

importance to our an
ncestors
Once homes or other locations (synagogue,
cemetery)
y) have been
n entered in GIS, their
locations can be saved as GPS points
GPS can guide a retu
urn to sites in one
ones
s
ancestral town, even
n in cases where the
features have been o
obliterated on the ground

44

Synagogue Site Cadastral

Cadastral Map

45

Synagogue Site Google Earth

46

Geotagged Photos
Photos
Ph t with
ith geographic
hi llocation
ti (l
(latitude
tit d /

longitude) coded in th
he metadata can be
added to Google Earrth or similar programs to
give ground views off the exact location
Geotagging can be d
done:

Visually, provided you

y can identify on a map
or satellite image w
where the photo was taken
By matching time sttamps on photos and GPS
trackpoints using ge
eotagging software
Using a GPS-enabled camera, including those
on smart phones
p
47

GPS Tags in Photo

48

Challenges and Neeeds

Data many records
s have not yet been

filmed, including cadastral maps, Tabula

Registers, and otherss
Access to records p
policies and costs
Languages! (German
n, Latin, Ukrainian,
Russian, Polish, Yidd
dish, Hebrew)
Reconciling database
e differences (GIS vs.
GEDCOM)

49

The Agenda Dreaams

Build
B ild the
th R
Rawa R
Rusk
kka database
d t b
th
through
h ti
time

and space

M
Many
records
d rema
ain
i untapped
t
d

Visualization, e.g., off patterns through time

(
(vs.
static
t ti snapshots
h t )

E.g., movement of Jews

J
to Rynek

Explore
E l
visual
i
l patterns to understand
d
d

processes (and vice versa)

Make
M k maps and
d DB
DBss available
il bl via
i ffree GIS
viewers and web tools
50

Presentations and Papers

P
United States Holoca
aust Memorial Museum
Association of American Geographers
g p
Family History Techn
nology Workshop
International Associa
ation of Jewish

Genealogical Societies

51

Thank you!

52