Continuing with the European Ancestors material.
In Spain children typically are given their first name followed by two surnames.
The first surname represents their father’s surname and the second represents their mother’s surname.
Since 1999, the gender equality laws have made a provision for some surname transposition and where parents are unable to agree the order of the surnames the decision is made by the official presiding over the birth registration.
courtesy of Wikipedia
The obligation to keep church parish records began on 11 November 1563 following a session of the Council of Trent.
There are three distinct phases of that researchers in Portugal should be aware of.
In Portugal there are the following archives:
The website tombo.pt is an amalgamation of material from all those archives, but does not necessarily mean that all the contents of an archive has been uploaded to the website.
If you are researching an European surname there is a chance you are capturing every instance of that surname wherever you locate it irrespective of whether it connects to your own family or not.
The concept of examining the details and focus of a surname is not necessarily an obvious one and yet can provide amazing insight to your ancestry even in the very broadest of terms.
I would recommend that researchers visit the Guild of One-Name Studies website and insert the surname into the search box on the top right. That will enable you to do several things:
The image shown above is a representation of European surnames registered with the Guild as of January 2019. Is your Surname there?
Useful Resources
The Surname Research Guide by Julie Goucher & The Guild of One-Name Studies published by Family Tree Magazine (UK) and issued with April 2019 magazine (print and digital)The Channel Islands is made up of five different islands, each one represented by their own flag, as 
illustrated here. The islands are Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm.
The islands are located in the English Channel close to the Normandy coastline and are a crown dependency. The islands are governed by two Bailiwicks – One representing Jersey and other Guernsey. The Channel Islands was the only territory within the crown dependency to be occupied by Germany in the Second World War.
Whilst the Channel Islands falls outside of the remit of European Ancestors, I have nonetheless provided a set of links and general information for the island to assist you in your research.
General Sites
Genealogical and Historical Sites
Recommended Books & Papers
Most well known as the venue for the TT Motorsport races, the island is located in the North Sea between Great Britain and Ireland
The Isle of Man is a British Crown Dependency, which is self governing, however, Britain is responsible for it’s defence and external affairs. Britain also retains some powers to legislate the Island should the needs arise.
The Isle of Man is not part of the European Union.
The island has been inhabited since 6500 BC and is one of the Celtic nations. Manx language is a branch of Gaelic and it’s cultural influence began as early as the fifth century.
Whilst the Isle of Man falls outside of the parameters of European Ancestors, I felt it was worth including it here regardless and have therefore provided a set of links and general information for the island to assist you in your research.
General Sites
Genealogical and Historical Sites
Surname distribution maps are very helpful in identifying a presence for a surname in a particular country. Below there are a list of Country specific distribution maps.
On a global scale is best site is World Profiler – this site which is run by a university in the UK has had issues for a while. The site takes a surname, asks for an email address and the gender of the requester, these are for statistical purposes. The site also uses Adobe Flash Player and coupled with the statistical material it often sends some browsers into a panic!
I have used the site initially successfully with Chrome, then Microsoft Edge without issue. Sadly the site is, at the time of writing (23 May 2019) unavailable and I hope it returns, which is why I have left the link in place. If you find it working, please do leave me a comment! In the meantime, you can see an example below for the surname of Orlando
Surname distribution for the name of ORLANDO
From 1942 until the end of the Second World War there was a population 120,000 strong of Polish migrants in Iran, this was part of around 300,000 Poles that had been forced out of their homeland by the Russians and forced into the east of the Soviet Union and Siberia.
The details are fascinating and strictly speaking outside of the remit here, but they should not, and if you are researching Polish ancestors, must not be overlooked.
Other Links
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Continuing with the migration of the European Ancestors material. The flag shown here is of Bulgaria since 1990 until the present day.
Bulgaria is the oldest state in Europe to have kept its original name since AD681 and most of the population are descendants of the Bulgarian invasion of the South Danube. On two occasions during the medieval period Bulgarians managed to establish empires. On 22nd September 1908 Bulgaria was proclaimed an independent state.
The history of the Balkans is a complex one due to the invasions, petitions and general chaos in the region. By the 20th Century Bulgaria was ruled by a Monarchy which during the Second World War joined forces with the Axis powers. In 1944, after the death of King Boris, the Soviet Union backed the alternative regime and a Republic was declared.
The Republic was Communist and those who were against the Regime or believed to be against the regime were observed, challenged and on many occasions interned into the Labour camps, very similar to those that existed in Russia.
The close proximity of mainland Greece to Bulgaria meant that there was often natural migration between the two countries. Border changes in the region meant that on occasions overnight Greeks became Bulgarians and were asked to change from the Greek Orthodox religion to Muslim. Once the Communist regime was established there was a lack of tolerance to religions, and those who were not comfortable with the regime naturally wanted to cross the border. Those wishing to leave the Country were seen as traitors and if caught fleeing were interned. Those that did make it out were labelled traitors and could never safely return to the Country.
Bulgarian National Archives can be found HERE (the site has been, and still is under construction).
The state archives of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria was formed on 10th October 1951 and carry out a nationwide policy of collection, storage, organisation and use of archive material. There is very little emphasis on assisting researchers.
In 1839 the Emperor of the Ottoman Empire declared that all subjects in the Empire would be afforded the same rights. It is from this time that we see the formation of Official Registers.
There are also the following repositories which may hold information
The district archives use the 28 districts which had divided the Country. Each district had a capital which was responsible for the records in that geographical location. In the 1980’s the 28 districts structure was abandoned and instead 9 larger provinces were established, but the former structure was deeply embedded into the structure of the country and establishment of the provinces merely fragmented the storage of official documents.
The 9 Provinces are:
Documents that can be found are:
Because of the historical links to Turkey through the Ottoman Empire there are some Turkish records to be found in Bulgarian records. Documents will be in Bulgarian and some early records in Latin script.
In this region there has always been a Jewish population. In the period of the Second World War whilst there was a complete lack of tolerance to the Jewish religion across the German occupied territories, Bulgaria retained its Jewish population and broadly speaking did not deport them, but did deport around 11,000 of those who were of the Jewish faith during its occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece during this period.
A very useful resource is The Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture (FASSAC)
With the demise of the Communist Regime in this region there has been an increased availability of documentation about the Country and individuals and therefore research in the region should not simply be restricted to what is available in Bulgaria. Those who were seen as potential enemies of the regime, whether that was correct or not were observed and records were maintained. The reality is that no one really knows for sure how many more records are potentially available about those who lived in this region during this regime.
Researching in Bulgaria is complex because of being part of the Ottoman Empire, boundary changes with Greece, the alignment with Germany during the Second World War and finally the Communist regime that occurred from 1944. From these few historical facts a whole new set of research opportunities presents themselves.
Top Tips
Picture taken from the New York Times. The article by Russell Shorto who holds the Copyright.
As I continue the movement of European Ancestors material, I read this article by Russell Shorto, who is an American author, historian and journalist.
It was an interesting and fascinating account of researching roots in Sicily. The New York Times published the article in the travel section on 16th August 2013.
What I like about the article is this “connection” with the “homeland” and the feeling of “just do it”, reach out to folk in the Sicilian village and see what happens, who you can connect with.
In rural communities especially, there eventually comes a time when links to the original town are lost. Those who migrated have moved on, literally and figuratively. The connection between the older and younger generations widen, and each does not know of the other’s existence. Italians are not known for their interest in genealogy, but once you head back to the original village then there is likely a warm welcome.
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Continuing with the European Ancestors material with focus on Lithuania.
There is an interesting site called the Virtual Electronic Heritage System. The site is attempting to thread and bring together a variety of resources, books, manuscripts, Ephemera and more as a way of giving context to the lives of Lithuanian people.
There is a huge amount of material available at Family Search relating to Lithuanian records and they can be found HERE
The Lithuanian-Jewish Special Interest Group is an excellent resource as is Jewish Gen. Whilst the focus is obviously aimed at those with Jewish ancestry, do not discount searching these fabulous indexes. A number of people can be found in the indexes of the various Nazi camps and they were not Jewish, so it is most certainly worthwhile checking the site.
The following sites are other fascinating and informative ones of interest to those researching in Lithuania.
Arolsen Archives
This is an very interesting and informative site. The focus is to return items that been confiscated by the Nazi regime to the family members. The focus tends to be on the groups that were known to be persecuted by the regime, but that is not always the case.
Anyone who has read this site for a length of time may recall that I found several Orlando’s in the files of the Dachau Concentration Camp. Indeed, two of those individuals have documents within the Arolsen Archives and there are others Orlando’s referenced too, who had items confiscated.
The Anglers Rest blog first went online at Blogger in 2002. At the time of transfer, the counter was at 349,463.
It was moved to this site on 18th December 2015 when the counter was reset -:(
Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest 