Is here anybody who often uses genealogical sites like MyHeritage, Ancestors etc

[Amely]

Is here anybody who is a keen user of genealogical sites like MyHeritage, Ancestors etc with all kind of information from passenger lists, birth- and death registers, marriages, newspaper articles etc ?

I have sometimes - in fact now and then - tried to check in case some of our surnames appear there somewhere, very far away somewhere in America or on some other continents. Once some full name of my grandmother appeared altered with one letter in some death register in Ohio. Then it hit me it is not impossible somebody has taken the name of this St. Petersburg 'celebrity' (not to mention what she did in St.Petersburg and why she was probably well-known) and started a new life there in the faraway America thinking nobody will never know this. It was common to change surnames... some changed in order to get a better life... some others for some security reasons. Some changed their identities even with their servants. Some took passports with false names and left their correct passport for example to their bank. Maybe some ten years ago I found our name on some site like Russian Girls, Asian Girls, Christian Datings, Philippine Girls etc and this was just something horrible to me... Our name can impossibly be a name of some Asian people or some Jews... (I have nothing against Jews, but it is not a Jewish name.)

Now and then I have checked eg some passenger lists and I cannot but think that many names that appear there are nothing but some bullshit names (sorry) that have been given to the authorities when escaping eg Europa and arriving on some other continent. A problem might also have been the difficulties with different languages and even foreign letters... 

Today a name hit me that must just be some fancy name... and it made me write this. However, it appeared rather properly written which tell at least something as the proper writing is not always the case... There was somebody by the name Alexander Nelsky-Orloff... This person seems to have travelled from Alaska to Washington - does he come from Russia... However, I could not but wonder if this is a true identity of somebody or if it is just a fancy name and a product of somebody's imagination... This name makes me think of the Saint Alexander Nevsky... Who could carry such a real name, but who could expect Saint Alexander Nevsky was known in America by others than some from Russia and other places near it. And who could think one day the computer world opens all registers like it has now. And I didn't know much about Orloff family so I checked with Wikipedia and got as follows: The name Orloff is derived from the Russian personal name Orlov, which is derived from the word Oryol or eagle. In the Middle Ages, the eagle was a symbol of royalty and power. The eagle is featured in the Russian Imperial insignia.
Orloff, eagle
Orloff, a breed of chicken according to the Russian nobleman
Orlov (diamond), a large diamond, sometimes known as the "Orloff"
Orloff vodka, a brand of vodka
Veal Orloff, a 19th century dish of Franco-Russian cuisine
Dr Orloff, a character in the 1962 film The Awful Dr. Orloff (nowadays probably in many other places like the Bond-films)

What am I trying to say? I think I am trying to say that the information given through those genealogical sites probably is not at all reliable at least what comes to persons names and true identities - it can be anything... from false identities to completely bullshit identities... What comes to real noble identities the false identities for sure might be very many made of some pieces of some noble identities! What do you think? Do I have wrong in case I warn about those worldwide genealogical sites?

To make a fancy identity to myself I could write I am Ms. St. Alexandra Nevsky Vodka Bottle! Sorry, I cannot write I am Mr. Saint Alexander Nevsky Vodka Bottle Duble-Headed Eagle von Russia... In case Nevsky is somebody of the Rurik-family and here connected to some Orlov-family then this for sure is some very great personality!

In case you have not read the book by the title The Titan that appeared maybe sometimes between 1920-30 I would recommend you to read it. It tells things from the American society that might have been true at least for some part. However, the book can be impossible to get and I got it from the archive of our city library. I am not sure but probably the book with the same title has appeared in Russia... but it is a dangerous book so I don't know if it is the same book in Russia. It is written by Theodor Dreisner or Dreiser... and tells a lot about the mess with all kind of identities about a 100 years ago... An other book to read about those times but about Russia might be the book of Tatjana Metternich by the title The Country of Memories...

[Amely]

This text I have written on the chain about Their world and culture.

What other information is there to know about old Russian noble surnames other than e.g. lists of noble names and houses you can find on internet?

I read somewhere that if some noble man had some child outside marriage the child could get his father's name maybe transferred with some letter. Do you know any other cases like this where some surname is changed somewhat - maybe with only one letter?

Somewhere I even read: there were other very old ruler families (and there were added than the Romanovs)... What old ruler families there are of this kind? Somewhere I even read that even Alexander Nevsky might have some descendants. If this is really true shouldn't some names of such persons be mentioned somewhere on the history pages? As you understand I know very little about Russian history, but I understand that in case such persons might really exists they impossible could carry that old surname. Could a similar case be the Rurik-family - St. Vladimir?

[Amely]

A long ago i ended on the site by the name JewAge Organisation (www.jewage.org) as our name had ended there even if it is impossible a Jewish surname.

In case you are looking for your background and Russian roots it might even be worth to check in case your surname has ended there in spite of you having a Jewish background or not and check what you can find there.

It is funny how first names like Alexander and Vladimir belonging to some Saints - even naturally belonging to some real persons of blood and flesh - appear in combination with names that might be 'something'...

The Wikipedia article 'Jews' is very informative in case one knows only little about the places where Jews have been living...

[missmoldavite365]

I havent had any luck at all with Genie or Ancestry in relation to finding any DNA matches. The only ones that come up show 1% matching DNA. So this is way back and even then, no one replies: Dimitri Cass: Unassigned 32 cM | < 1% shared DNA

Dad was supposed to have been interned at Camp 701 by the Germans, according to my elder brother. But I cannot find any list with the surname Usov there.

My elder brother who is now 77 becomes very concerned and literally quite aggressive when I try to do research and then share it with other family members.

Its all very sad to be honest.

Maybe in time and in better circumstances truth will prevail.

[missmoldavite365]

Update: I just redid my DNA results transfer from Ancestry to FTDNA and then relinked it to to Genie and hey presto.....finally!

How strange that it did not do this all those years ago. So I remove dit and redid it and now I have heaps of relatives and work to do to pull it together and show my neice and my children. Hooray! About time!