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My name is Maria Lotsmanova, and I am a Mennonite descendant. Since 2015, I’ve been researching my family history, and now I have amassed a wide-ranging collection of archival documents related to my ancestors.
“The Janzens Archives” serves as a digital representation of my research. Here, I systematize my collection and reconstruct the biographies of my ancestors based on the documents I found. It’s an ongoing work-in-progress project, my personal Wikipedia, giving me the flexibility I need. It is my way to learn the family history and to understand how much I have in common with my ancestors.
Maria Lotsmanova reads archival documents on her way back from the first expedition. Photo credit: Tatyana Stefanenko
The website has two indexes: Persons and Geography. Every personal page is meant to have a biography, a collection of related documents, and links to external sources. The localities I list in the Geography index are usually poorly represented in open sources but are important to my family’s history. Every locality page is meant to have a short historical reference and a collection of related documents.
I chose English as a priority language for this website to make it accessible to a broader audience. There might be some minor writing mistakes since English is not my native language. The archival documents are published in their original language, primarily Russian.
“Janzens Archives” is my private initiative and a solo project. I digitalize documents, write texts, and run the website all by myself. Therefore, I appreciate any support. Поддержать проект можно также рублём.
Here are some publications about my research, both in English and Russian. Please find the links below.
