Please tell us your story as we would all no doubt love to hear more.

Regards,
Alison.

Hi Alison. That's not a long story actually in terms of world history, but, well, that's something... Only I doubt there are records about my surname 'cause it's pure Russian (vv London:)

My grandpa (baskir) and grandma (tatar) maternally were come to Murmansk in 1932 by the call of Soviet government to build up the Murmansk port. There were many people from middle Russia came to high North just looking for better life (1932 was real cruel time frame in Russia, you know). So my mom was born in 1938 in Murmansk and she is pure Murmansker (I mean she almost lost her tatar roots, incl Tatar language. That's about mom.

My father came to Murmansk in 1956 - escaped from his stepfather from Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk those time). His parents Anna Vygolova and Nikolay Vygolov were originally from Ekaterinburg.

So, my parents have met in 1957 and in 1958 my brother Igor was born. So there is only my line of Vygolov in Murmansk. Actually there are 3 family - my mom Raisa (dad died in 1987), my brother Igor, his wife Irina and their son Dmitry, and me, my wife and our son Anton.

Vygolov in Ekaterinburg. There are two families from my line also - Irina (sister of my father) and Vyacheslav (brother of my dad) - they have families I'v visited them last time in 2000.

That's all what I'm actually know;) However there are plenty of Vygolov's in Russia - and many of them from Siberia - Omsk, Tomsk, Perm, etc. The famost Vygolov is Vsevolod Petrovich Vygolov, the artist and researcher - I didn't contact him yet - but your enthusiasm definitely helps me to continue:) Thank you very much. (and sorry for my English - that's not my mother language:)

by the way Alison - do you know some software for building up the family tree with facilitating interface?

Dear Vyacheslav, Hi there. Read my journal on PAF - Personal Ancestral File. I use it and think it's fantastic. At least it is free.

Al.

Dear Al, thank you very much for your fast replies in communication! Nice to hear from you, really!

Dear V, if you decide to use PAF and need some help, send me a 'personal message' and I'll do my best.

You can start off with the little information you have and then over time you will come to realise how much data you have and you will be amazed.

Once you have downloaded the software, it is easy to use. There are three screens that you can view with the click of a button. 1st screen is FAMILY view, this shows children, parents, and grandparents on the one screen. 2nd screen is PEDIGREE view, this shows five generations of your family in a tree-like pattern sideways...just their names only. 3rd screen is INDIVIDUAL view, where you can double click on any person's name and edit their data to add, change or remove information.

Not trying to sound too technical, but the way that all your genealogical data is stored becomes a GEDCOM file. This stands for genealogical data communications. And if at a later stage you get all fancy and wish to purchase actual family tree software like 'FamilyTreeMaker', 'Legacy', or whatever else is out there on the market, then you won't have to duplicate all your work, it will just reformat into the new software.

Tip: you can with the click of a button, click in the check box for 'remove details on the living' in your GEDCOM data if you end up sending your family tree to another genealogist that may not be related to you. Also if you upload your GEDCOM file to the internet to say a website like tribalpages (you can google that), it is best to remove details on the living on the internet so as to prevent identity fraud.

It pays to be 'with it' and up-to-date on the latest trends when it comes to computers.

I haven't used the printing capacity yet in PAF (Personal Ancestral File), but it looks like you can print out a family tree book once you have entered your data. It's pretty cool.

I have over 8,000 names in my family tree and I just love it.

I'll see what I can find out on the VYGOLOV surname. Watch the home page for new surname updates.

Regards,
Al.