04-13-2012, 04:21 PM
I have encountered some very common names before (Common Russia/Ukrainian/Armenian names) which have returned MANY results. Some times it is possible to find the write person due to them being the only person awarded the award in question or the only one (Going by date of birth primarily and then digging a bit deeper) with that "set" of awards.
If there is an Ivan Ivanov who has a single Red Star and your Booklet has 6 entries that's probably not your man and vice versa. I have been extremely lucky in having an extremely sound source who supplies me with goodies to mainly non-Russians.
When you get additional information in documentation (such as Service Booklets and regional stamps) you can narrow down the search even more so.
Some times you get some surprises. As the very first documented pair I even bought was to an Armenian named man (as I wanted an Armenian's awards) only for it to turn out he was from the GSSR. Even though he was a "Guards Senior Sergeant, Head Of Machine Gun Unit", both of his awards were for doing the laundry too.
I have written an article on finds through "the site" but I doubt anyone will see it.
If there is an Ivan Ivanov who has a single Red Star and your Booklet has 6 entries that's probably not your man and vice versa. I have been extremely lucky in having an extremely sound source who supplies me with goodies to mainly non-Russians.
When you get additional information in documentation (such as Service Booklets and regional stamps) you can narrow down the search even more so.
Some times you get some surprises. As the very first documented pair I even bought was to an Armenian named man (as I wanted an Armenian's awards) only for it to turn out he was from the GSSR. Even though he was a "Guards Senior Sergeant, Head Of Machine Gun Unit", both of his awards were for doing the laundry too.
I have written an article on finds through "the site" but I doubt anyone will see it.
"Signed with his own rubber stamp"
