To join the Trakai District Group, a minimum donation of $100 is required. The  contribution allows you to obtain early access to the district's data for a period of five years from the year in which the qualifying contribution was made. The five year cycles are based on a calendar year, not the date of the contribution. All contributions are tax-deductible as provided by law and made directly to LitvakSIG, a non-profit organization.

We rely on generous people who donate more than the minimum which in turn helps us acquire records at a faster pace.

You will receive all the data collected to-date, as well as any future files generated from the funds available to us, during the period you are a qualifed contributor.

All the data is presented in Excel file form, in a very easy-to-use format, with various sorted tabs for quick and effective searching (i.e. by town, by surname, by household, by maiden name, as the case may be).

For more information, please contact me.

Trakai District Research Group Coordinator

LitvakSIG Policy Change for District Research Groups
(Effective January 1, 2012)

LitvakSIG is entering its 15th year with more than 1 million records translated, predominantly by the District Research Groups, with many more yet to be translated.

Maintaining the current Qualifying Contribution amount, which for most Districts is $100, is no longer sufficient to support the continuing translation work of the District Research Groups. The volume of data translated and made accessible has grown dramatically.

After much discussion, the Board of Directors of LitvakSIG has voted unanimously to institute a new policy for contributors to District Research Groups. This policy is effective January 1, 2012.

The Board has decided that the solution which makes sense will be to limit a contributor's early right of access to the data translated by district research groups to a period of five years from the year in which the qualifying contribution was made. The five year cycles are based on a calendar year, not the date of the contribution.

A qualifying contribution will count for the year in which it is made, regardless
of the month in which it is made.  Example: A qualifying contribution made on June 1, 2010 will allow access through December 31, 2014. (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 = 5 years)

The qualifying contribution for Telsiai District will be $100 as of January 1, 2012.
The qualifying contribution for Vilnius District will be $100 as of January 1, 2012.

For contributors to district groups with a Shutterfly site: If you have not made contributions totaling $100 since January 1, 2007, you will lose your access to the Shutterfly site effective January 1, 2012. Your access will be reinstated when your contribution level reaches the qualifying amount of $100. As in the past, smaller contributions are still appreciated and encouraged, and they will be viewed cumulatively during that 5 year cycle, in order to reach the qualifying level for access.

There are only two district research groups without Shutterfly sites - Lida and Trakai. Early access to the data for those districts is via email distribution of excel files and the same loss of access will apply.

For contributors to our newest district research groups for Klaipeda (Memel) and Svencionys - this policy change will not affect you until January 1, 2015 at the earliest.

Contributions made after the Yom Kippur holiday, will be considered as made in the following calendar year. If you made a contribution to a district research group since October 8, 2011, it will be considered as a contribution made in calendar year 2012.

The Board of Directors of LitvakSIG, your fellow researchers and I appreciate your financial support of our work in fulfilling our mission statement and guaranteeing that the LitvakSIG website at www.litvaksig.org continues to be the premier source for Litvak family history research.

Thank you for your understanding, cooperation and future philanthropy.

Eden S. Joachim
President