First of all, we carried out research into the birth entries in the village where the grandfather was born (in Lower Austria). We also found out that the grandfather had had siblings whose descendants we were unable to trace despite thorough research in this region.

With the help of the Archives of the Federal State of Vienna and the City of Vienna we discovered that parts of the family moved to Vienna after the First World War and also died in Vienna. A check on the graves´ register in the Vienna Central Cemetery confirmed that some of his relatives had in fact died in Vienna.

We then checked who had paid for the grave of the abducted soldier’s brother – which is how we found the brother’s daughter who we then contacted and who confirmed that one of the family’s relatives had not returned from Russia.

And that is how we were able to reunite a family after almost 90 years. («)