Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research
• Speaking / Presenting

Alexander Tolksdorf is a genealogist and speaker, accredited in the Germany – East region. He has experience researching across Germany, and in Dutch and Eastern European record sets and family lines. His personal family history journey was inspired by a trip to Ellis Island and flourished through correspondence with his great uncle in Germany, who also was an active family historian. All four of his grandparents immigrated to the US in the aftermath of the Second World War, creating a unique research journey for Alex. Through this work, he has extensively researched in Germany, particularly eastern Germany and the former eastern territories of Germany, but also in Ukraine, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, and Russia. Alex also has experience researching displaced persons, victims of Nazi persecution, and Soviet repression of individuals. He is comfortable overcoming language barriers, working with the lack of online record access, and lost or missing records. He relies on civil, church, and a plethora of other records for his research, and finds that each can provide illumination and the tools to break down brick walls. Alex believes that standard records only tell part of the story, with the many additional forms of documentation and artifacts providing color and texture to a family history.

Alex graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy and holds an MBA. Alex is a financial analyst at the Ford Motor Company, and is a former President of the Ford Genealogy Club. He regularly speaks to genealogical societies across Michigan and across the US through virtual platforms. He is also active in the Ukrainian-American community of Metro Detroit, serving as a former treasurer of the Ukrainian Graduates of Detroit and Windsor, the chair of the Supervisory Committee of the Ukrainian Selfreliance Michigan Federal Credit Union, a board member of the Ukrainian American Archives and Museum of Detroit, as well as the treasurer and circulation manager of the Detroitski Novyny, the local community newspaper.

Geographic Specialities
Germany
Lithuania
Netherlands
Ukraine

Lectures
https://tolksdorfresearch.com/services/

Research Time Periods

• 20th Century
• 19th Century
• 18th Century

Languages
English

Honorifics/Credentials
AG®

Affiliations
Ford Genealogy Club

Degrees
BSBA MBA