Actually, this visit, as have all of our archival visits to date, was amazing. We arrived at the archives very late – about 90 minutes after the 10-11 AM window was closed.  We were shown into the lobby and asked to wait. We were grateful that we weren’t just told to leave, and sat for just a few minutes and waited.

A gentleman came out and began speaking to us, telling us about the objects and maps in the lobby. To our delight (and surprise) it was the Director. He was not at all annoyed with us for being late, said that he was in his office all day, so our arrival time was just fine! He also spoke English which meant that Marek had some respite – he has been doing most of the translation for us from Russian or Polish. When we were in Lithuania, the translations fell to Lina, in Ukraine Anna took over, and sometimes Ola gives Marek a rest, but most of the time he is our translator.

First, we had a tour of the facility. Record preservation and organization for the millions of pages of documents, hundreds of thousands of files, miles and miles of boxes of records is mind boggling.

In this archive, we were treated to an amazing glimpse of ancient documents.

We spent the rest of the afternoon combing through records in the reading room, searching for some elusive documents. We were able to make copies of records, and as we have been doing, copied all records which might be pertinent for further examination, translation and analysis upon our return to the US.

Iasi is a beautiful city with gorgeous churches and architecture. When the archives closed for the day, we took some time to explore before meeting the Director for dinner in a little out of the way magnificent restaurant that we certainly would not have found with out a local’s guidance.

All in all, another wonderful day. My previous Romanian experience has been laid to rest. I did find out that the Director was born in the same city, Suceava, as my grandfather, of course their births were probably more than half a century apart. A landsman!