Birth records from the '13 CDs project'

Among the holdings of the archives of Pskov Oblast, Russia* is a unique resource for Vitebsker genealogists - the vital records of the Jewish community of the town of Usvyaty (District of Velizh), covering the years 1883 to 1889. The original metrical books have been microfilmed by the FHL and are found on microfilms no. 1923469 (Item 2) and no. 2065927 (Item 3). There are three types of records found in this collection: birth records, marriage records and death records. (The metrical books nominally contain divorce records, but as a practical matter no divorces were recorded for the time period of interest.) All of the microfilmed records - 192 birth records, 38 marriage records and 79 death records - were extracted and will be translated for this project. Despite some gaps and a few individual missing events, the resulting database represents a fairly complete record of Jewish vital events in Usvyaty for the seven year period 1883 - 1889.

The language of the original metrical books is Russian and Hebrew. Of course, there is usually some variance between the Russian and Hebrew/Yiddish versions of given names. Where applicable, both names are given, Russian first, separated by a slash (/) (for example: Movsha / Moshe). Where only one name is given, it has been transcribed from the Russian text. In transcribing proper names from Cyrillic or Hebrew to Latin characters, every attempt was made to preserve the original source spelling in transliteration. In a few cases where missing or illegible names were inferred, or the preferred versions of place names provided, the non-original data have been indicated with brackets (for example: Skapizhsk [Skapiskis]).

A note about the relationship of this database to the "13 CDs" project: The division of historical Vitebsk Guberniya between the modern Republics of Belarus and Russia means that items of genealogical value currently exist in the archives of both countries. Because the Usvyaty metrical books are not in the genealogical holdings of the State Historical Archives of Belarus, but rather are from Russian archival holdings, these extracts have been presented separately from the "13 CDs" extracts. However, the standard format of the extracts, and the fields included in the database, are essentially the same as for the "13 CDs" project.

*Base: Fond 39 / Opis 18 / Delo 125
Fond 39 / Opis 22 / Delo 568

Column	Description
Film No.	The LDS film number
Frame#.	The frame number from the CD created by the LDS for the Belarus SIG
Record #	A letter (M for masculine, F for feminine) followed by the original act registration number.
Surname	Transliterated from Russian. If you see two surnames, the second one is transliterated from Hebrew. Please note that all surnames are translated exactly the way they appeared on the original record and they could be different from the modern day spellings.
Given Name	The persons first name
Father	Father's given name
Paternal grandfather	Translated from Russian as father's "otchestvo" - father's given name
Mother	Mother's first name
Maternal grandfather	Translated from Russian as mother's "otchestvo" - father's given name
Mother's Maiden Name	Mostly not shown in the records
Day/Month/Year	The date of birth, shown according to Christian and Hebrew calendars
Hebrew calendar
Town	The town, uyezd (district), and guberniya (province) of the actual place of the birth, as it is shown on the original registration book
Uyezd
Guberniya
Place of registration	The town of the actual place of the birth registration, as it is shown on the original registration book. Most births were registered in the town that they occurred in. However, some births were registered in different towns then the actual birth.
Comments	Mohel/rabbi names for boys circumcision, translators notes, a place different from the registration one, any other information found concerning the record. Titles such as "meschanin" or merchant represent a social status of head of the family or any other family member related to a newborn.
Record/ Publication	The year of the birth registration from the original registration books.
Archive/Fond/List/Item	NHAB (meaning the National Historic Archives of Belarus (Minsk)), followed by the fond, list, and item numbers.

1883-1889 Usvyaty Birth records

Extracted and translated by David R. Brill

Each birth record contains the following columns of information.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z