Vitalija Gircyte, Chief Archivist at the Kaunas Regional Archives, writes:

    It is well known that the revisions were held and, consequently, revision lists were made to count so-called "tax -paying population" ("podatnoje naselenije"), that is these categories of population, which paid personal tax ("podushnaja podat") for some reason called poll tax in English; the same categories of population were subject to military service - recruitment into the army. These were also called "unprivileged estates"; actually only peasants and town dwellers (meshchane). Certainly, nobility, clergymen, the military, etc., did not belong to this category of tax-paying population. There may be in some cases revision lists of retired soldiers, Catholic priests, etc., but these were just exceptions.

    The Jews since at least the beginning of the 19th century belonged to the category of tax -paying population, that is, had to pay poll tax, be recruited into the army and listed in the revision lists. In Russia the rights of those who had graduated from universities were equal to the rights of personal nobility - they did not pay poll tax, were not subject to recruitment, etc., so lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, etc. were not included into revision lists; I am not sure if all the merchants as well, but certain financial status entitled one to the rank of "honorary citizen"; or "hereditary honorary citizen", and they also did not belong to the tax-paying population.

    The last revision took place in 1858, and later, only additional revision lists were made for people who were omitted in 1858. Only very few Jews had acquired sufficient educational or financial status to be exempted from the category of tax-paying population till 1858. Rabbis, religious slaughterers or any other Jews engaged in religious studies were exempt from poll tax - yeshivas were hardly equal to universities from the point of view of Russian government, and their graduates had no special privileges. The difficulty of finding the rabbis in revision lists may be due to the fact that, being elected or invited, they often came from a community other than the one they lived in.

    The same rules applied to family lists - they were made for town dwellers communities - "meshchanskoje obshchestvo," or Jewish communities, and people with higher education were also not included into them; merchants, in most cases, as well (although in the1874 Kaunas family lists there are merchants, but the 1874 - 1876 family lists made to count all the Jewish population may list merchants, though not doctors, etc.) Merchants (of 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes) who were permitted to trade in a district were many times not listed in general family or taxpayer lists.

    This is very clearly seen in the1898 Vilijampole family list, where there are notes about people being crossed out as they became pharmacists, midwifes, etc. There are a few files of correspondence with applications of people (Jewish and Christians) asking to be crossed out of town dwellers community lists as they had acquired certain education and profession.

    The revision lists are comprehensive lists of a tax paying population to which almost all the Jews belonged.

    In the case of the list of Kovno Jews Expelled from Riga 1895, "adopted' ("usynovlenyj" in Russian) is not "sponsored" in this case. Perhaps these families were also sponsored by Riga Jews, but the heads of the households of these Kaunas guberniya Jewish families were legally adopted by Riga Jewish families (possibly in court, or registered by the local rabbi) and, as adopted sons, were registered as belonging to Riga Jewish community with all their families. When some complaints were written, police investigated the matter and the case even reached the Senate of Russia (at that time this was the Highest Court, which finally decided that adopted sons did not have the right to become members of the Riga Jewish community automatically. These adoptions had to be cancelled and they had to return to their previous places of residence in Kaunas guberniya.

    This list is taken from a file of correspondence, and there are a few papers on each family. In 1895 a separate list for each family was sent to the town dwellers administrations of the towns they were to be re-settled in, but the correspondence started and decisions were made in 1893, so the ages given may be for 1893. We cannot be sure if these families actually returned to Kaunas guberniya. They may have remained.