INTRODUCTION TO THE 1915 VSIA VILNA DATABASE

Scott Noar

The 1915 Vsia Vilna (All of Vilna) database contains over 17,400 entries from the 1915 city directory for Vilnius, Lithuania.

The entries are from the section entitled, ”List of Inhabitants of Vilna and Subscribers of the Vilensko Telephone Service."  While most of the entries are for families and individuals, the entries also include those businesses and government offices with telephone service. The directory was written in Russian.

Entries for families and individuals usually list only the head of the household, not the spouses nor the children.  The information given may include:

•  SURNAME

• Given Name

• Father's Given Name

• Occupation/Business

• Address

• Telephone Number

• Other Comments

A representative entry is:

 ROZENKRATS, Dav, Abr, physician, Vilenskaya Street 22, 15-06 

This entry is for David Rozenkrats, the son of Abraham/Abram Rozenkrats, a physician who lived at 22 Vilenskaya Street with a phone number of 15-06.

The Vsia Vilna database is searchable for each of the above fields.  In addition to surname searches, other information can be gathered by searching for addresses, telephone numbers, etc. For example, a search of the phone number 7-84 yields: S. Bezmertny, M. Rosenblyum, and A. Yadlovker who were all partners in a business known as "Yarb."

A useful database of likely Given Names abbreviations can be referenced at http://www.jewishgen.org/belarus/vr_abbrev.htm

Some of the entries refer to different state and local offices where Jews were not allowed employment.  These entries are of less interest to Jewish genealogy so, to save time and money, these fields may contain untranslated Russian transliterations.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge those whose efforts made this database possible: Ira Goldstein, Debra, Vitaly Charny, Mark Shifrin, Edwina Harvilchuk, and Roman Tunkel.

If there are any questions about entries in the database, please contact me at SRN26@cornell.edu.