Ekaterinoslav (City) Collection Point

Ekaterinoslav in Ekaterinoslav Gubernia
by Deborah G. Glassman, copyright 2005

Ekaterinoslav in Postcards

Begin your search for these little artworks in your family papers. Postcard companies had a thriving business in the thirty years that began around 1890, creating images that they could sell very inexpensively to a "new generation on the go." The older people had written long involved letters that queried the health of those near and far, the state of your business, and the marriage prospects of your siblings. The generation which was buying these cards, valued their forced brevity and the attractiveness of the images chosen. Your grandfather might ask less about your studies now that you had moved to a big city in the Russian Empire, if you could distract him with something that he would find visually appealing - a synagogue, a depiction of a scholar or of a hard-working man, or something that reflected the cultural status which you hoped to attain like a library, a theater, or a concert hall. Though they were inexpensive, their images meant they were less likely to be casually thrown away. Though they might end up in a photo album of someone less directly related to the sender or the recipient - in the manner that people used to give interesting stamps to the neighbor's child when he had an interest.

Gayle Schlissel Riley generously responded to our request for such images with these first four images of Ekaterinoslav that she had collected.

Marv Brooks sent these images of Ekaterinoslav synagogues:

Family Pictures from Ekaterinoslav

One of the first responders several years ago to the SIG's request for photos for the Faces of our Forebears section of our website's Photo Album was Howard Benson who sent this photo and information:

Israel and Yetta (NEWMARK ) MILEWSKI
"a wedding picture of my grandparents, ... by L. V. Mitkin of Ekaterinoslav ..."
donated by Howard Benson to the Ukraine SIG

See more about this following picture donated by Ray Cannata and information about the rare collection of Elisavetgrad family pictures of which it was a part, on the Yelisavetgrad Collection Point Page Yelisavetgrad Collection Point

Pinya and Varvy POBERJESKY
aka Peter and Vera POBER in 1900 Ekaterinoslav.
Taken R. Ya Bik's studio. He was from a family based in Yelisavetgrad. There are also pictures of Peter and Vera vacationing in Paris in the 1920s.
picture and info by Ray Cannata

Group Photos can be of classmates, co-workers, society members, etc. But one of the classic group images is of Army buddies, taken of the group and a copy given to each one so, they had a physical remembrance of each other long after they went their separate ways. Army service in the Russian Empire from the 1870s reforms until World War I was a four to six year enlistment bringing together people from widely separated parts of the Empire. You would do your service and go home and never see each other again. Single portraits of a young man in uniform were meant for the family and friends of the soldier to retain. Group photos were meant for your unit pals.

Jacob SHAPIRO of Lubny and Ekaterinoslav (in the middle)
His parents Benjamin SHAPIRO-COHEN(from Stoblsty) and Eta Rivka MOSKOVITZ (from Timikovichi) were both born in the Belarus area but lived in Ekaterinoslav and Lubny. Jacob's son is still living in Sioux City Iowa. This picture was donated by Gayle Schissel Riley

Records of Ekaterinoslav

Have you worked with a researcher in the Ekaterinoslav area who has found records of your family in the archives? We would love to publish your findings. They will answer more questions for all of us. They will show what is available, what record search techniques have worked for you, and where we should look for more materials such as you have found. Have you preserved material from a family originating in this area - letters, memoirs, passports, prayer books with inscriptions, diplomas, anything at all - we will happily publish it here! Please help make this site a great resource for researchers of Ekaterinoslav families.

Email material for this page or for questions about this page to Ukraine SIG Interactive Database Projects
Click here to go back to the Collection Points for Ukrainian Towns
Click here to go back to the Projects of the Ukraine SIG
Click here to go back to the Ukraine SIG Homepage

Click on EkaterinoslavGubernia to learn more about the Gubernia of which Ekaterinoslav was the most important town the founding of the gubernia in 1802 until the Soviets changed to the oblast system in 1926. (Thanks to Paula Eisenstein Baker for getting us the exact year). Ekaterinoslav became known as Dnipropetrovsk and retained its name relation with the government becoming the administrative center of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.

Page created by Deborah Glassman October 2005