All serious genealogy is jurisdictionally-based - who lived where, what laws affected them, which officials were in charge, where were they married, and where were they buried. Research centered on the towns of the Ukraine can open every one of those doors and the ShtetLink Webmasters bring those towns into focus.
We want to provide a forum here for those webmasters, to tell you what they are doing, what resources they offer, and to give them a place to ask for your help. I am here asking for postings from each of them - if you have a site in our jurisdictional area of interest, we want to hear from you. We plan to treat it like a magazine with at least one new article a month but the information will remain permanently available so we need content of meaning and value.
This page can expand to be as large as we need. You can send us emails telling us what you especially valued on a site. You can tell about something you have just discovered and even if it is not new to JewishGen, your fresh enthusiasm can remind us of important resources.
A drawing of the 18th century Snitkov synagogue, copyright by Michelle Frager,
no reproduction without the express permission of Michelle Frager
 | Berdichev in Kiev Gubernia | ||||||||||||||||
| Borzna in Chernigov Gubernia | ||||||||||||||||
| Kalinovka in Podolia Gubernia | ||||||||||||||||
| Kolki in Volhynia Gubernia | ||||||||||||||||
| Kremenets in Volhynia Gubernia | ||||||||||||||||
| Litin in Podolia Gubernia |
 | There are a number of valuable resources on this site. Webmaster Rose Feldman has translated a document found in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People on the 1883 Candle and Box Taxes paid in Podolia by 141 separate Podolian communities and posted it here. Check here first if you have been unable to find a Jewish community in Podolia! |
| This Samovar of Webmaster Cherie Korer's great-great-grandmother is one of many treasures from Pavlovoch that you will find on this site.
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Linda Cantor webmaster of Poninka's site sent this information
Poninka is about an hour west of Kiev and, while it is small, has a major paper factory. In addition, it adjoins Polonnoye, a larger community, which also has industry. The two towns are contiguous and share the Jewish community and cemetery. You can learn more about the cemetery, Holocaust victims, as well as Jewish soldiers who served in the Russian army at Polononoye ShtetLink or come directly to our site at Poninka ShtetLink
Coming Soon - A News and Highlights Site for the WebMasters of ShtetLinks. Dedicated webmasters who coordinate everything from posting the information of travelers to their Shtetl to directing research and to doing record-searching themselves, deserve a special round of applause. Those who agree to create websites in accordance with the standards of JewishGen have to meet a very high bar, indeed. This is a linked page, where in addition to the little notes posted about individual Shtetl sites on the page you are reading, the webmasters can let you know more details of what is happening and the help they need from you. We invite each of the Webmasters of the sites just listed above, to send their info for us to post.
Not an Intellectual Exercise
Being neither a writer, historian, or a member of a notable family, I always believed there was little I could do about these family issues , common to virtually all the greater 20th and 21st Century Jewish family. I wrote checks in support of those who support Jews in need, wrote letters, signed petitions. And in the 1970s, tiptoed into genealogy.
That brought more open discussions with our elders than anytime before, uncovering formerly covert parts of their old lives. But surprisingly, instead of ‘closure’, the more we learned of our family’s unwilling role in history’s vilification, the angrier and more frustrated we American generations grew.
Then, two years ago, while researching online at ShtetLinks, something ‘flipped’. From one moment to the next I was not looking at a research screen, but at a personal opportunity. A mind-boggling opportunity when I thought about it, to reverse history’s efforts to obliterate our family, its background, it’s honor, its unassuming but legitimate place in history.
It alone could not undo the violence of centuries, but it could give back the respect stolen. At the very least it could restore, for my family, for their town, and for as many relatives and neighbors as I might name, their own lives as Russian Jews in their piece of the Pale - they lived once, in this way. Here. In Snitkov.
You can come late to this conversation and still be fully informed. What is the Kremenets research group doing? What are their priorities, how are they changing the perception of what can be done by volunteers working to the highest historical and academic standards? What records have they uncovered, what can you do to help? The Introductory paragraph to the Welcome letter follows but continue reading at
Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP Activity Reports
Welcome to the Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP. This message describes our activities. Two following messages will give you an update on current activities and details about our Vital Records Translation Project. The Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP is involved in several major activities: In a sense, we are a landsmanshaft for Kremenetsers, successor to the post-WW2 Organization of Kremenets Emigrants.
With regard to the vital records, so far we have translated and proofread the 1870-1871 & 1893 birth records and 1870-1872 death records. They are not yet on-line, but we have posted an index to surnames that appear in these records. The index is accessible through our website (see below).
Translate to English the vital records of Kremenets (1870-1907), which are on Mormon microfilms, and other records that we are able to obtain. Translate to English the Yizkor Books and other materials relating to Kremenets Coordinate restoration and documentation of the Kremenets Jewish Cemetery and other Jewish cemeteries in the Kremenets Uyezd. Translate the Kremenets Kahal records Translate the Kremenets Uyezd Revizskaya Skazka (Census) records and Family Lists Gather and post information about Kremenets and Kremenetsers Initiate new projects that can help us trace our Kremenets ancestors
Read the rest of the announcements at Kremenets Shtetl CO-OP Activity Reports
To get a comprehensive listing of websites about Ukrainian Jewish communities not hosted on JewishGen requires your active assistance. We need the webmasters and users of such sites to let us know about them. We need the users of this site to let us know about changes they encounter that make them more or less friendly to the needs of the Jewish genealogical research community. We need you to let us know when you encounter a broken link, especially ones caused by the organization going offline. To each of the Webmasters of these sites, the Ukraine SIG hereby offers an open invitation to join us here at JewishGen for the many advantages of being hosted inside this research community.
The first of the postings to be listed on this site were for Elisavetgrad and Novy Bug which were brought to the attention of Deborah Glassman by the Webmaster Leon Koll who has offered to help with our Collection Point site for Elisavetgrad as well.
