|
I just received the latest issue of AVOTAYNU - the International Review of Jewish Genealogy" (Vol. XIV, Number 3, Fall 1998). There are a number of very informative articles of interest to the Belarus SIG members in this issue and I would strongly suggest you subscribe to this publication if you have not done so already.
In this message, I will only talk about the article by Vlad Soshnikov titled:
"About the Russian Archivist's Soul"
and only the portion that deals with the Belarus archives.
In July 1998, while Mr. Soshnikov was doing some work in the Belarus
National Historical Archives in Minsk, he discovered some new records,
which have not been previously made known to the Jewish genealogy
community. Because of copyright restrictions, I can not duplicate
the list, but will try and summarize what he found in some old big
volumes which only had a "general description" of the volumes.
Among the records that Mr. Soshnikov found in Collection #2151 of the
Mogilev Treasury were Revision (census) Lists and alphabetical lists
of Jewish town dwellers in a number of gubernia, districts, towns, and
shtetls:
|
- Mogilev Gubernia
- Bykhov District
- Gomel District
- Rossasny, Goretzky District
- Liadny, Goretzky District
- Kopys, Kopys District
- Klimovitchi & nearby towns, Klimovitch District
- Mogilev and Mogilev District
- Shklov, Mogilev District
- Dubrovka, Orsha District
- Goretsky & Savsky, Orsha District
- Dubrovensky, Orsha District
- Liadny, Orsha district
- Bayevsky & Rossasinsky, Orsha District
- Rogatchev District
- Cherikov, Krichev & Molostovitchi, Cherikov District
- Mstislavl and Mstislavl District
- Khoslavitchi, Mstislavl District
- Monastyrschinsk, Mstislavl District
- Kasimirova Sloboda, Mstislavl District
- Tatarsk, Mstislavl District
- Kadin, Mstislavl District
- Shomov, Mstislavl District
- Zakharin, Mstislavl District
While not all locations noted above have lists for all years, the
following years are represented:
- 1816
- 1831
- 1852
- 1858
- 1867-69
- 1873-79
- 1881-86
In addition to the above Mr. Soshnikov also found Collection #330
of the Minsk City Government for Town Dwellers. It contains a
family list of Jewish towndwellers of Minsk in 1894 (884 families).
These names were translated from Russian to English and appeared
in the RAGAS Report.
A recent breakthrough in my own personal family research has
emphasized the importance of information that can be extracted
from the Revision Lists. This past week I received a translation
from the 1811 Minsk Revision List (this is one that has been filmed
by the Mormons) with the entries for one of my surnames (TSIVIN).
Although this Revision list only has males, it provided me with four new
generations that I was able to link to by previous research. I now have
the name of my ggggggg grandfather born about 1730. I would expect that
Revision Lists from other years will provide additional names (male and
female) to add to my tree.
As you can see from this message and previous postings, more and more
records are being uncovered all the time.
For those of you who have reached a roadblock in your research: Never give up the search!
|
|
