LitvakSIG - Abbreviation Descriptions

Explanations of Abbreviations Used in this Catalog
David Hoffman and Vitalija Gircyte

These categories of records are an attempt to combine similar records even though the specific form, details, and amount of genealogical information they provide varies greatly. The Catalog also summarizes only the information that has been located, correctly identified, and appropriately labeled to date. It is not exhaustive or complete. A large number of documents remain to be indexed. Some records have also physically deteriorated to the point where they cannot be photocopied, or otherwise used until after restoration. In addition to these types of records described below, there are also a large number of general court, business and property records, which can be tediously searched, but are organized only by year.

Abbrev- iation	Type of Records	General Explanation of these Records
ai	Alphabetical Index	Usually this gives the head of the household and any of his sons who are included on the family lists (which do not always exist) for towns in the Kaunas district.
d	Deaths	Abstracts of death records used for Rokiskis; few vital records are kept in the Kaunas Regional Archives. (The 19^th century Vital Records are located in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives and 20^th Century Vital records in the Lithuanian Central Civil Archives. Both of these archives are in Vilnius).
b	Births	Abstracts of birth records which were used to prove identity, for the town of Rokiskis and some copies of birth records for the late 19^th and 20^th Centuries for Kaunas.
cl	Craftsmen List	Both Craftsmen and Artisans belonged to Guilds and were given special privileges (including exemption from some taxes.) Families often continued to follow these same craft trades from one generation to the next, making these lists very useful in genealogical research. There are records of Craftsmen for the second half of the 19^th Century, but the lists are often incomplete and provide little information beyond name, profession, and sometimes, place of origin. There are lists of craftsmen for all Kaunas district towns for 1852.
dl	Draftee List	This is a list of 21-year-old men who were scheduled to be drafted that year, together with lists of their families.
el	Electors List	This abbreviation was for any electors list in which the type is not indicated, just marked as people having participated in some type of voting.
el D	State Duma Electors List	Jewish men over the age of 25 and of sufficient economic or social status were allowed to vote in the Russian Empire Parliamentary Elections in 1906, 1907 and 1912. Lists of those eligible were published.
el m	List of Electors of Representatives to Local Municipalities	This is a list of electors of Representatives to Local Municipalities. It is similar to rabbi's electors lists below. Sometimes this type of list, along with other electors and candle and box tax payers lists, are the only surviving genealogical information for a town.
el r	Rabbi’s Electors List	A list of permanent town dwellers who had a right to participate in the election. This usually includes the family name, the first name and father's name or patronymic, and often their age.
fl	Family List	After 1874 the family list became the official census, replacing the revision list. It gives essentially the same comprehensive information as found on the earlier revision lists (see below.) The information given depended very much on the clerk, and may be more or less accurate, contain later entries of additional information, or not. A single page was used for a family in 1874 and 1908. In 1887 and 1890 there were multiple family entries, as in the revision lists.
frml	Farmers List	These are district lists of those who had been granted this particular status. Also included are some applications to become a farmer, but not for most lists. Some farmers lists may have details about the sizes, locations, types of buildings, equipment, animals and the function of the farms. Also included is information on taxes and rents paid and owing.
m	Marriages	Late 19^th Century copies of marriage certificates in Kaunas. Abstracts of marriages for Rokiskis.
mr	Military Records	For Kaunas district towns. These were army recruitment districts consisting of 1000 men, and lists of all men in that district and their adult sons. The most important military genealogical records in the Kaunas Archives are extensive files listing penalties for men who tried to evade the draft, and these records listed the entire family. Sometimes this information is included with Family Lists (as in Siauliai and Raseinai), or, sometimes it is not included if there are files for separate people. This type of record provides the only listing for many Jewish families from Girkalnis, Joniskis, Kriukai, Pasvitinys, Siauliai, Sveksna, and others, for the beginning of the 20^th Century. For Kaunas District there is a much more extensive collection of military records.
mrchl	Merchants List	This is a list of the merchants (of 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd classes) who were permitted to trade in a district and may include the entire family. Many times Merchants were not listed in general family or tax payer lists.
pbr	Postal Bank Records	These savings accounts were popular at the end of the 19^th Century. They provide details such as parents' names, birthplaces, occupation, and current address.
pib	Passport Issuance Book	This was a book filled in by police or the municipality clerk, for the issuance of Internal Passports. They exist for only a few Jewish communities and only for some years. There are many Kaunas district passport issuance records for 1874 – 1875. There are not many external passport issuance records, but among the records of the Governor's office and the Guberniya's administration are many files on the renunciations of Russian citizenship or about illegal crossings of the border by specific individuals.
pir	Passport Issuance Records	These are records of correspondence about Internal Passports. They may contain the application for the passport, the previous passport, and always contain a certificate issued by the tax collector, in which the information is in the same form as in the passport.
prb	Passport Registration Book	Internal passport issuance books exist for only a few Jewish communities and only for a few years. Different from Passport Issuance Books: it is also a book filled in by a clerk, but for those people who arrived at a destination, and produced the passport they had issued in the community they belonged to, and had it registered in this Passport Registration Book. These are not lists of passports issued in this place. There is additional passport information in the records of the Governor's Office, the Guberniya administration and its departments, the Kaunas guberniya Treasury, and the Administration of State Property of Kaunas.
resl	Residents List	This is similar to the electors list, only the title "residents list" is used. It often lacks ages, and no women or children are listed. May be different in form and made for various purposes.
rl	Revision List	The revision lists were a series of 10 censuses ordered by the Imperial Czarist Russian Empire, designed for taxation and conscription purposes. Jews first appeared in the 1795 Revision List. These revision lists provide valuable genealogical information about every member of every family and household, in the Jewish community in which he had originally been registered. They show: family name, given name, father's name, age, and the relationships of each family member within the household. There is often additional notation about significant events that had occurred since the last revision was taken a number of years before, such as death, conscription, moved away, unknown, change in guild status, etc., along with the date that this happened.
rol	Real Estate Owners List	There are many kinds of real estate owner's lists, with varying amounts of information. Some are quite detailed, noting the documentation that proves ownership, exactly what is owned and how the property is used, as well as any liens against the property, the value of the property, and a full listing of the entire family living on the property. Some give only the surname and name of the owner. Within this category of files are lists of Jews "who illegally owned property belonging to Christians."
tdl	Town Dwellers List	Towndweller (meshchanin in Russian) or citizen. It refers to a category of the Jewish population like farmers, merchants, clergymen, etc. These lists exist only for the Kaunas region for 1852. In later records it referred to the legal status of a person. A person who was listed as a towndweller of one town might actually have lived anywhere, while numerous peasants living in a town might not be listed as towndwellers.
tpl	Tax Payers List	Payers of various kinds of taxes in the community, including state and local taxes.
tpl b	Box Tax Payers List	A tax on Kosher meat also called the "puske" or "kupah" tax was collected throughout the Jewish community and used to pay for its various social needs These lists always give family, first and father’s names of the head of each household of the community. Sometimes the number of family members, occupation, and financial status is indicated. Rarely other members of household are listed. Jewish communities, not towns, collected box and Candle taxes. In 1844 119 former kahals were combined into 74 new Jewish communities for the purpose of collecting these taxes. Consult the Jewish Communities and Box and Candle Tax Table for further information.
tpl c	Candle Tax Payers List	A tax on Sabbath candles was used for the needs of Jewish education and lists exist for almost all Jewish communities in Kaunas guberniya. Most of the lists are for 1846, 1877, 1892 and 1904 and for some communities for 1908 and 1912. The lists provide less information than revision or family lists, but are important and sometimes very useful. They list the family, first and father's names of all heads of households in the community; sometimes the wife's name the number of family members, occupation, financial status or class is included.
tpl r	Real Estate Tax Payers List	The listing of real estate tax payers often yields some information about the specific property, such as its size, estimated value and the taxation due. Sometimes the type of real estate of possession, whether ownership, leasehold, or rental is established, and how.