Revision Lists – Belarus

The Ревизские сказки Reviska Skazka ("Revision Lists") were conducted in territories ruled by the Russian Czar in the 18th and 19th centuries.  The Revision Lists enumerated only those individuals subject to taxation.  The data was also utilized for identifying men to draft into the army.

There were ten major Reviska Skazka taken, beginning in 1719 and ending in 1858.  Each new revision would indicate changes to the population referenced in the prior revision.  Between the revisions (and after the last one in 1858) were "additional revision lists", used to fill in information missed in the prior major revision.  The dates of the revisions are important, because reference is made to an individual’s "Age at Last Revision".

The earliest revisions (the 1st thru 4th – in 1719, 1744, 1762 and 1782) are irrelevent for Jewish genealogical research, due to both their limited information, and the miniscule number of Jews within the borders of the Russian Empire at that time.  These are the dates of revisions of consequence:

5th: 1795   6th: 1811   7th: 1816

8th: 1834 9th: 1850 10th: 1858

Further information on the history of Revision Lists can be found in an article by Boris Feldblyum in Avotaynu XIV:3 (Fall 1998), pp. 59-61, also available at http://www.bfcollection.net/fast/articles/ruscensus.pdf.  The following notes supplement those excellent pieces, by addressing the Revision Lists for towns in Belarus, and focus on search strategies with the Belarus Revision Lists in mind.

LDS Microfilms

The Mormons (LDS) microfilmed Revision Lists for several districts now in Belarus at the State Historical Archives of Belarus in Minsk in 1995.  These 126 microfilms can be ordered and viewed at any of the LDS Family History Centers, as well as at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City.  The LDS microfilm numbers are listed in the chart below.

The State Historical Archives of Belarus' inventories of their holdings of Revision Lists can be found on their website: In Russian, In English.

Not all Revision List records in the Belarus Archives have been microfilmed.  Over the years many genealogists have contacted the archives or hired researchers to look in the original record books of the archives.  Some of those records have been collected for this database.  To verify any questionable data in these records, it is necessary to return to the archives and re-review the original books.

The language of the 1795 Revision List was in Polish for those areas "acquired" from Poland.  At that time, most of the Jews did not have surnames, however, the head of household is listed with a patronymic (his father's given name), together with the residents of the household and their relationship to him.  The 1806, 1811, 1816 and 1842 Revision Lists are in the Russian language.

Current Database Contents

The JewishGen Belarus Database currently contains over 56,000 records from various Revision Lists, as follows:

Year	Town	Uyezd	Gubernia	Archive Source	FHL Microfilm	# of Records
1806	Derechin	Slonim	Grodno	BGIA/24/7/465	Not microfilmed	464
1811	Ivenets	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	218
1811	Kamen'	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	60
1811	Koidanov	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	349
1811	Koidanov / Galinki	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	180
1811	Komarovka	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	59
1811	Kozlovshchizna	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	2
1811	Minsk	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	3,226
1811	N.Sverzhen'	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	131
1811	Rakov	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	292
1811	Rubezhevichi	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	97
1811	Samokhvalovichi	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	198
1811	Stolbtsy	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	319
1811	Zaslavl	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/195	#2,008,323	146
1816	Lachowicze	Slutsk	Minsk	?	#2,010,470	364
1819	Lachowicze	Slutsk	Minsk	?	#2,010,470	452
1850	Derechin	Slonim	Grodno	BGIA/24/7/477	Not microfilmed	89
1850	Derechin	Slonim	Grodno	LVIA/24/7/477	Not microfilmed	122
1850	Budslav	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	200
1850	Dolginovo	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	1,175
1850	Gorodok	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	414
1850	Kraisk	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	154
1850	Krasnoselie	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	227
1850	Krivichi	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	318
1850	Kurenets	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	976
1850	Lebedzev	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	399
1850	Miadel	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	410
1850	Radoshkovich	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	1,262
1850	Rechki	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	141
1850	Vileika	Vileika	Vilnius	LVIA/515/15/934	Not microfilmed	341
1853	all	Kobrin	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/412	Not microfilmed	4,026
1858	Lipelevka	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/533	#1,792,209	11
1858	Shibniki	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/533	#1,792,209	9
1858	village Koscheinaia?	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/533	#1,792,209	32
1858	village Nedvighina	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/533	#1,792,209	235
1858	Zayamechno farming colony	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/533	#1,792,209	368
1858	Ivenets ?	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/969	#1,792,211	2
1858	Kaidanov	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/969	#1,792,211	21
1858	Minsk	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/969	#1,792,211	57
1858	Zaslavl'	Minsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/969	#1,792,211	39
1858	Derechin	Slonim	Grodno	BGIA/24/7/478	Not microfilmed	79
1858	Derechin	Slonim	Grodno	LVIA/24/7/478	Not microfilmed	221
1871	Smolevichi	Borisov	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/858	#1,792,207	6
1870-73	Borisov	Borisov	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/858	#1,792,207	13
1871-74	Romanov	Slutsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/906	#1,792,210	455
1872-74	Babovna	Slutsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/906	#1,792,210	30
1873-74	Nesvizh	Slutsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/906	#1,792,209	520
1873-74	Timkovichi	Slutsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/906	#1,792,210	655
1873-74	Zamoshskoe poborstvo	Slutsk	Minsk	NHAB/333/9/906	#1,792,210	48
1853	Izabelin (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	115
1853	Jalowka (Poland) (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	173
1853	Lopenitsky (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	36
1853	Lyskovo (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	112
1853	Mstibava (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	86
1853	Novy Dvor (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	21
1853	Peski (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	222
1853	Porozovo (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	158
1853	Ros (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	125
1853	Svislach (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	435
1853	Volkovysk (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/347	Not microfilmed	503
1853	Zelva (Males from 1850 Revision)	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/352	Not microfilmed	307
1858	Indura	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	1,446
1858	Kaminka	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	360
1858	Krynki	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/9/24/95	Not microfilmed	1,871
1858	Lunna	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	751
1858	Mosty	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/9/24/95	Not microfilmed	356
1858	Ozery	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/9/24/95	Not microfilmed	803
1858	Skidel	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	1,364
1858	Volkovysk	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/365	Not microfilmed	1,383
1858	Volpa	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/9/24/95	Not microfilmed	615
1858	Vola	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	242
1858	Berestovitsa	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/9/24/95	Not microfilmed	1,038
1858	Grodno	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/24/94	Not microfilmed	8,766
1850	Galilee farming colony	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/347	Not microfilmed	147
1850	Israel farming colony	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/347	Not microfilmed	43
1853	Galilee farming colony	Volkovysk	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/347	Not microfilmed	4
1874-1875	Grodno	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/124	Not microfilmed	396
1859	Vola	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	4
1859	Indura	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	29
1858 (Dec)	Kamenka	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	16
1874	Lunna	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/27/7/122	Not microfilmed	23
1874	Grodno (21 Year-Old Males)	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/122	Not microfilmed	56
1868	Indura	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	31
1873	Indura	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	26
1874	Indura	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	7
1874	Vola	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/27/7/122	Not microfilmed	36
1877	Vola	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/127	Not microfilmed	4
1858 (Dec)	Lunna	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	11
1858 (Nov)	Skidel	Grodno	Grodno	NHAB/24/7/95	Not microfilmed	27

Sample Illustrations

Pictured at the right is a sample illustration of a Revision List from 1795.  Other illustrations are available by clicking on the links below.

• 1795
• 1806
• 1811
• 1816

Surname Lists

Lists of surnames have been compiled for several of the Revision Lists from Belarus.  The following surname lists can be found on the Belarus SIG Website:

• 1816 Mir Revision List
• 1811 Minsk Revision List
• 1816 Slutsk Revision List

Types of Revision Lists

The following types of records can be found in this database:

• Revision Lists — Extensive records for Jewish citizens have been located for the 5th through 10th revisions for towns located in Belarus.  Many records have been published on JewishGen through the LitvakSIG and JewishGen Belarus SIG.
• Additional Revision Lists — Between the Revisions, and after the 10th (last) revision, there could be data collected to supplement the most recent full revision.
• 1853 Alphabetical List of Males — These lists were created in 1853 and include only the males who lived in a locality.  The ages refer to the 1850 Revision Lists, so any age referenced in this type of list is the age as of 1850.  Many of the 1850 revision lists, on which these lists are based, are thought to no longer exist.
• Jewish Conscripts — One such list in this database has records of 21 year-old males in the City of Grodno in 1874.  Another has records for males in Kobrin Uyezd in 1879.

Other Sources for Revision Lists for Belarus

Here is a brief summary of known Revision Lists for Belarus:

• Minsk Gubernia:  Revision Lists microfilmed by the LDS in Minsk (see above).

• Vilna Gubernia:  In the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (LVIA) in Vilnius, there are some Revision Lists from the four southern uyezds of Vilna Gubernia (Lida, Oshmiany, Vilieka, and Disna), which are now mostly in Belarus.  According to the FHL Acquisition Department, these Revision Lists will not be microfilmed for many years.  However, they are available to researchers at the LVIA in Vilnius.  About 50,000 of these records have been translated by the Litvak SIG, and are searchable online via the JewishGen Belarus Database as well as the JewishGen Lithuania Database.  The JewishGen Belarus SIG's Vileika District research group is in the process of raising funds to acquire and translate the Revision Lists for this district.

• Grodno Gubernia:  Revision Lists and family and resident lists (as well as part of the 1897 Census for Grodno gubernia) are in the Grodno branch of the National Archives of Belarus.  These also have not been microfilmed by the FHL.

• Mogilev Gubernia:  The National Historic Archive of Belarus (Minsk) has Revision Lists, family lists, and residents lists for Mogilev (and possibly Vitebsk) gubernia which have not been microfilmed by the Mormons.  Members of the JewishGen Belarus SIG are compiling an inventory of these and other archival holdings of interest to Belarus researchers.

Anyone interested in working on the data extraction, translation, and/or data entry of Revision Lists for Belarus, please contact the JewishGen Belarus SIG's Research Coordinator.

Search Methods

These are four different search parameters available for searching in the JewishGen Belarus Database: Surname, Given Name, Town and Any Field.  Understanding how the searching works will optimize your chances of finding your ancestors.

Typically, you will enter the information you know about the first name, last name and town, and use the option "Match ALL of the above (logical AND)".  If your search criteria match to one revision list entry, let’s say a head of household, then the results will include not only that individual, but also everyone else who lives with him according to the household number.  For that matter, if you have multiple search criteria and one of the criteria is a match for one member of the household, and another criteria is only a match for a different member of the household, still that will count as a match and all that household will appear in the search results.

Surname:

If your search using the surname criteria does not come up with the result you are seeking, or you don’t know the surname of the ancestor (let’s say, your great-great grandmother before she was married) you can search without a surname.  See the information below regarding searching the GivenName field.

You should always start with the “Phonetically Like” (Beider-Morse Phonetic Matching System) option when searching on a surname.  This will capture more results than the “Sounds Like” (Daitch-Mokotoff soundex system) option, but if you don’t find what you’re seeking you should also use the “Sounds Like” option.  If you are entering no other data (i.e. for Town), you can use the “Match ANY of the above (logical OR)” search option.  For more information, see http://www.avotaynu.com/soundex.htm.

The essence of using the “Phonetically Like” or “Sounds Like” systems is that if the surname is not spelled using the spelling with which you are familiar, it will find the variations of the spelling you use.  For example, a search for “GORDON” will locate “GARDEN,” and a search for “EFRON” will locate “EFROM.”  The reason is that vowels don’t need to be exactly the same, and consanents which can sound the same (S, C and Z for example) don’t need to be exactly the same.

It is possible that the surname in the Revision List is spelled phonetically different from the name you know.  If you don’t initially find your ancestor using the two different phonetic searches, you can try the “Starts with” option or strategically include a wild card in your search.  Use an asterisk (*) for any number of unknown letters, or a question mark (?) for one unknown letter.

Given Name:

It is likely that you will not know the spelling of the given name under which your ancestor was recorded in a Revision List.  You will have a better chance of finding them if you know some common first name spellings — see the list below.  In many instances, using the “Phonetically Like” option for searching the Yiddish or Hebrew name you know them by will result in finding the typical spelling, but not always!  As an example, for your ancestor “Ida” you might know she had the Yiddish name “Chaia.”  But she may be listed in the Revision List as “Khaika,” and that extra “k” near the end of her name means you will not find her if you search for the name Chaia, even using the Phonetic or Sounds-Like options.  You will find all women named “Khaia,” though.  The following lists the most common given name variations that will prevent you from finding your ancestor, even when using a Phonetic or Sounds-Like option:

COMMON GIVEN NAME ALTERNATIVES TO USE, BECAUSE PHONETIC/SOUNDS-LIKE OPTIONS WON’T FIND THEM OTHERWISE

Abraham/Abram → Abel, Aba Bashe → Bashke Dina → Dinka Dobe → Dobka Dvora → Dvorka Ester → Esterka Etta/Yetta → Etka Joel → Evel Feiga/e → Feigela Freida → Freidel Gersh → Gershko Gerts → Gerstko Guta → Gutka

Guta → Gutka Ite → Itke Joel → Jovel Yona → Jovna Khaia → Khaika Chaim → Khaikel Chana → Khanka Khasha → Khashka Mina → Minka Mordukh → Mordkhel Nakhama → Nakhamka Noah → Nevakh Aaron → Orel

Joshua → Ovsey Osher → Ovzer Rasha → Rashka Reiza → Reizel Riva → Rivka Rachel → Rokha Shevakh → Shevel Shimel → Shimshel Sora → Sorka Tamara → Tamarka Suskind → Zissel Zlata → Zlatka

Any name that you know to start with an H may start with a G, or a vowel.  For example, Hudel, Gudel or Udel are all the same name.  An exception to the caution illustrated by the examples in the above table is the name Movsha — a search for phonetic variations of “Moshe” will include the spelling “Movshe.”

Town:

Enter in the Town field the name of the Town, Uyezd or Gubernia where you think your ancestor lived in order to narrow your results.  You should not include a location in your search unless you need to narrow your results.  The reason is that where you think they lived may not be their town of registration.  Even after relocating to another town, a family might not change their official registration, and so they would be recorded as residents of the former town for many years.

Any Field:

This search type requires exact text — there are no options for phonetic spellings, although you can use a wild card after the first five letters.  You can use this field to narrow your results to find only those records, for example, which list mother, uncle, cousin, daughter, “wife of” (to find a married woman), or household (head of household, that is, the husband/father).  Using “grand*” would find grandchildren and grandparents.  While it is unlikely you will know that your ancestor is recorded as an "uncle," you may want to use the word "daughter" to remove from the results those households which have no daughters.  Unfortunately, there is no way to specify in your search that the records returned have an “aunt” or a “son”, because these field values are less than the minimum of five that are required for a search using the “Any Field” criteria.

The following are examples of “Any Field” searches:

• “Microfilmed” will find only records which are coded as “not microfilmed.”
• “Christian*” will locate entries with comments like “became a Christian” or “Converted to Christianity.”
• “pencil” will find a series of annotations which were “written in pencil.”
• “Farmer*” will find those entries for people who were re-registered to or from the farmer classification.
• “Doctor” will locate the entries identifying individuals who were exempted because of attaining doctor status.
• “Transferred” and “Excluded” searches will pick up annotations made in records regarding the movement of individuals and families from one location to another.
• “Conscript*” will find records related to conscriptions.

Acknowledgements

The JewishGen Belarus SIG would like to thank:

• Hadassah Lipsius, for leading the effort to put the Mir Revision Lists into the database.
• Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias, for giving us the ability to have this searchable database on the JewishGen server.
• Vitaly, Josif, and Fira Charny, for the 1811 Minsk Revision List.
• Jim Yarin, Irene Kudish and Ruth Silver for their project that collected 22,148 records for towns in Grodno and Volkovysk Uyezds (2008-2010).
• The many people whose financial contributions have made it feasible to obtain these records.

Search the Database

The Belarus Revision Lists database can be searched via the JewishGen Belarus Database.