If you can not find your ancestors
1. Parish registers (metrical books):
There are not so much of them, not for every village. The records started to be kept in general since 1850’s in two languages (Yiddish and local) by official rabbis. Births, deaths, marriages, divorces. This is the general source during the research of your bloodline history, making-up of your lineage and forming of your family tree.
2. Book records of births and circumcision, marriages and deaths. Each book of records consisted of three parts with the next data:
- About Birth – date of birth and circumcision, name and family name, place of living, parents’ confession, legality and illegality of birth;
- About Marriage – name, family name, place of living, nationality, confession of bride and groom, their age, date of the marriage, names and family names of the witnesses; amount of the tax (and due to the tax amount you can see if it is the first marriage of the bride or not)
- About Death – name, family name, place of living, age of a deceased, date and the reason of death, place of burial.
Parish registers (metrical books) were kept in duplicate: the first one was sent to the archival storage. And the second one was for the synagogue (those copies were almost lost). Parish registers (metrical books) recorded the records till 1918 year (at some districts till 1921) and then civil registration was transferred to the Subdivision of Civil registry held by the local authorities. According to the law of the Former Soviet Union and the most countries of CIS the parish registers (metrical books) are kept in Civil registry office during 75 years and after that they are transferred to the archives for the constant storage. At this moment there are books just till 1935 year held at the archives.
3. Censuses – thanks to the censuses it is possible to discover the next data:
Social class of the person who submitted the census; age, family name (if it existed), name, name of the father and place of birth; place of living; if a person had male and female children (except of the 1st, 2nd and 6th census) with the information about their date of birth and place of birth; relatives and workers with information about family name, name, age and social class; amounts of the taxes paid to the treasury; property status of a person who submitted the census (not always). It is possible to discover the age at the moment of the record, but not the year of birth, that is why the calculated date of birth in different censuses is different. Not all the censuses have been preserved. Not all of the censuses have been described (i.e. were put in registers) and that is why even if they were – you will be told that they are gone. Not all the saved censuses are available for the researchers – to get the access to them, the censuses need to be at good condition and stitched.
4. All-Russian population census of 1897 – is a very rare thing. The best preserved is about Kiev province. The census included 14 items. Each item had its own line for the answers to census’s questions: 1.Name 2.Marital status 3.Relation to the head of the household 4.Gender 5.Age 6.Estate 7.Confession 8.Place of birth 9.Place of registration 10.Place of living 11.Native language 12.Literacy 13.Corporal defects. Instead of Family name, Name and Name of father it was possible to mention a nickname and instead of one name it was possible to mention several ones. As a result of the census, in Russian Empire 5 063 155 people or 4,1% of the total population of Jews lived. It is necessary to remember that by the year 1897 approximately 100000 Jews already left Russia because of pogroms in 1881-1882 years.
5. Recruiting lists – given to the army or not. If the person was at the army or at reserve.
6. Election lists to the local governments – name, family name, house property of the exact type, annual income or the funds that person had.
7. Police funds – more massive and in good condition.
Here it is possible to find lots of various information that isn’t sorted at all (pity for all researchers). For example, chasing different kinds of freethinkers, permissions for living, foreign passports, permissions for trades, synagogue lists and lists of the congregation, cases for rabbis’ elections, court cases etc.
8. Court funds
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About the author
Professional Jewish Genealogy researcher at Ukraine. Works together with his wife Nadia Lipes. More than 5 years of experience. Executive director, SEO and founder of www.jewua.info
