Jewish Communities of the Governorate of Kaunas

Collection description

Holding institution (official language):: Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas

Scope and content:: The collection comprises the vital records (birth, marriage, divorce and death) of Jewish communities in the governorate of Kaunas.

Several vital records from localities which were part of other governorates are also included in the collection. These materials include the 1845, 1849 and 1900 records for Jews who lived in Prienai and the surrounding area and the 1889 and 1903 records for Jews in Balbieriskis and its environs – localities which were part of the governorate of Suwalki. It also contains the 1880 divorce register book for the Jewish community of Varena, which was part of the governorate of Vilnius.

The collection includes the spines of books that contained the vital records of Jews in Garliva from 1928-40, as well as the death records of the Panemune Jewish community from 1923 (Until the 1920s, Garliava and Panemune were part of the Suwalki governorate. Panemune is now part of the city of Kaunas).

Archival history:: Prior to the 1917 revolution, copies of vital records were kept in a government depository and in synagogues. Later the documents were kept in the archives of the civil registry offices for the regions of Lithuania. On 14 November 1959 the first 863 files from 1842-81 were transferred to the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1957, together with other pre-revolutionary documentation, these materials were included in the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current Lithuanian State Historical Archive.

Some vital records in book form for various towns of the former governorate of Kaunas from 1918-40, the period of Lithuanian independence, were added to the collection in 2001.

Inventory No. 2 includes the books of vital records with a geographical-thematic index of the Jewish communities of Dotnuva, Josvainiai, Kedainiai, Krakes and Panevezys from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. These files were transferred to the archive from the Lithuanian Central Metical Archives in 1992. The collection is in the process of receiving more books that transferred from the archives of different Regional Civil Registry offices.

Administrative/biographical history:: According to contemporary Russian legislation, vital records of the Jewish communities were held by the local officially recognized rabbis (also known as crown rabbis). The records of birth, marriage, divorce and death were made immediately after each religious procedure. First an entry was made in the draft copy of the record books, and after no longer than one month it was copied into an official record book. The official, so-called “common” book was transferred after its completion to the archive of the city council (duma), while the draft book was kept in the local synagogue. This system of registration of births, marriages and deaths continued until the independence of Lithuania in 1918.

Subject terms:: Jewish community records; Marriage and divorce; Vital records; Vital records--Birth records; Vital records--Death records; Vital records--Marriage records

System of arrangement:: The collection includes two inventories arranged according to chronological/thematic order.

Finding aids:: For online data see the Lithuanian archives' website. A geographical-thematic index (in Russian) was completed and included in inventory 1 of the collection in 1991. In 2007 a personal and geographical index (in Lithuanian) with an introduction (in Lithuanian, Russian and English) was created for all Jewish vital records kept in the archive, including f. 1226. Inventory 2 includes the books of vital records with a geographical-thematic index of the Jewish communities of Dotnuva, Josvainiai, Kedainiai, Krakes and Panevezys from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Links to finding aids:: https://eais-pub.archyvai.lt/eais/faces/pages/forms/search/F3001.jspx

Yerusha Network member:: Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People

Author of the description:: Galina Baranova, Lithuanian State Historical Archives, and Alex Valdman, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2014