Metadata: Jewish communities of the Governorate of Vilnius
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Lithuanian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas
- Postal address:
- Gerosios Vilties g. 10, 03134 Vilnius
- Phone number:
- (8 5) 213 74 82
- Web address:
- http://www.archyvai.lt/lt/lvia_naujienos.html
- Email:
- istorijos.archyvas@lvia.lt
- Reference number:
- f. 728
- Title:
- Jewish communities of the Governorate of Vilnius
- Title (official language):
- Vilniaus gubernijos žydų bendruomenės
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish communities of the former Governorate of Vilnius
- Date(s):
- 1837/1939
- Language:
- Russian
- Yiddish
- Hebrew
- Polish
- Extent:
- 3,609 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains the vital (birth, marriage, divorce and death) statistics of Jewish communities in the former governorate of Vilnius (territory now divided between Lithuania and Belarus). This includes records from such localities as Mikhalishki, Novy Dvor, Orlia, Radun, Shchuchin Zaskevichi and many other towns and cities.
The collection also includes vital statistics from localities which were part of the former governorate of Kaunas, such as Birzai, Cekiske, Grinkiskis, Jonava, Joniskelis, Krakes, Linkuva, Pakruojis, Pasvalys, Plunge, Pumpenai, Pusalotas, Ramygala, Raseiniai, Seredzius, Suvainiskis, Telsiai, Vabalninkas, Veliuona, Vilkija, Vilijampole and Zeimelis. The records from these localities date mostly from the years 1838-65, but some later data from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries are also included.
Also of interest are a number of registers from localities of the former governorate of Grodno (such as the town of Knyshin) and the former governorate of Suwalki (Zapyskis, Prienai and Sakiai).
- Archival history:
-
Prior to the 1917 revolution, copies of the registers were kept in a government depository and in synagogues (see Biographical History). Later the documents were kept in the archives of the civil registry offices for the different regions of Lithuania. In the early 1950s they were transferred to the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR. In 1957, together with other pre-revolutionary documentation, they were included in the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the modern Lithuanian State Historical Archive.
As of 1957, two inventories of the collection existed; in 1963 three inventories were available, and in 1990 a fourth inventory was added. The collection was and is augmented by the vital statistics registers transferred from the archives of various regional civil registry offices. In 2001 the Lithuanian Central Metrical Archives was attached to the LVIA, and the collection was augmented by vital statistics registers from 1881-1915 of the Jewish communities which existed in the former Governorate of Vilnius.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- According to the Russian legislation during the period, the vital records of Jewish communities were recorded by local officially recognised rabbis, also known as crown rabbis). Records of births, marriages, divorces and deaths were entered immediately after the relevant religious ceremony. First an entry was made in a draft copy of the register, and after no more than one month it was copied into an official register. The so-called official, “common” register was transferred after its completion to the archive of the city council (duma), while the draft register was kept in the local synagogue. This system of registration continued until the independence of Lithuania in 1918.
- Access points: locations:
- Vilnius
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of four segments arranged thematically.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is open for reference at LVIA.
- Finding aids:
-
For online data see the Lithuanian archives' website. A more detailed inventory in Russian is available at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.
Personal and geographical indexes (in Russian) were created at the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in the 1980s. In 2007 the personal and geographical index (in Lithuanian) with introduction (in Lithuanian, Russian and English) was created for all Jewish vital records kept in the archive, including f. 728.
- 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
