Metadata: Jewish communities of the Governorate of Suwalki
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. 1108
- Title:
- Jewish communities of the Governorate of Suwalki
- Title (official language):
- Suvalkų gubernijos žydų bendruomenės
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish communities of the Governorate of Suwalki
- Date(s):
- 1815/1924
- Language:
- Polish
- Russian
- German
- Lithuanian
- Extent:
- 38 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains the vital records (birth, marriage and death) for Jews who lived in Alytus (Kalvarija district), Balbieriskis, Marijampole, Panemune (now part of the city of Kaunas), Prienai and Sakiai. These localities were part of the former governorate of Suwalki until the 1920s.
The books contain vital records from Marijampole for 1823-1912 and 1918-24.
The collection also includes 1835 Jewish birth, marriage and death records from the town of Sokulka, which was part of the former governorate of Grodno.
- Archival history:
-
In December 1951 the Central State Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current Lithuanian State Historical Archive, received four files (books of civil vital records for Jews who lived in the Suwalki governorate) from the Belarusian Central State Historical Archives in Grodno, which marked the beginning of this collection.
The collection later added Jewish vital records from different localities of the former governorate of Suwalki which had been transferred from other collections. In 1995 civil registration books of the Jewish residents of Prienai and Marijampole between 1888 and 1924 were transferred from a regional civil registry office. As a result, the chronological frame of the collection was expanded.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
From 1826 onwards, following the enactment of new civil legislation, the registration of Jewish birth, marriage and death records in Russian-ruled Poland was maintained by gmina (commune) and city officials. Rabbis maintained separate registers. Each entry was made twice: first in the book kept at the synagogue and then at the end of each year in a book deposited at the archive.
Before 1826 all birth, marriage and death records of all citizens of Suwalki (until 1867 part of the governorate of Augustow) were held in a common Polish-written book regardless of religion. After 1826 the records of the Jewish population were held in separate books arranged by years.
- Access points: locations:
- Suwalki
- System of arrangement:
- The collection includes one inventory.
- Access, restrictions:
- The collection is open for reference at LVIA.
- Finding aids:
- For online data see the Lithuanian archives' website. A geographical and subject index (in Russian) was created in the 1980s. In 2007 a name and geographical index (in Lithuanian) with introduction (in Lithuanian, Russian and English) was created for all the Jewish vital records kept in the archive, including the records from fond no. 1108.
- 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
