Metadata: Belazaras family
Collection
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Holding institution:
- Lithuanian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Lietuvos valstybės istorijos archyvas
- Postal address:
- Mindaugo 8, 03107 Vilnius
- Phone number:
- +370 5 219 5320
- Email:
- istorijos.archyvas@lvia.lt
- Reference number:
- 1275
- Title:
- Belazaras family
- Title (official language):
- Belazarai
- Creator/accumulator:
- Belazaras family
- Date(s):
- 1500/1881
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- Lithuanian
- Slavic languages
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 741 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes materials from the personal archives of the Belazaras family from different periods. It contains inventories of the Belazaras family’s estates’ legal and financial records, as well as material with political and military content. The legal and financial materials relate to management of the estate and conflicts from property disputes.
Other Jewish-related materials in the collection consist of records about the economic activities of Jews in Polish landowners’ estates. These are materials on the activities of Jews as traders and landlords of estates and taverns. Some documents include a contract from 1712 between Karol Belazaras and Meerovich for leasing estate property in Kernave (inventory 1, file 709). Another document includes a complaint from 1713 of Karl Belazaras about a robbery on his house in Kovno while the property belonged to the landlord Abramovich (inventory 1, file 131). The collection also contains a contract from 1715 by landlords of the Milch estate - Nathan Isakovich, Mariana Leibovich and their sons (inventory 1, file 139). One file in the collection provides information on women’s participation in economic life. This file contains notes on money, salt and other merchandise from 1714-1715 of the tavern landlord Lea Movshova (inventory 1, file 587). An important part of the collection consists of papers about Jews in trade. A file from 1716-1717 consists of cash accounts and calculations of the Korsakovichi estate administration with different individuals for salt, hemp and cloth. One of the suppliers of the estate was Leiba Rafalovich (inventory 1, file 588). The collection also contains materials on the loans and debts of Jews to Belazaras family members. One file from 1685-1689 includes the court decision on the case of Karl Belazaras against Rachel Yakubovich (inventory 1, file 80).
- Archival history:
- No information
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Belazaras (Belozor) noble family was prominent in the Grand Duchy of the Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland from the 16th century. The family members actively participated in political and religious life in Poland and held high ranks in the army. In the middle of the 17th century Jurijus Belazaras was the secretary of the King. In 1658 he was appointed as Bishop of Smolensk and later Bishop of Vilnius. Kazimieras Belazaras was an officer during the Northern war with Sweden in the 1650s. During the late 1650s and 1660s he held a number of positions such as Marshall of Upytė, Castellan of Vitebsk, Voivode of Minsk, member of the Lithuanian Tribunal and of the Polish Sejm. The Belazaras family owned vast estates in the Samogitia and Polotsk region.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory that is arranged in thematic-chronological order.
- Finding aids:
- Detailed inventories are available for free online access on the website of the Lithuanian Chief Archivist Service.
- 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:
- Ilya Vovshin, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2019. Edited by Aaron Lasaine, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2019.