Metadata: Veisenhof (Weyssenhoff) 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:
- 1505
- Title:
- Veisenhof (Weyssenhoff) family
- Title (official language):
- Veisenhofai
- Creator/accumulator:
- Veisenhof (Weyssenhoff) family
- Date(s):
- 1574/1918
- Language:
- French
- German
- Latin
- Polish
- Russian
- Church Slavic; Old Slavonic; Church Slavonic; Old Bulgarian; Old Church Slavonic
- Extent:
- 746 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Graphic material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection contains the personal archives of the Veisenhof (Weyssenhoff) family including genealogical documents, political and financial/economic papers, inventories of the family estates, correspondence of family members and their travel diaries. The collection includes a few Jewish-related files, including some related to the leasing of taverns by Jews on the Veisenhof family estates. For example, file from 1781-1784 contains contracts between the landowner Michal Veisenhof and Hertsik Yankelevich, Sahno Aronovich and Favish Iuzefovich for leasing the taverns on a few of his estates (inventory 1, file 207). Another file from 1801 consists of a petition and an explanatory memorandum regarding judicial proceedings of the landowner Teresa Veisenhof against the tavernkeeper Itsik Haimovich in connection with claims that Haimovich violated the conditions of the leasing contract and caused material damage to the landowner (inventory 1, file 240). In addition, the collection contains a judicial order of the Rechitsa court from 1787 on the return of looted property (livestock and grain) by the landowner Michal Veisenhof to Abram Davidovich (inventory 1, file 227). The file of 1784 mentions the oath of the Jewish residents of the city of Vilkomir (Ukmerge) with respect to their proceedings and claims against the Vilkomir monastery (inventory 1, file 709).
- Archival history:
- At the beginning of the First World War in 1914 Waldemar Veisenhof fled from Lithuania to Volhynia, where his wife’s estates were located. Apparently, he took with him the family’s archive and over time the papers turned up in the Zhytomyr Museum. From there they were transferred to the State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Kiev where they were kept until 1985. Then the materials were handed over to the Central State Historical Archive of the Lithuanian SSR, predecessor of the current Lithuanian State Historical Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The German ancestors of the Veisenhof (Weissenhof) family arrived in Livonia in the 13th century. Eventually the family became one of the most famous Livonian clans, whose representatives held high army positions and actively participated in political, social and cultural life. The family members owned extensive estates in Livonia, Lucyn (Ludza) district, Rezhitsa (Rezekne) district, Vilkomir (Ukmerge) District and other regions.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of one inventory.
- 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
