Metadata: Griva City Board (Illuxt County)
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Latvian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
- Postal address:
- Slokas iela 16, Rīga, 1048
- Phone number:
- +371 20 017 505
- Reference number:
- 793
- Title:
- Griva City Board (Illuxt County)
- Title (official language):
- Grīvas pilsētas valde (Ilūkstes apriņķis)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Griva City Board
- Date(s):
- 1867/1940
- Date note:
- Bulk 1867/1920
- Language:
- Russian
- Latvian
- Extent:
- 623 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains records of the Griva city board, including data on its residents. An important part of the collection consists of materials on the life of the Jewish population in the city including correspondence of the Griva City Board with the Courland Governorate Board, a rabbi in Jakobstadt (Jēkabpils) and Griva's pristav (police inspector) about elections of a crown rabbi in Griva, and elections of the city synagogues' boards 1906-1912 (inventory 1, files 115-118). The collection contains correspondence between the city board in 1906-1912, the administration of the Governor-General of the Baltic provinces and the Griva tax authority regarding leasing of the korobka (a tax on kosher meat) and ways of spending the tax money (inventory 1, files 110-114). The korobka revenue and expenditure books for 1906-1911 are also included in the collection (inventory 1, files 180-183).
The collection also consists of metrical records of the Jewish population and thus may be of interest to researchers of Jewish genealogy. It contains a book of birth registrations from 1867 (inventory 1, file 133) and a book of death registrations from 1869 (inventory 1, file 134). The death records contain the names of the deceased, date of death, age, place of death, place of burial, cause of death, and sometimes the social status (estate) and the city of origin of the deceased. The birth records contain information on the date of birth and the date of circumcision for boys, the names of mohelim (circumcisers), the name of the newborn, the names of the parents and the social status (estate) of the father.
The collection also includes correspondence from 1901-1913 with the Griva tax authority and the Rabbi of nearby Dvinsk regarding making changes to lists of Jewish families (inventory 1, files 119-129). It is reasonable to assume that Jewish names can also be found in lists of individuals with the right to vote in the elections to the Russian State Duma (1906-1912) and in the lists of those expected to be recruited to the army in 1903-1913.
- Archival history:
- After World War I and the establishment of an independent Latvia, the archival materials from the Tsarist period were consolidated into the newly organised Latvian State Archive which existed throughout the interwar period. After the Soviet takeover of Latvia, the archive was renamed and established as the Central State Archive of the Latvian SSR. In 1962 it was decided to reorganise the archive and it was renamed the Central State Historical Archives of the Latvian SSR. The materials predating the period of Soviet rule were deposited in this archive, which is the predecessor of the current State Historical Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- From 1870 executive bodies of the municipal self-government system in the Russian Empire were city boards that were headed by mayors (gorodskoi golova). The members of the city boards were elected by municipal councils (dumas). The city boards were responsible for supervising finance, business, infrastructure, health, education and other issues in the cities. Jews settled in Griva, on the banks of the Daugava (Dvina) River, from the beginning of the 18th century. In 1897 the number of Jews in the town reached 3,027, comprising 38% of the total population. The Jewish community had four synagogues, a Talmud Torah and a yeshiva. The town was the birthplace of the celebrated first Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of three inventories.
- 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