Metadata: Kuldiga City Magistrate (Province of Courland)
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:
- 795
- Title:
- Kuldiga City Magistrate (Province of Courland)
- Title (official language):
- Kuldīgas pilsētas maģistrāts (Kurzemes guberņa)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Kuldiga City Magistrate (Province of Courland)
- Date(s):
- 1337/1904
- Language:
- German
- Latvian
- Russian
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 5,328 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains documents of the Kuldiga City Magistrate (Province of Courland), including minutes of magistrate meetings, bankruptcy cases, civil and criminal cases, city guild cases, city charters, privileges, laws, orders and circulars of the Courland province administration, cases of the Kuldiga Kämmerei (Finance Management); cases of the Kuldiga Amtsgericht (District Court); housing committee issues; income and expenses of the magistrate; statistical information about residents, factories, trade, alcohol production; information about births, marriages and deaths in the city; lists of criminals; lists of taxes owed; wanted lists; lists of merchants; lists of patent holders for the sale of alcohol; lists of recruits, etc.
Material regarding Jewish residents include lists of Kuldiga Jews; lists of Jewish residence permits in Kuldiga; minutes of meetings of the magistrate and the Jewish community on the selection of members of the Jewish Kahal in Kuldiga; rules regarding Jews; correspondence with the governor of Courland, the provincial government about taxing Jews; lists of Jews (taxpayers and debtors), lists of Jewish recruits, correspondence with the provincial government and the Kahal of Kuldiga about Jewish recruits; decisions of the board of the Courland Province on caring for Jewish orphans, lists of orphans; decisions of the board of Courland Province on the “candle tax" imposed on the Jews of Kuldiga (Russian: “svechnoi sbor” - tax on candles used before Shabbat and Jewish holidays); cases of the “korobka tax” (a tax paid only by Jews for each animal slaughtered in accordance with the rules of kashrut and for each pound of kosher meat sold); correspondence on the acceptance of Jews from other cities into the Kuldiga Guild; orders of the Baltic Governor General on the colonisation by Jews of Kuldiga of Siberia and other Russian colonies; correspondence about the resettlement of the Jews of Kuldiga to the Kherson province; correspondence with the board of the Courland province about the change of surnames by Jews who appropriated the names of the owners of the estates of Courland; cases of establishing the place of residence in which the nationality and/or Jewish names and surnames of wanted persons are indicated (for example, “the case of establishing the place of residence of a Jew Shalom Hayman and his son Iosel”); civil cases concerning Kuldiga Jews (for example, “a complaint by Levinson, a member of Kahal of Kuldiga, against the resident Mendelssohn for insulting him”); cases of illegal trade and smuggling (for example, “the case of Mendel Herzberg and Hirsch Glaser accused of smuggling”); cases of the conversion of Jews to Christianity (for example, “the case of the conversion of a Jew, Moz Berman to Christianity”); cases for issuing passports and various certificates (for example, “the case for issuing a poor person's certificate to Jews Sonnenstral and Eitelberg”); Kuldiga Jews passport register, etc. For example, the collection contains two cases for 1804-1805 and for 1811, which are called "List of Kuldiga Jews" in the inventory. Each Jew from the list of 1804-1805 paid the same amount of 4 rubles 68 kopecks, this amount is indicated opposite the name of the Jew. For example, Elias Itzig paid on 4 October 1804. The 1811 document is a list of Jews who were members of the Guild including names of their family members, their degree of relationship, age, etc for the following families: Moses Nathan Popert, Fabian Levin Danziger, Hirsch Ber Goldinger, Moses Abraham Levy, Joseph Hirsch Hirschmann and others.
- Archival history:
- After World War II materials from the interwar period, along with earlier materials, were part of 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, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Kuldiga is located 150 km from Riga and has held the status of a city since 1378. Before the First World War it was called Goldingen. Jews were allowed to settle in the city only after 1795, when Courland was annexed to the Russian Empire. In 1801, the Hevra Kadisha was organised and soon after that a synagogue, school, and Talmud Torah were built. In 1835, 2,330 Jews lived in Kuldiga, accounting for 57% of the total population. Kuldiga City Magistrate, a local government body, was engaged in the distribution and collection of taxes and duties, the organisation of guilds, workshops, promoted the development of crafts, trade, manufactories, the city economy, carried out the functions of the court for the commercial and industrial population and some police functions.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Danziger, Fabian Levin
- Goldinger, Hirsch Ber
- Hirschmann, Joseph Hirsch
- Levy, Moses Abraham
- Popert, Moses Nathan
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova, Riga