WHAT CENSUS RECORDS TELL US ABOUT JEWISH FAMILIES OF 19th CENTURY , A CASE STUDY: THE SHTETL ZEIMELIS 1816-1853 By Anatolij Chayesh, St.Petersburg Translated by Sonia Kovitz GOALS OF THE STUDY To and analyze information about the Jews of the shtetl Zheymeli (the current city of , ) contained in the 7th, 8th & 9th revision lists (census records). To demonstrate the benefits of studying the census records of an entire Jewish community rather than solely of individual families. To provide insight into the original archival census records prior to their reconfiguration into the digitized data files available on JewishGen.com. The English term may either to the of taking a activity “census” TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: census or to the of gathered information. The Russian term [перепись record PEREPIS’ – usually translated as as in English may refer either to the or the perepis’], activity “census,” Russian also has a pair of historical terms that distinguish between the and the record. activity and This set of terms applies only to the censuses of the 17th record: REVISION REVISION LIST. 19th century. –early [ревизия is the of taking a census, i.e., a periodic collection of revizia] activity REVISION – information carried out region by region, family by family, individual by individual. [ревизкая cказка is the of the information gathered revizkaya skazka] record – REVISION LIST during the Russian census records of the 17th early 19th century, namely REVISION. – were published in a chronological sequence of editions. Accordingly, the 7th, REVISION LISTS, 8th & 9th are the records of the 7th, 8th & 9th in this REVISION LISTS REVISIONS. “List” context refers specifically to the Russian term [cказка], whose literal meaning is SKAZKA (plural) are records containing detailed commentary on individual subjects of “story.” SKAZKI the Tsar. Copies of records from the lists may be obtained from the . HISTORICAL BACKGROUND A broad review of censuses in is not our task. Neither the censuses of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania nor the First General Census [perepis’] of the Russian Empire taken in 1897, nor
WHAT CENSUS RECORDS TELL US ABOUT JEWISH FAMILIES OF 19th CENTURY , A CASE STUDY: THE SHTETL ZEIMELIS 1816-1853 By Anatolij Chayesh, St.Petersburg Translated by Sonia Kovitz GOALS OF THE STUDY To and analyze information about the Jews of the shtetl Zheymeli (the current city of , ) contained in the 7th, 8th & 9th revision lists (census records). To demonstrate the benefits of studying the census records of an entire Jewish community rather than solely of individual families. To provide insight into the original archival census records prior to their reconfiguration into the digitized data files available on JewishGen.com. TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The English term “census” may either to the activity of taking a census or to the record of gathered information. The Russian term PEREPIS’ [перепись – perepis’], usually translated as “census,” as in English may refer either to the activity or the record. Russian also has a pair of historical terms that distinguish between the activity and the record: REVISION and REVISION LIST. This set of terms applies only to the censuses of the 17th –early 19th century. REVISION [ревизия – revizia] is the activity of taking a census, i.e., a periodic collection of information carried out region by region, family by family, individual by individual. REVISION LIST [ревизкая cказка – revizkaya skazka] is the record of the information gathered during the REVISION. Russian census records of the 17th – early 19th century, namely REVISION LISTS, were published in a chronological sequence of editions. Accordingly, the 7th, 8th & 9th REVISION LISTS are the records of the 7th, 8th & 9th REVISIONS. “List” in this context refers specifically to the Russian term SKAZKA [cказка], whose literal meaning is “story.” SKAZKI (plural) are records containing detailed commentary on individual subjects of the Tsar. Copies of records from the lists may be obtained from the . HISTORICAL BACKGROUND A broad review of censuses in is not our task. Neither the censuses of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania nor the First General Census [perepis’] of the Russian Empire taken in 1897, nor
Zeimelis-1816-1853.docx