Czarist Era Records
The
JewishGen Belarus Database
is a multiple-database search containing more than 800,000
entries from Belarus which incorporates the following databases:
JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF), JRI -Poland, Yizkor Book Necrologies, JewishGen
Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR), Birth Records, Marriage
Records, Belarus Names Database, Jewish Religious Personnel in the Russian
Empire, 1853-1854, Revision Lists
and much more! The database is a work in progress and new entries are being
added regularly
The URL for the JewishGen Belarus
Database:
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Belarus/
The bulk of the records that survived from the Czarist Era are the
revision lists, a sort of census. See this
Avotaynu
article for an explanation of their utility and drawbacks. The LDS Family
History centers have a number of microfilms of revision lists from the Borisov
district. Here is another
listing
of the relevant films.
The Belarus SIG also sponsors
District Research Groups to locate additional records and raise funds
for translation and indexing. The information on the
Borisov District Research group is here.
Recently (Summer, 2017) some of the 1858 revision list (census) for Borisov
district has been translated and indexed. As of November, 2019, the names of the
1858 residents of Borisov city and of Zembin have been uploaded to the JewishGen Belarus
Database. The names of residents of other towns in the district are
awaiting upload. In the interim, researchers can access this
information by donating at least $100 towards paying the cost of the translation
and indexing effort. Click
here for further details. They have
an index that shows all the family names in the transcribed portion of 1858 revision list so you
can know whether your family is included before donating. By the way, when
searching for names in the JewishGen Belarus database, don't use the Minsk
gubernia limitation. There is at present some glitch in the system that excludes
the names from Borisov if the Minsk gubernia limitation is used.
1906 Borisov Uyezd (district) Duma (parliament) Voters List One had to be a tax-paying male over 24 years old in order
to qualify for the list which was published at the time in the provincial
newspaper. The list includes inhabitants of the whole district, Zembin,
Dokshitsy, Smolevichi, Logoisk, etc. In 2000 only the second half of the list
was transcribed and entered into the database. I recently completed the
transcription of all the names from the first half that seemed possibly Jewish.
The link above connects to the Google spreadsheet of all the newly transcribed
names as well as the older ones. As of July, 2020, the new names have been
uploaded to the JewishGen Belarus Database. A
scan of the full list in Cyrillic is
available (thank you, Adam
Brown).
Miriam Weiner's Routes to
Roots website lists a number of archival sources from Borisov that have not
yet been translated and indexed. In addition, Miriam Weiner has made some
translated and indexed Belarussian records available on JewishGen. Click
here to search that
database.
The list of the
richest merchants in Belarus, 1913, includes three Jewish Borisovers:
Ber Solomonov - owner
of the Victoria Match Factory in Borisov. There is a picture post card of the
factory on the images page of this KehilaLink
Neukh and Beniamin
Gutman - owners of a lumber mill and distillery
Shimon, Aron and
Iosif Gorlin - in the lumber trade
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Updated March 12, 2019
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Content last updated Monday, July 27, 2020 at 08:11 PM US Eastern Standard Time