The
records that follow come from three different archival sources. There are deaths
as recorded in the Kupiskis Revision Lists of 1816, 1858 and 1873-74. A second
source is the Russian language civil records of 1871 through 1922, that were
found in the Vilnius Archives. The third source is the Lithuanian language
records covering the period from 1922 through 1940 were located in the Kupiskis
Archives. In addition, there are some records that we only have a notation that
they exist and no dates, so these have been excluded from the database until
dates have been confirmed.
The Russian language records are those
obtained by individuals for their own particular families and so there is not a complete
set available for each year. The Lithuanian language records are almost totally complete
except for the years 1920, 1921 and 1924, which are missing from the Kupiskis Archives.
Not all the information contained in
each record is provided in this database due to limitations of space. Also, the format of
the death records changed during the period covered and in some cases information that was
contain in one year was not in the following year.
You will note that the records have
italicized entries in some columns. These represent computations made by the database
developer and are not found in the actual record. An example of this is the approximate
date of birth that is based on the date of death minus the age at death. You will also see
in the age column that there are some ages followed by a D or a W. This signifies that the
individual died in so many days or weeks rather than years.
In regard to the translation of the
family names, the Russian language records are primarily based on the Yiddish roots while
the Lithuanian language records utilize Lithuanian endings. In some cases, the same name
ending will be spelled in several ways such at the common witz in Rabinowitz which will be
found in variations such as vich, vic, vitz, vicz. You will find the name Cohen in the
Russian language records and the name will change to Kagan in the Lithuanian records.
Names will have endings in the Lithuanian records based on whether the person is male or
female, married or single. Removing the as, iate, iene, ius, uite, ite, yte, is, endings
in these names will give you the root name or name the individual would have been known as
in English.
The last names of parents may not be
given in all records and you may find that first names of individuals will vary in both
form and spelling such as the name Leah which will be spelled variously as Lejos or
Leja.
As additional records in the pre-1922
period are obtained, they will be added to the database.
Ann Rabinowitz
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