Maps of Today's Lida Uezd Area

• Maps of Belarus
  
• Google Maps

Towns in Lida Uezd:

• Linked at Lida Uezd Towns are Belitsa, Eisiskes/Radun, Iwje/Lipniszki , Lida, Nowy Dwor, Orlya, Ostryna, Radun, Rozanka, Scucyn,Vasiliski, Voronovo , and Zaludok with current towns names, but separate pages that list  alternatives and dependencies.
  

Background Information

• Some families were "from Poland” or “from Russia” or” from Russian Poland” or “White Russia” or “from Lithuania”... and all the same family! (No one was born in "Guberniya", a geographical designation equivalent to a province or state.) Town names tend to repeat within countries in Eastern Europe. [Think Springfield in the USA.) Confirm your town carefully to avoid wasted time by checking at the JewishGen Gazetteer!
• Many ancestors signed their names in Yiddish. Civil documents used Cyrillic or Polish alphabets depending on the governing body at the time. Personal name transliteration in different scripts is arbitrary, varying often. Here's a link to transliterating Russian and Ukrainian and a guide to Polish pronunciation. 
• There are many myths about evading military service in the Russian Empire. Most are untrue. Check out a definitive article from YIVO. 
• Your Name was NOT Changed at Ellis Island. Ellis Island was an immigration station, not a court. Another link on immigrant name changes.
• Russian Revision Lists (Censuses) are an important source.
• LOCATION AFTER 1939: Baranavichy Oblast (Belarusian:  Лі́да, Russian: Ли́да, Yiddish: לידא) was a territorial unit in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic created after the annexation of West Belarus into the BSSR in November 1939. The administrative centre of the province was the city of Baranavichy. The voblast was originally known as the Navahrudak Voblast but it was soon renamed to Baranavichy Voblast. The oblast was made up of 26 raions in 1944. These raions were Byten, Gorodyshche, Ivyanets, Iwye, Yuratishki, Karelichy, Kletsk, Kozlovshchina, Lyakhavichy, Lida, Lubcha, Mir, Masty, Navahrudak, Nova Mysh, Nesvizh, Radun, Slonim, Stowbtsy, Shchuchyn, Vasilishki, Valozhyn, Voranava, Dzyatlava, Zel’va and Zheludok. In 1944, the oblast was diminished after transferring raions of Lida, Radun, Schuchyn, Vasilishki, Voranava, Masty, Zel’va and Zheludok to newly founded Hrodna Voblast (Founded after remaining parts of Belastok Region to Belarus in 1945) and ones of Iwye, Yuratishki and Valozhyn to Molodechno Voblast in 1944. Finally on January 8, 1954 the oblast was liquidated and the raions were divided between the Brest (Raions of Gorodyshche, Lyakhavichy and Novo Mysh), Grodno (Byten, Karelichi, Kozlovshchina, Lubcha, Mir, Navahrudak and Slonim), Molodechno (liquidated in 1960) (Raion of Ivyanets) and Minsk (Raions of Kletsk, Nesvizh and Stowbtsy) Olbasts (Modern Brest Voblast, Hrodna Voblast and Minsk Voblast). Thus, Baranavichy became part of Brest one as raion center after Nova Mysh one's center was moved to Baranavichy in 1 May 1954 and renaming it as Baranavichy one after 8 April 1957.

General Resources

• Lida District genealogical records translation is a joint effort of Lida District Researchers of Belarus SIG and Lida District Research Group (DRG) of LitvakSIG. Record translations cover all shtetls (towns) in the Lida Uyezd (district) of Vilnius Guberniya (region) of Lithuania including the town of Lida itself. 
• Records are held both in Grodno and Vilna archives.
  
• For Lida records translation, your tax deductible contribution by credit card via the secure server at either group or by mail will grow our knowledge. For a $100 donation, you receive all these records translated two years ahead of their posting on JewishGen. Every penny collected is used for Lida uezd projects only. Records include censuses; family lists; marriages, births, death records; prenumeraten lists; and more. Please contact Judy Baston with any questions.
• For current translations, please see the ALD: All Lithuanian Database and Belarus SIG Database.
• The All Belarus Database and All Lithuania Database provide a multiple database search incorporating the following: JRI-Poland, Yizkor Book Necrologies, JewishGen Family Finder (JGFF), JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR), JG Discussion Group Archives, SIG Mailing List Archives, previously translated records, and much more.
• IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project
  
• Lida Holocaust Memorial Foundation holds an annual memorial service in New York City for the World War II mass murders that occurred in Lida on May 8, 1942. Check their website for details.
• Sepher Lida, the Yizkor Book for Lida
• Yad Vashem
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
• Holocaust Survivors web site
  
• Defiance (the movie)
• Jewish Belarus
  
• Jewish Encyclopedia online
• The Library of Congress has the 1923 Polish business directory online. It is not searchable, and there are no listings by town. It's organized by product category nationwide. 
• The index of business types  (in French). 
• Table of Contents (in English)
• The actual list of of businesses alphabetized by business type starts here
  
• Belarus.NET (The link was https://www.belarus.net/polyfact/index.htm ; but Belarus' internet was shut down late in 2020. As of 4/2021, I don't have information that it's back up, and this link is broken.)