UKRANIAN ARCHIVAL CENSUSES FOR PAVOLOCH

For some time Pavolochers have known that there exists a 1795 census for Pavoloch which, because it contains no surnames, is of problematic value. Miriam Weiner’s Routes to Roots website (www.rtrfoundation.org) recently listed an 1858 census which is available for Pavoloch. However, many additional census records for Pavoloch exist.

The Russian government began census counts (Revizakis Skazki—Revision Lists) early in the 18th century which produced many periodic lists and supplements thereto spanning more than 200 years (an in depth understanding of the Russian census is complicated). Unlike the US census, the Russian census had no fixed schedule and often a census would span several years. For Pavoloch, at least the following Revizakis Skazki exist and are accessible to researchers (none have as yet been filmed by the Mormon Church):

1834-1848

1850 (280/2/1012)

1852 (280/2/1072)

1858 (280/2/1490)

1859-1860

1872

1874 (12/3/664)

1896 (384/10/238).

The numbers following some of the years indicate the fond/opis/delo (record group/series/file) of that particular census. Of note is that some of the censuses and supplements list residents with place of registration while others list places of registration. The difference is not important to the extent that one is just seeking names, family relationships, and ages which appear in both types of records. The census records are in Russian.

The 1874 census supplement is known as the Jewish Census and has only the names of male residents but does indicate the official place of registration. The mother-lode for Pavolochers is the Special General Census of 1896 of all people registered in Pavloch which is quite extensive and often lists the occupation of the person.

All of the above census records are physically located in the State Archive of the Kiev Oblast in Kiev.

A personal note: the results that my researcher found in these records answered many long standing questions that I had thought could never be answered. The research linked me to two large families to whom I was sure I was related but could never prove or figure out how. The research also took my father’s lineage back an additional three generations to a great-great-great-grandfather born about 1776.

Richard Spector

Revised February, 2008