Dear Supporters of the Rumshishok 1806 Revision List Translation Project:

Mazel Tov! Attached is the spreadsheet for the Rumsiskes 1806 Revision List. The template used is basically the same as has been used for the LitvakSIG revision lists. The original document was in particularly bad condition, but by enlarging it the translators were able to make it readable. The format of the original is similar to the later revision lists, but one difference is that the men and women are on the same page rather than on facing pages.

This list contains families from the 1795 Revision List, and some updates in 1800 and then adds new families who came to live in Rumsiskes since 1795. Notes indicate that people died since 1795, moved away, and usually there is a date for this event, and to what other town they moved. There are no family numbers for the families from 1795 who have left, but there are family numbers for the families who are living there in 1806. There are notes telling from what other town the new families came.

There is a separate section, for which the family numbers begin again, for certain craftsman and also for farmers. There are some families who live in taverns in other villages which were part of the Rumsiskes kahal at this time.

The families living there in 1806 were using surnames, which is interesting since the law passed by the Russian government to take surnames was just issued in 1804. The predominant name is Codykow — looking at the later records, the Russian spelling is used — Tsodykov. Other surnames seem to be based on given names and may have been used temporarily, as it was not uncommon for families to change surnames even up to the 1834 revision list, according to Vitalija Gircyte, archivist for the Kaunas Regional Archives, which is where this document was recently found. This list is written in Polish, the official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, though this area became part of the Russian Empire in 1795. So they had not yet switched to Russian.

My thanks to the Jewish Family History Foundation and to your steadfast support. You made it happen. You helped blow the dust off of names that have been lying in the darkness for generations. I hope you find a link to your past and would be pleased to hear your success story.

BZ Saydman
DAR