The 1904 Candle Tax list held in the Ukrainian State Archives of the Vinnytsia Region (reference number D286/1/295) is the main source for Jewish Genealogy in Ternivka. This is due to the unfortunate loss of almost all primary sources available for this town: the 1897 census questionaires; revision lists; and vital records.

The Candle Tax list includes 465 names together with social class and amount of tax paid. It is not clear whether the names on the list consist of household names or of the names of family heads. If the former is the case, some households may have included more than one family unit, implying that a few names of family heads might not have been registered. As the tax list also includes people exempted from the tax, we may reasonably assume that it is the most complete list of Jewish households (i.e., families) living in the Jewish community of Ternivka at the turn of the twentieth century.

All persons on the list were members of the townspeople social class. No other data on family members is given except for the patronymic, which is provided for two-hundred-twenty-four members. In a few cases, recurring pairs of patronymic and surname suggests a familial relationship.

Two listed members are females (Zeyda Friker and Ilyuba Potanska, most probably because they are either widows or divorced.

Besides the genealogical picture of the community, the Candle Tax list provides a very basic economic view of the community. About one-quarter of the Ternivka Jewish population was exempted from the tax, in most cases presumably due to their poor economic condition. However, a few of them may have been exempted as officials of the Jewish community.

Another quarter of the Jewish population paid the lowest possible tax, up to one-half a ruble (one ruble was worth about fifty-two U.S. dollars in 2013). Only two families (those of Hershko Monastyrsky and Yankel Khaimov Tokman) paid the highest possible tax of 3.5 rubles (182 U.S. dollars in 2013). Five families (those of Itsko Kuperman, Hershko Chervatsky, Duvid Ios Mitmaylovsky, Moshko Nukhim Gorobetsky, and Menashe Shulimov Berdeichevsky) paid three rubles each year. As the Candle Tax was not the only tax to be paid each year, the actual total tax burden was much higher.

The table below shows the distribution of the number of taxpayers by tax bracket. The 1904 Tax List containing the names of the 465 Ternivka (Haisyn Uyezd, Podolia Gubernia) taxpayers can be viewed by clicking on 1904 Tax List. The original list can be found in the Ukrainian State Archives of the Vinnytsia Region, Fond D286; Inventory 1; file 295.