Listes de révision juives, recensements et listes de familles de divers districts, Biélorussie, 1795 à 1890

Historical Background

The Reviska Skazka (Revision Lists) were censuses conducted in territories ruled by the Russian Czar in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Revision Lists enumerated only those individuals subject to taxation. The data was also utilized for identifying men to draft into the army. There were ten known major Reviska Skazka taken between 1720 and 1858. Revision Lists were revised or updated, sometimes several times, until the next count was recorded. Such information frequently covered a period of ten years or more.

Revision Lists were written in Russian (Cyrillic), German, or Polish depending on time period and locality. Some records contain additional notations written in Yiddish or Hebrew.

About the Database

This database contains Revision, family, census, and town resident lists for years ranging from 1795 into the early 20th century. They are for districts that lie in present-day Belarus.

Fields found in the database include the following:

• Town / Uyezd / Guberniya: All spellings within the database use the current names.
• Family Name (Surname): You may have noticed that very few surnames appear in the early Revision Lists. This is because the majority of Jews at the time did not have or use surnames, although some families began using surnames as early as 1816. By 1834, family names began to appear more frequently.
• Given Name
• Father
• Relationship to Head of Household
• Age at Last Revision / Age: Age given at present enumeration. In addition to the adults listed, names and ages of children born between the years of the prior census and each revision were recorded.
• Reason Left: This field explains what happened to people registered on the list since the last census. For example, moving to another town, conscripted into the military, or "missing" to avoid conscription.
• Year Left
• Page Number: The page number in the original document on which this record appears.
• Comments: The comments in this field do not appear on the original lists. They were added by the translators and include information found on the original lists that may not fit into a specific column or field.
• Day / Month / Year
• Family Registration Number: Registration number during this census count. References such as “2 to 43” mean that this registration “2” on the supplemental revision list is related to registration“43” on the primary revision list.
• Former Registration Number: Family registration number given during the last census count.
• Type of Record: Denotes whether the record is a Revision List, an Additional Revision List (lists made after the original revision documenting those who may have been absent at last revision, or other changes in status), a Tax List, Voter's List, or other type of record.
• Archive/Fond/Inventory/File Number: Indicates the archive and number of location of the specific file.

             NARB (Grodno) = National Archives of the Republic of Belarus in Grodno (Nattsionalnii Archiv Respubliki Belarus)

             NHAB = National Historic Archives of Belarus

             BGIA = National Archives of Belarus (Belarusskii Gosudarstvennii Istoricheskii Arkhiv)

             Grodno BGIA = NHAB (Grodno)

             Minsk NIA = NHAB (Minsk)

             For example, “NHAB/I-106/1/5345” means National Historic Archives of Belarus / Fond I-106 / Inventory 1 / File 5345.