Kovno records

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Search the All-Lithuania Database at http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/all.htm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~LITVAKSIG Digest for Sunday, September 24, 2006.1. Kaunas Resources2. Kaunas Resources - Addendum----------------------------------------------------------------------Subject: Kaunas ResourcesFrom: Ada Green Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 12:31:02 -0400X-Message-Number: 1On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:49:29 -0400 Joel Ratner wrote:> In response to Miahael Notis' query about Kovno records, there is a coordinator for the> Kovno District Research group [Rabbi Ben-Tsion Saydman], who, along with the longtime> past Kovno district coordinator, Ada Green, may be able to come up with a similar list.> Ada has compiled tens of thousands of records for the Kovno district over the years.Because my focus over the past 11 years has been almost exclusively with cataloging cemetery and landsmanshaftn plots, I haven't been anywhere as diligent as Joel has for Vilnius in compiling a list of resources for Kaunas district that aims towards comprehensiveness.While I was LitvakSIG Kaunas district research group co-ordinator from 2001 to April 2006, I compiled a listing of all documents that the Kaunas district research group has received from its inception (circa 1997-98) through April 2006. That list can be found at http://home.att.net/~kaunas/kaunasuyezd.htm and to the best of my knowledge it is still current. Most of these documents are in the All Lithuania Database(ALD) at http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/searchald.htm. For information on joining the LitvakSIG Kaunas district research group, please contact my successor, Rabbi Benzi Saydman at <>.Since my interpretation of Michael Notis' message is that it refers to the City of Kaunas (as opposed to the entire Kaunas District), I have just compiled a quick "on the fly" list of websites that contain important resources that exist for the City of Kaunas, as follows:A. Revision and Family Lists, Tax and Voters Lists, etc. The vast majority of the lists that the LitvakSIG Kaunas district research group has received to date come from the Kaunas Regional Archives (KRA). Their listing of City of Kaunas holdings can be found in the KRA Online Catalog at http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/HTML/kaunas1.htm Admittedly this catalog needs to be updated because more documents have been discovered at the KRA in recent years, perhaps not necessarily for the City of Kaunas itself, but certainly for other towns.B. Vital Records. Birth, death and marriage records are located in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius and the ones up to 1915 have been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah. As best as I can determine from the Locality Index to Lithuanian Jewish Vital Records Microfilms at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/FHLC/lit002.html , vital records exist for the City of Kaunas for the following years:Births -- all years between 1842 to 1914 except 1844-1848, 1851-1853, 1856-57, 1864Deaths -- 1896-1914Marriages -- 1881-1914Metrical books of the Kaunas Rabbinate not microfilmed are:Births, marriages and deaths -- 1922-1939Divorces -- 1913-1914 and 1922-1939Note that any vital records that were not microfilmed may be subject to Lithuanian 100-year privacy restrictions which were imposed on the Lithuanian archives when Lithuania joined the EU.For more information about organized Lithuanian Jewish vital records translation projects, please see the LitvakSIG Vital Records Translation Project website at http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeol99x/ and the JewishGen vital records database at http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Lithuania/VitalRecs.htmC. YIVO's Lithuanian Jewish Communities Collection. This is an eclectic collection consisting of thousands of documents primarily for the period of Lithuanian independence between the two World Wars, most of which focus mainly on the early 1920's. The documents are in Yiddish, Lithuanian, Russian, Hebrew and perhaps other languages. The genealogical and/or historical value of the documents ranges from the useless side of useless to fabulous gems and it requires someone with a familiarity with these languages to carefully look through each town's documents and sift out the pearls from amongst the oysters.YIVO's Lithuanian Jewish Communities Collection catalog, which is not online, does not contain a good description of each town's holdings and it is impossible to determine from the catalog as to which items are of genealogical value. The holdings for the City of Kaunas are in folders 902-905 (totalling 181 pages), 1399-1417, 1419, 1421-30, 1434-36, 1438-42, 1451, 1478, 1540, 1568, 1570, 1587, 1672-75. Please contact me privately as to the catalog folder descriptions for the City of Kaunas, although I have no personal familiarity with these particular documents and cannot tell you what they are about.D. Cemeteries. With the exception of Ohel Jacob Anshe Kovno Congregation at Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago (which contains over 7,000 burials, the majority of whom were not from Kovno), I have cataloged all known Kovno landsmanshaftn plots in the USA -- in New York, New Jersey, West Roxbury, MA, and Chicago (Kovner Verein Branch #304 W.C., which is also at Waldheim Cemetery). The burials can be searched in the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry at If anyone is aware of a Kovno landsmanshaft plot elsewhere in the USA or Canada, please let me know.Unfortunately YIVO does not currently appear to have records for any Kovno society in its cataloged landsmanshaftn collection listed at http://home.att.net/%7Elandsmanshaft/yivo.htmE. Lithuania Internal Passport Project. The last entry listed under the City of Kaunas in the KRA Online Catalog (see item A. above) is 1919-1940 Passport Cards. There are approximately 20,000 cards for Jews who applied for internal passports in Kaunas between 1919 and 1940. 12,000 of these records are currently in the JewishGen Lithuanian Internal Passport Applications database, with the remainder to come in the future. For more information about this project, please seehttp://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Lithuania/InternalPassports.htmF. Books. Books that contain a history and description of pre-war Lithuanian Jewish shtetls and towns, including Kaunas, are listed under Regions: Lithuania on the JewishGen yizkor book page at <> These books are in Yiddish or Hebrew and the goal of the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project is to support translation projects so that the resources can be accessible to all. To date none of the articles in these books pertaining to the City of Kaunas has been translated for the JewishGen yizkor book site.G. Shtetl page for the City of Kaunas at http://www.gutstein.net/kaunas/kaunas-home.htm created by web-talentedJose Gutstein.Based on the limited amount of activity that I see from City of Kaunas researchers for items B., E. and F. above, hope that more Kaunas researchers will become motivated because there's almost an unlimited amount of records for that genealogically very important town that need to be translated.That all being said, from a Jewish population standpoint Kaunas was not the largest town in Kaunas District, but rather that distinction goes to Slobodka Vilijampole. Indeed Vilijampole had the largest Jewish population in all of Kovno Guberniya. Will write a similar posting about Vilijampole resources at another time, but for now suffice to say that all of the websites mentioned above are also relevant for Vilijampole.Note to Michael Notis only: according to Kaunas district lists for the 2nd half of the 19th c., the surname NOTES is found primarily in Vilijampole (and to a lesser extent in Jonava), but not in Kaunas.Shana tovah,Ada Greenadagreen@att.net----------------------------------------------------------------------Subject: Kaunas Resources - AddendumFrom: Ada Green Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:44:02 -0400X-Message-Number: 2In my prior message about important Kaunas resources, I accidentally omitted the 18th century Grand Duchy records for Lithuania and Belarus that are being translated by the Jewish Family History Foundation http://www.jewishfamilyhistory.org. These include the 1784 and 1765 census lists for Kaunas and Vilijampole kahal [Jewish community]. Vilijampole is part of Kaunas now, records show it as a separate community in the 19th c. in the Russian Empire period, but during the Grand Duchy period the 1784 list is labeled "Kaunas and Vilijampole kahal," though the records show most of the people living in Vilijampole.The Jewish Family History Foundation has also translated early 19th c. revision lists for Kaunas towns, some of which were in the Raseiniai district before the Kaunas district existed.Ada Greenadagreen@att.net---END OF DIGEST---Post messages to and visit our home page http://www.jewishgen.org/litvakLitvakSIG is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation.Contributions to LitvakSIG http://www.jewishgen.org/litvak/HTML/donor.htmby check or credit card are tax-deductible as provided by law. Mail contributions to LitvakSIG, inc., ., File 50194, Los Angeles, CA 90074-0194 Contribution forms may be faxed to 717/815-0082. 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