Category: Russian Empire

Alan Shuchat: History of Jewish Migration, the Diaspora, and Changing National Borders

3/17/2024

Where were the centers of Jewish population? How did changes in European history affect where Jews lived? How does this knowledge help us in researching our family backgrounds? Dr. Shuchat talked about the effect of changing borders on the language in which records were kept and where they can be found today. He also discusses how Jews emigrated from the Russian Empire and the various routes they took to leave.

Alan Shuchat is a retired mathematics professor who has been researching his family’s history for several decades. He is on the Program Committee of the JGS of Greater Boston, is active in genealogy SIGs, has helped members with Ukraine research and Russian translations, and has worked on translations for JewishGen databases. He has spoken on Jewish agricultural colonies, migration patterns, and finding records from the Russian Empire.

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Anna Royzner: Jewish Colonies and Shtetlah in the XIX-XX Centuries

2/25/2024

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To understand the Jewish life in the Russian Empire, we should go back a couple hundred years. The partitions of Poland, which took place at the end of the 18th century, led to the fact that almost a million mostly poor Jewish residents of Belarus, Lithuania, Podolia, Volhynia and most of central Poland turned out to be in the territory of Russia.

Jews were forced to leave their homes and move to Kherson, Yekaterinoslav and Tavria gubernias. The difficulties of this artificial resettlement of Jews from their usual occupations and trades and making them to do what they couldn’t do were obvious, but it did not stop the government. The desire of the authorities to solve three problems at the same time was paramount: To evict the Jews from the villages and thus reduce the Jewish population in the western provinces; To populate the desert lands of Novorossiya; And "correct the harmful Jews" by accustoming them to agriculture. In this way colonies were established.

Anna also spoke about the life of Jews in shtetlah later in the XX century. She showed Jewish houses, Jewish rooms, and talked about memories from her own childhood.

Anna Royzner is Ukrainian Jewish. In 1995, she started her work as a guide/interpreter and a researcher in Ukraine and Moldova. She conducts guided tours, helps clients find records in the Kishinev and Ukraine archives, and does cemetery projects. Anna has worked with the TV show 'Who do You Think You Are?' as a researcher and liaison with ancestral places.

Anna was a speaker at the IAJGS Conferences in Washington, Boston, Seattle, Orlando, and Warsaw, and online conferences in the Ukrainian and Bessarabian groups.

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David Brill: Getting the most from Revision Lists

9/10/2023

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Revision lists (revizskie skazki) are among the most important genealogical resources from the Russian Empire, and are often the only available confirmation that an ancestor actually lived in a particular shtetl. With the growing number of revision list translations on JewishGen and elsewhere, it is easier than ever to expand one's research beyond U.S.-based sources and discover previously unknown genealogical connections.

This talk helped both the novice and the experienced genealogist learn to navigate the world of revision lists. We covered:

What are revision lists? When and why were they created?
What are the differences between censuses and revision lists?
What can revision lists tell me about my family, and about shtetl life in general?
Where can I find revision lists for my town? Are they online?

We explored examples of original revision lists in Russian and showed how they can be used to trace Jewish families. The prospect of reading 19th-century handwritten records may seem daunting at first. But as more and more images of the original Russian-language documents become available to genealogists on the internet, the value of being able to read those records for oneself is undeniable. This talk shows how even with no initial knowledge of Russian you can, with a bit of practice, become a “maven” at recognizing key words, names and phrases.

David R. Brill is a longtime member of the Jewish Genealogical and Archival Society of Greater Philadelphia, and the coordinator of its Russian Interest Group.

For over 25 years, David has researched his family history in the countries of the former Russian Empire (especially Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Russian Poland). Over the years, his interest in this area led him to become a self-taught translator of prerevolutionary Russian-language genealogical records. Currently, he manages the Rovno District Jewish Records Project for JewishGen’s Ukraine Research Division, and is the JewishGen town leader for his ancestral shtetl of Tuchin (Ukraine).

David is a civil engineer with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. He lives in Cherry Hill, NJ.

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Getting the most from Revision Lists
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Jeffrey Mark Paull: The Jewish surname process in the Russian Empire and its effect on Jewish genealogy

1/23/2022

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The history of adopting, regulating, and using Jewish surnames in the Russian Empire is quite complex. There were many ways that Jewish surnames were created, assigned, or adopted, while tight restrictions were placed on changing or altering surnames.

As a result of Russian laws and mandates, many non-related Jewish individuals acquired the same surname, while many related family members acquired different surnames. This situation has created many challenges for genealogists who try to trace the ancestry or locate descendants of a particular Jewish lineage, many of whom have different surnames. It has created similar challenges for those interpreting the results of DNA tests for Jewish descendants.

This presentation explained the complexities surrounding the Jewish surname adoption process in the Russian Empire and its effect on Jewish genealogy.

Jeffrey Mark Paull was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He earned his BS in Chemistry and Master of Science in Industrial Hygiene from the University of Pittsburgh, and his MPH and Doctor of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. His career as an environmental toxicologist and scientific expert in the field of occupational and environmental health spans over thirty years (1976–2008).

Since that time, Dr. Paull has devoted himself to his passion for Jewish genealogical research and writing. Dr. Paull is very active in the field of genetic genealogy and has conducted numerous pioneering autosomal and Y-DNA research studies in which he and his research colleagues have identified the unique Y-DNA genetic signature of many of Eastern Europe’s most renowned rabbis and tzaddiks, rabbinical lineages, and Chassidic dynasties, in addition to that of John Hart, the 13th Signer of the Declaration of Independence, and one of America's Founding Fathers.

More in-depth information regarding Dr. Paull's books, and related genealogy and family history publications, may be found on his website: www.ANobleHeritage.com and his Facebook page: https://facebook.com/ANobleHeritage. Research questions may be directed to him at [email protected].

You can get on Dr. Paull's mailing list to receive periodic emails about new articles and books by clicking this link:
Join my mailing list!

The handouts

Contact Info & Useful Links
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Alan Shuchat: History of Jewish Migration, the Diaspora, and Changing National Borders

The handout

The recorded presentation

Anna Royzner: Jewish Colonies and Shtetlah in the XIX-XX Centuries

The recorded presentation

David Brill: Getting the most from Revision Lists

The handout

The recorded presentation

Jeffrey Mark Paull: The Jewish surname process in the Russian Empire and its effect on Jewish genealogy

The handouts

The recorded presentation

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Alan Shuchat: History of Jewish Migration, the Diaspora, and Changing National Borders

The handout

The recorded presentation

Anna Royzner: Jewish Colonies and Shtetlah in the XIX-XX Centuries

The recorded presentation

David Brill: Getting the most from Revision Lists

The handout

The recorded presentation

Jeffrey Mark Paull: The Jewish surname process in the Russian Empire and its effect on Jewish genealogy

The handouts

The recorded presentation

Program Archive SearchThis page contains an archive of information collected from our monthly programs. Use the links below to search by month or by category.Month

Categories

Program Archive Search
This page contains an archive of information collected from our monthly programs. Use the links below to search by month or by category.

Month