Our database consists of Jewish surnames out of census documents and vital records. As a rule, the whole family can be found on a page underneath the head of the family name, but this is not always the case. For example, if somebody with your family name appears on the result page without his/her age specified, it is likely that the data was taken from the list of homeowners. In such case, you cannot obtain any additional information about the family of this homeowner from the photocopy. You can only learn where exactly your ancestor’s house was located. If the age is specified, this also cannot guarantee that the rest of his family will be listed together with him. (e.g. your ancestor could have rented the room in the house belonging to other people, or could have been working somewhere without his family).
Vital records could be marriages, divorces, birth and death records.
Registration
The search
The search in the database is done according to the following transliteration (Russian sounds are written in Latin letters)
А = A, Б = B, В = V, Г = G, Д = D, Е = Е , Ё = Y, Ж = ZH or Z , З = Z ,И = I. Й = Y
К = K , Л = L, М = M, Н = N, О = O, П = P, Р = R, С = S, Т = T, У = U, Ф = F, Х = CH, Ц = TS,Ч = CH ( Attention, the same as Х), Ш = SH, Щ = SHCH,Ъ and Ь = no marking, Ы = Y (the same as Й)Э = E (the same as Е), Ю = YU , Я = YA
e.g. Рабинович – would be recorded in the database like Rabinovich
You have to consider that handwriting in the censuses is extremely difficult to read, the names could be written in different variations. Therefore, if a desired name cannot be found, we advise you to look for a name variations: without the first letter or using alternative vowels and/or do not using endings. For example, if the family name is Galperin, you can try Alperin or Perin first. If you family name is Gartshteyn, we advise you to try all possible variations, such as Gershteyn, Gertshten, Girsht, Gart, Garsh and so on. All the names that contain the requested combination would appear in search results. Census enumerators in the Russian Empire were not so literate and they made records by ear. It happens often that relatives of the same family are recorded differently. It is important to mention that the names could be written with or without the Russian letter Й (Y – in our transliteration). So the same person could be recorded as Rosenfeland Royzenfel in different documents. The letter Y can be inserted in any surname. The vowels can both disappear and appear in surnames.
In case you are not able to find the name, you can always order search at our company. The same you can do if you have too many results for your family name and you are not sure regarding your choice. (additional price )