Lithuania, LitvakSIG Census & Family Lists from Various Districts, 1795-1900

Source Information

LitvakSIG
LitvakSIG. Lithuania, LitvakSIG Census & Family Lists from Various Districts, 1795-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
Original data: Original records located in various archives in Lithuania. Specific source information is provided with each record. Some of these records are also available on microfilm through the LDS Family History Library. This data is provided by LitvakSIG, an independent organization, in partnership with JewishGen.org.

About Lithuania, LitvakSIG Census & Family Lists from Various Districts, 1795-1900

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. The Revision Lists were first recorded in 1772. Revision Lists were revised or updated, sometimes several times, until the next census was recorded. Such information frequently covered a period of ten years or more.

Revision Lists are by far the most useful of all of the 19th century records. These records 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 most of the districts in the old Vilna, Kovno and Suwalki Guberniyas and include more than 200 towns that today lie within Disna, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Lida, Oshmiany, Panevezys, Raseniai, Siauliai, Svencionys, Telsiai, Trakai, Ukmerge, Vilnius, and Zarasai districts, plus Kalvarija, Kudirkos Naumiestis, Marijampole, Sejny, Suwalki and Vilkaviskis districts of Lithuania.

Fields found in the database include:

  • Town / Uyezd / Guberniya: All spellings within the database use the current names. To check on alternate spellings or names for your shtetl, or to find out in which Uyezd or Guberniya it was located, please go to the Shtetl, Uyezd, Guberniya table page on LitvakSIG.org.
  • Family Name (Surname): You may have noticed that very few surnames appear in the early Revision Lists. This is because at the time 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 last 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 within 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. For instance, if a family always lived in Kaunas but were officially registered in Uzventis, they would be listed on the Uzventis Revision List and not on the Kaunas Revision List. This information would appear in the comments.
  • 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 additional 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 if 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.
      • KRA = Kaunas Regional Archives.
      LVIA = Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius (Lietuvos Valstybes Istorijos Archyvas)

    For example, "KRA/I-106/1/5345" means Kaunas Regional Archives / Fond I-106 / Inventory 1 / File 5345.

For more information about this database, please visit the LitvakSIG website: Revision/Census/Family Lists Table.