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Jewish Tavern Keepers 
Registering in Lyakhovichi (1805)

This is an unusual list of 50 or so Jewish tavern keepers in the Novogrudok "povet" (=district in Polish) of the Minsk Gubernya who, in accordance with Russian law (1795),  were seeking to register themselves and their family groups as "petty bourgeois"  ("meshchane" in Russian) in the nearby town of Lyakhovichi ("Lechovich" in Yiddish).  It is not immediately clear why such a list should have been put together late in 1805.

According to the notes, almost 90% of the Jews on the list fall into three broad categories: 
· 18 were born in the Lyakhovichi area and had returned to it after a certain absence;
· 16 had come in recent years to live in the area from outside;
· 19 were registered for some reason in the "Kahal" (Jewish community) List of the small town of Stvolovichi, 15 1/2 miles to the north-west of Lyakhovichi and were seeking to re-register (of these, 7 had been born in Lyakhovichi).

In December 1804, Jews had been required by law to adopt permanent surnames,  but by the time this list was prepared most had still not done so. Except for three families (Busel, Epshten & Epshtel), all the rest identified themselves - or were identified by the Russian officials - by the use of patronyms (based on their fathers' names) or toponyns (based on their places of origin) as "surnames". So, for example, 8 are called "Lyakhovitski".

Only five of the 33 separate "surnames" on the list (Busel, Epshten, Epshtel, Berkovich and Snovsky) appear in the 1816-19 Revision (Census) Lists for Lyakhovichi. This seems to imply that, in the decade after 1805, the 28 bearers of the other names on the list went off and adopted different surnames of their own for permanent use (= good insight to name formation). 

As a result, the "surnames" on the list are probably misleading. Given names look reliable.

Most of the family groups are small, suggesting that parents managed to keep many of their children off the lists (perhaps to avoid taxes, as conscription of Jews only began in 1827).

Ages given, especially the more advanced, often may really be approximations.  Only 27 of the 250 or so people on the list are shown as 50 years old and above, which may say something about life expectancy at the time.

Most of the Jews were born in the Novogrudok "povet" or in the nearby districts of Slutsk and Slonin. Exceptionally, one had been born in Pinsk, about 65 miles south. Their taverns were located in seven "parafiya's" (sub-districts) within a radius of about 10 miles from Lyakhivichi. 

Most of the villages mentioned were tiny and several may have been hamlets at best.  The number of Jewish taverns, especially in such isolated places, seems remarkable. 

Very little personal information is offered. Two Jews are specifically recorded as distillers ("liquor makers"), perhaps beyond being tavern keepers. Another couple are laborers.

The region had been part of Poland until 1795 and thus the land and villages belonged to Polish nobles, petty aristocracy and country squires, whose names are meticulously recorded.  Some land belonged to the Church (mainly Polish Roman Catholic), including a Seminary  in Vilna, about 125 miles away.

Polish terms and administrative divisions were still in use. This was soon to change to Russian.

Neville Lamdan,
Vatican, December 2000.

© 2001 Belarus SIG