The following fields appear in the database:
| Surname | Given Name | Patronymic | YOB | YOD | Page | Rel | Sex | Same Person | Town | Comments |
Surname: The surname of the person enumerated. The spelling of these names is often problematic. It is difficult to tell whether the differences are real or just transliteration errors.
Given Name: The given name of the person enumerated.
Patronymic: The person's father's name as derived from the patronymic. Abramov would be listed as Abram.
YOB: Year of Birth. Determined by subtracting the age as it appeared on the census from the census year. Age 45 1874 - 45 = 1829
YOD: Year of Death. In 1834 there were two columns on the left-hand (male) page titled: Age At Last Revision and Current Status. Many entries were for men (only men) who had died since the last revision (1818). In those cases the YOD is the year taken from the census. In other cases the YOD is derived from the practice of Jews in Belarus of naming their children after a dead grandparent. Therefore, if a child has the same name as his father's father. The YOD is the grandchild's
YOB. More precisely "the grandfather's YOD occurred before the stated date".
Page: The page number as it appears in the upper right hand corner. Each page could have one or many families. In all cases the left-hand page listed the males. The right hand page listed the females. Where a single family occupied the entire page the decimal position contains zeros. Where multiple families were enumerated on a page the decimal indicates the family, counting from the top of the page. In many cases a line was drawn across the page separating the different families.
Rel: Relationship to the head of the household. The oldest male was usually the head of household. Everyone else was described as they are related to him, as follows:
H Head of household M Mother W Wife D1-n Daughter with a number indicating the age order. So1-n Son with a number indicating the age order. B1-n Brother with a number indicating the age order. S1-n Sister with a number indicating the age order. C Cousin. Ni Niece. Ne Nephew. A Aunt MIL Mother-in-Law. BIL Brother-in-Law GM Grandmother. R Relative, the relationship is not described further. F Father, In 1834 newborn sons were entered with the entry signed by the father. X
The father of the head of household as derived from the patronymic. This person was not present in the house when the census was taken. He may be the head of another household or may be dead. The Year of Birth was assumed to be 25 years before the head of household. If the mother of the head was present her age gave a clue to the derived father's Year of Birth. To make these derived individuals further stand out they are in italics. Combinations of the relationships are easy to understand. So1W = First son's wife B2So1 = Second brother's first son.
Sex: M=male, F=female.
Same Person: In many instances the fathers derived from the patronymic (X) appear several times. That can happen if they have several sons, each with his own household. There is no certainty in indicating that two or more entries may be the same person. It just means that there were several entries with the same name, in the same town with year of birth very close.
It also appeared that a son enumerated in 1834 might be enumerated as a head of household in 1834
Town: Self explanatory.
Comments: In some instances a comment was added after the census that said that the person had moved. In the 1834 revision there were comments about a person having been recruited and the year. In other instances questions about the entry or its quality are entered.
© 2000 Belarus SIG