The Courland Family Lists

10,012 Records

Recruits Enlistment Registers and the Bausk Family Census · Courland · Latvia

Background

This database brings together material extracted from a number of separate lists: the names of adult family members taken from the official Jewish Military Recruits Registers of the ten major cities of Courland, together with an 1874 family census list from Bauska. It contains nearly 8,000 entries, referring to over 11,000 named individuals.

Bausk [Bauska] Family Census Lists, 1874

Friedrickstadt [Jaunjelgava] Recruits Enlistment Register, 1845

Goldingen [Kuldiga] Recruits Enlistment Registers, 1871

Grobin [Grobina] Recruits Enlistment Registers, 1868 (390 records)

Hasenpoth [Aizpute] Recruits Enlistment Registers, 1871

Jacobstadt [Jekabpils] Recruits Enlistment Registers, 1871 (1,200 records)

Libau [Liepaja] Recruits Enlistment Registers, 1868

Mitau [Jelgava] Recruits Enlistment Register, 1845 (4,000 entries)

Pilten [Piltene] Recruits Enlistment Registers, 1871

Tukum [Tukums] Recruits Register, 1871 (2,500 entries)

Windau [Ventspils] Recruits Enlistment Registers

Recruits Enlistment Registers

Recruitment lists were drawn up on the order of the Tsarist government to serve as the basis on which individuals were selected for military service. The process applied to all inhabitants irrespective of religion or nationality, but the registers relating to the Jewish community were kept separately, because Jews were considered a separate nationality as well as a separate religion. Similar registers existed for the other major community groups.

The original lists are handwritten in German. Each family unit is identified by a family number, and the members of the family and their ages are listed; the family number is cross-referenced to the Oklad [tax] number for the family in the same district or region. A comprehensive picture of the family mattered because exemptions existed — for only sons, for a sole surviving son where the eldest had died, for sons of widowed mothers, and so on. These exemptions changed as recruitment policy changed, but the lists provided the official factual basis on which the authorities worked.

This database concentrates primarily on the adult members of the households and does not generally record child entries from the original list. The purpose of the database was to give a good coverage of identified families for initial research with a view to finding further details either from the Latvian State Historical Archives or from other sources that will be coming on line, in particular the official Russian Government Gazette for Courland, known as the Kurlandia Gubernskya Vedomosti or the “Vedomosti”.

The Vedomosti contains many lists of many Jewish military recruits chosen to serve. In addition there are regular reports of recruits failing to appear as directed for military service or who are subject to arrest because they have fled from military service. Some, but by no means the majority, of these reports relate to Jewish conscripts.

These contemporary news reports are fascinating sources for the family historian as they often contain descriptions of the wanted person and other family details. The Courland Research Group is currently indexing all Jewish entries in the Vedomosti and have completed the years 1853–1858. That database, which includes further material relating to Jews and military services, will be on line shortly.

The fact that many Jews served loyally in the military can be seen from the Jewish Inhabitants of Riga Database. If you search on “soldier” you will see the names of many retired soldiers registered in Riga — some in receipt of a pension — and many of the Jewish entries listed in the Courland Duma Voter’s lists as being in receipt of a pension are, in fact, retired soldiers.

Bausk Family Census Lists for 1874

This list was created in 1874 as part of a census of local inhabitants carried out at the same time in a number of Courland communities. The original is handwritten in German Fraktur Script and forms part of the holdings of the Latvian State Historical Archives in Riga. The original list contains children as well as adults and the format is not very different from that used in the Enlistment Registers referred to above, although the purpose for which the list was compiled was different.

The database consists mainly of adult members of the community, both male and female, and makes it possible to identify the Jewish families living in the area in or about 1874. Part of the value of the list is that it was amended from time to time up until the early 1900’s as individuals died or moved abroad. In the case of some entries it is possible to find information of particular importance from a family history point of view. For example, annotations to the original 1871 list include the following:

Chaim Abramsohn — died 1907 Moscow
Behr Israelsohn — died 15 June 1892 in New York
Moses Israelsohn — died 22 December 1899 in Jerusalem
Itzig Lewensohn — died 10 November 1892 in Benderi, Besarabija

This kind of information not only opens new avenues for individuals searching for family roots but it also provides important information about the social history of the Jewish communities of Courland, emigration and travel. This database is an ongoing project and it is anticipated that entries will be added as new towns are extracted. The goal is to provide not only a rich source for family historians but also to create a resource that will provide data of general interest to historians of the Jews of Courland.

The Database Entry Fields

Family Number
The lists were compiled on a family basis and the original lists allocate a number to each family. The family numbers in the case of Bausk have not been recorded in the database although they do exist in the original list. Noting the family number helps you to distinguish between direct ancestors and collateral family in the form of potential Aunts, Uncles, Cousins etc.
Oklad Number
The Oklad referred to the families tax reference number. Tax lists were very comprehensive and the inhabitants of each town and community were allocated an Oklad number. Each family is cross-referenced so that the original list compiler would have checked the information supplied against the information given on other occasions. Like family numbers, the Oklad number can help to distinguish separate family units with the same name.
Family Name
This refers to the family’s surname. These were German in form so that, for example, families which later became Israelson will be spelled Israelsohn in these lists. Despite a policy of Russification in the Empire from the 1860’s onwards, it is a remarkable feature that these official lists are all in German rather than Russian. Courland retained its character as a Baltic German province and the enduring use of German for administrative purposes until the end of the century is notable.
Maiden Name
In the case of a woman, her name at birth. This helps to trace female lines of the family which are typically more difficult to establish. Unfortunately only a low percentage of maiden names are recorded, but they are included where available.
First Names / Given Names
This refers to the person’s first or given name or names. Many of these are of Hebrew or Yiddish origin. The original spelling has been retained even where it is inconsistent in the original document.
Father’s Name
Over 2,000 entries in the database include the first names of the entrant’s father, thereby giving you 2 generations in respect of the family. This is consistent with the Russian practice of recording the patronymic as part of the official name or family identity. In some cases, this information used together with the Family and Oklad numbers can help to establish collateral branches of the family and to help fill in family trees.
Age-in
This column gives you the entrant’s age in the year specified. For example, “34 in 1874” tells you that the person was 34 years old in 1874. Occasionally the column gives the person’s date of birth although this is rare.
Date of Death
This field will sometimes give you an exact date of death, but more typically simply the year of death. In the case of Bausk entries, this column sometimes includes additional information such as the place of death. If the date of death is later than the date of the list this means that the original list was amended at a subsequent date on the basis of information supplied to the registrar presumably from family members or friends.
Town
The modern name form is used, in keeping with JewishGen policy. This will help you search the JewishGen Family Finder to see if anyone else is searching this name in the locality. Where other towns or cities are mentioned such as in the place of death the original entry is preserved and the name is not updated. Remember that Recruits Enlistment Registers were undertaken by locality. The fact a person is registered in say, Friedrickstadt [Jaunjelgava] does not mean that the family lived inside the town of Friedrickstadt. Although they may have done so, it is also possible that they lived in the general registration district of Friedrickstadt. Unfortunately the original lists do not record addresses.
Type of List
This tells you what sort of list the information comes from.
Fond Number
This is the category number assigned to the document in the Riga archives and can help to locate the documents relevant to your family.