1795 Ostrog District Jewish Census

Introduction

This database is a translation of the listings for Jews in the district of Ostrog in the census books for 1795.  These are the "Revision Lists" (in Russian: Ревизские сказки, "revizskie skazki") of the 5th revision of 1795.  The original records are located in Ostroh, Ukraine, at the local regional museum — the State Historical and Cultural Trust.  Its official title is translated as “Ostrog Head Tax Record for 1795”, and is found in book 4437.  The census contains a total of 2,951 names.

The census was conducted by the Russian government only two years after Ostroh was transferred from Poland to Russia (as part of the Second Partition of Poland, in 1793).  Therefore, it is not surprising that the left side of each page is in Russian, while the right side presents essentially the same data in Polish.  Since each listing was provided in two languages, it was possible to translate all of the pages that were photographed.  However, at least 3 pages of listings are missing in both languages, all of which belong to the "Ostrog / Old Town" section (located between photos #570 and #572, #631 and 633, and #736 and 737).

Area Covered

The areas covered by the Census are listed as follows in the database.  (Note: This is their original order in the census books).  This is the information listed in the "Town" and "Section" fields of the database.

Use of Surnames

With a single exception, there are no surnames listed this census.  This is not unusual for this period, since fixed hereditary surnames were not required for Jews in the Russian Empire until the early ninteenth century.  Jews were identified by the first names (given names) and their patronymic (their father's given name).  For more information about patronymics, click here.

Although Jews frequently had more than one given name, the listings in this census are usually limited to a single given name, along with the patronymic (father’s given name).  The head of each household is listed first, followed by family members.  Ages and occupations are listed, and additional notes are frequent.

Since it is often difficult to identify an ancestor without the help of a surname, a useful aid in identification is to combine the information provided in this census with information gathered from a subsequent Revision List (1834) census, by which time surnames were routinely used by Jews in official records.  Unfortunately, the museum does not have any records of the 1834 census and, furthermore, does not know where they are located.  However, they do have possession of the ninth (1850) and tenth (1858) Revision Lists for Ostrog.

Therefore, the best way to search this database is by using the "GivenName" search option.

Database Fields

While most of the data fields are self-explanatory, a few deserve further explanation:

• Year / Month / Day — The date on which the census was taken.
• Town / Section — The town name (most often "Ostrog"), and any sub-section of town, as enumerated above, under "Area Covered".
• House — The house number.
• Surname — in Russian and Polish.
• Given Name — in Russian and Polish.
• Patronymic — in Russian and Polish.
• Patronymic Root — the given name from which the patronymic is derived — in Russian and Polish.
• Relationship — relation of the individual to the head of the household.
• Occupation — usually only listed for the head of household.
• Sex — "M" for male, "F" for female.
• Age — Age, in years.
• Birth Year — the inferred birth year.
• Comments — various notes, regarding marital status, occupation, means of economic support, etc.
• Photo — These are the numbers of the photographs from which the database is derived.  The photographer, in an attempt to obtain images which were as clear as possible, sometimes took more than multiple photos of a page.  The clearest photo of each page was selected; thus missing photos do not usually indicate missing pages; instead they usually indicate that a page was photographed more than once.

Acknowledgements

The translator worked from photographs of the original pages.  These photographs were generously donated by Allan Dolgow, who arranged for them to be taken at the Ostrog State Historical and Cultural Trust.  (The Ostrog Museum is located at 5 Academicheskaya Street, 265620 Ostroh, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine.)   In addition, a number of financial contributors made the translation possible.

Mel Werbach, M.D.
mel@werbach.com
March, 2012

Search the Database

The 1795 Ostrog District Jewish Census can be searched via the JewishGen Ukraine Database.