This dataset contains 113 entries for the town of Goscha.
It is a translation of the 1795 Census of Jews in towns of Ostrog District. The census books are in Ostrog, Ukraine at the local regional museum, the State Historical and Cultural Trust. Its official title is “OSTROG Head Tax Record for 1795”. It is found in book 4437. The census has 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; 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).
With three exceptions, no surnames are listed in the census. Moreover, although Jews frequently had more than one given name, Jewish entries are typically limited to a single given name along with the patronymic (the father’s given name). The head of each household is listed first, followed by family members. Ages and occupations are included, together with useful notes for a fair number of entries.
Still, it is difficult to identify an ancestor without the help of a surname. A useful aid in identification would ordinarily be to combine the information provided in the 1795 census with information gathered from subsequent censuses, by which time surnames were routinely used in official records. The Kremenets District Research Group has translated an 1816 Census for the Kremenets District that contains 2,526 records for Ostrog. A searchable index to these records is available on the Kremenets KehilaLinks website. In addition, the Ostrog museum has the 1850 and 1858 census records. Both of these collections will be helpful in tracing ancestors into the 1795 Census.
The translator worked from digital 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. Dr. Mel Werbach initiated the Ukraine SIG Fundraising Project and served as Translation Project Leader. In addition, your generous financial contributors made it possible for us to engage a professional translator who could work with three languages, Russian, Polish, and English.
The translation spreadsheet has been posted in the JewishGen Ukraine Database. Be sure to read the document that describes the Census. The document and the spreadsheet are available on the Ostrog KehilaLinks website. Scroll to the bottom of the Census webpage for a link to the spreadsheet. Or, you can download the spreadsheet by clicking on this link. |