Shtetl Links: Lyakhovichi

The 1784 Lyakovichi Poll Tax list translation ©2008 Jewish Family History Foundation is published with the permission of the Jewish Family History Foundation. Contact them at GDLProject@aol.com for information about other town poll tax lists in what is today Belarus, Lithuania, or Ukraina. See their website: www.jewishfamilyhistory.org for lists of other towns currently indexed or available to become so; articles on using the GDL records, or for assistance in organizing a GDL Project for your town. The images of the pages related to Lyakhovichi are held in the Lithuanian State Archives and were provided to the Lyakhovichi Research Group by the Family History Foundation. The valuable contribution of the Family History Foundation, to research in this region cannot be overstated.

Notes on the Images
The images included for "miasto Lachowicze" begin on page stamped 641 of an oversized ledger. The next page is handmarked, presumably by the original holder or an archivist 641ov (that is obverse), followed by 642, 642ov, 643, 643ov, 644, 644ov. That is the final page and on it are the Hebrew signatures of people who have the authority to attest to such a document for the "kahal of miasta Lachowicz." The document begins with miasta Lachowicze on page 641 and continues until the end of page 642ov documenting the residents of the town. At the bottom of page 642ov, you will see a line and a total number which appears to indicate that there are 352 people in miasta Lachowicze itself. On the next page, the enumerator begins listing the small towns around Lachowicze and continues doing so until the last page of the document where there is a second total. Under that second total is the attestation and Hebrew signatures by responsible parties of the town.

The large page on the left-hand side of this page is a good start to illustrating the problems and opportunities associated with this document. It is very large and in fact, the image is broken into two parts because of the limits of putting the paper copies on a scanner not designed for documents larger than legal size.

Each line is a single family. In the town of Lachowicze whose inhabitants cover 4 pages, most heads of family are listed with a patronymic with an interesting set of exceptions. There are no patronymics for two men designated as Rabbi (rabbin), 1 man designated as Teacher (szkolnik), and several men whose occupations are listed. The heads of family are listed, then their wives, and then sons and daughters who are living in their houses. Unlike what the folks at the Jewish Family History Foundation have noted in other places, there are no non-Jews included in this list. No noblemen, no owners of property leased to Jews, - the enumeration entirely separates the Jews from other inhabitants of the area. Unlike nineteenth-century property records of Russian Lyakhovichi, which shows Jews, Poles, Russian Orthodox, and Tatars, all in the same documents, this set of documents about the Lyakhovichi kahal has no overlaps with the surrounding community.

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Images of Each Page in the 1784 Poll Tax List of Lyakhovichi Kahal
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