The Shtetls of the Drohobycz Administrative District |
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What is a shtetl? |
In Eastern Europe, Jewish people often described a place of residence as a shtetl, which in Yiddish means a small town. The term covers a wide range of settlements, a large or small town, a village, or a one-horse settlement in the Carpathian Mountains. |
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Our ancestors, when referring to their place of origin, often used the name of the nearest large town such as Drohobyz or Borysław. However, often we discover that they were born in small villages nearby and used the names of the nearest large towns as a matter of convenience. Also, legal records of births, marriages, and deaths were made only in Borysław and Drohobycz. |
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See Communities and Statistics for a list of all the shtetls of the Drohobycz Administrative District. See also the section Other Shtetls which may help you find if your ancestor came from one of the smaller towns. Each town in this section has listings of names from the 1891 Galician Business Directory and the Polish Business Directory of 1929, although not all names of inhabitants in these villages would necessarily have been listed in these directories. |
Home Page for Drohobycz |
The home page for Drohobycz includes an illustrated history of the town until World War II. This history will also refer to other towns in the Drohobycz Administrative District, including the town of Borysław, which did not have its own kehilla until 1928. Please see the History section for a history of the World War II, A Brief History of Galicia, and information on the Petroleum industry. There is also an illustrated section on the Independent Drohobycz Young Men's Sick and |
Home Page for Borysław |
The home page for Borysław leads you to an illustrated account of the town until World War II. For further information on the history of the petroleum industry, a more general History of Galicia and a history of the World War II , please see the History Section. |
This page was created by Valerie Schatzker.