Estonia Gazetteers

In order to research your family in Estonia, it is essential that you have identified the actual town name of where they came from. It is not enough to know only ‘Estonia;' you really need to determine the town name the district/province name.

Once you have determined the name of the town your ancestor came from, you'll need to locate it in a gazetteer to find both current and historical town names, jurisdictions, and the parish.

Introduction
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or index. Depending on the gazetteer, it may contain information about locations such as: Estonia was formerly the Estland Gubernia of the Russian Empire.
 * their jurisdictions (gubernia, province, county, uyezd, etc.)
 * parish churches or synagogues
 * location of civil registration offices
 * population numbers
 * postal facilities
 * communication facilities (telephone, telegraph, and so on)
 * local commerce, agriculture, manufacturing works, canals, docks, and railroad stations
 * schools, colleges, and universities

JewishGen Communities Database
The JewishGen Communities Database contains data on approximately 6,000 Jewish Communities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It is a great resource to help you locate your ancestor's town - regardless of whether or not your ancestor was Jewish. You can use this database to find modern and historical place names as well as jurisdictions over time. To learn how to use the JewishGen Communities Database, see the "How to" Guide.
 * First, read through the [[Media:1 - Instruction - JewishGen Communities JMR.pdf|Instruction.]]


 * Practice what you learned with the [[Media:2 - Activity - JewishGen Communities JMR.pdf|Activity.]]


 * Use the [[Media:3 - Key - JewishGen Communities JMR (1).pdf|Answer Key]] to check your answers.

Familio
The Familio place name database contains information about places in the former Russian Empire and modern-day countries of Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Ukraine, and Russia. In order to use the database, you will need to search using the Russian spelling of a town name. This can be located through Google Maps or Wikipedia articles about the town.

The website is is in Russian, but can be easily navigated using Google Translate. To translate the page into English, right click anywhere on the page and select the option Translate to English. To search, type the Russian version of the town name into the search by settlements box. You must type the name of the town in Russian characters. If you search in English, you will not get any results. You have the option to filter by country (Страна), Region (Регион), and District (translates as area) (Район). Hit enter on your keyboard, or click Find (Найти). Search results will then appear.

An entry contains information about a town including references to other gazetteers (may link to the Spiski Mest), for both historical time periods, as well as modern day gazetteers. There may also be additional information about the town available by investigating the tabs found underneath the map:
 * If you click on the Surnames (Фамилии) tab, you'll find other surnames that other Familio users are researching.
 * The People (Люди) tab includes individuals in the Familio family tree database associated with the town.
 * Sources (Источники) are a list of available records for the location (this has not been added for many entries in the database, but will be added in the future).
 * The Parishes (Приходы) option lists the nearest parishes (this has not been added for many entries in the database, but will be added in the future).
 * The Discussion (Обсуждение) tab is available to collaborate about the town with other Familio users.

Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii
The Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii, often referred to as simply the Spiski, is the foundational gazetteer for the Russian Empire. The gazetteer is organized by locality - first by gubernia (province), then by uyezd (county), and finally by the city, village, colony, or town. Each volume contains a locality index at the back of the book. In order to use this gazetteer effectively, you'll need to know which gubernia your ancestor's hometown was located in. Estonia was former the Estland Gubernia of the Russian Empire.


 * Estland Gubernia Spiski Mest, 1913

Dictionary of Estonian Place Names
The Dictionary of Estonian Place Names is the online version of the Eesti kohanimeraamatu (Estonian Place Name Book) and represents places in Estonia as of 2017. The website is in Estonian, but can be easily navigated by using Google Translate. Simply right click anywhere on the page and select the option Translate to English. The page will then translate. To search, use the search box (Google translates it as Query) at the top of the screen.

An entry includes the modern day location (county and municipality) as well as alternate names used throughout history. It also gives a history of the location and other pertinent information.

Kaardid
Maps can be an excellent way to locate places. The Kaardid Map Database collection has over 50,000 digitized maps relating to Estonia for various time periods. To locate maps, use the search box found on the left hand side of the page. Search by place and/or year, or use the map on the right to choose a specific area you would like to find maps for (if you choose this option, be sure to click the checkbox that says "are within...the box I have drawn"). Click Search, and results will then appear. Maps available online have an image icon in the last column. To see the image, click on the icon. If there is no image icon, click on the name of the map to view a detailed description, which will tell you where the map is located.

Print Only Gazetteers
The following gazetteers are located at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Call numbers are listed.

Hofmann, Harry v. Baltische Postorte 1632-1917/8 [Baltic Postal Places]. Hamburg, 1996. (Book 947.9 E8h 1996). Identifies postal offices for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by their Russian and native names.

Feldmann, Hans. Baltisches historisches Ortslexikon [Baltic Historical Dictionary]. Wien, 1985.2 v. Pt. 1--Estland, Pt. 2--Lettland. (Book 947.4 E5fh). A German compilation for Estonia and Latvia that identifies the parish to which a place belonged. It includes parish histories. It is deficient is providing the Russian name for Baltic localities. The entries are in alphabetical order. The text is in German.

Vasmer, Max. Russisches Geographisches Namenbuch Wiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1964-1981. Nachtrag (Supplement), 1988. 11 vols. (FS Library INTL Book 947 E5r).