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Historical Background
The history of the Jews in Lithuania spans the period from the fourteenth century to the present day. There is still a small Jewish community in the country, as well as an extensive Lithuanian Jewish diaspora in Israel, the United States and other countries. Before World war II, Lithuania had a very strong Jewish population. The Jewish population was about 150,000 people, which was more than 5% of the total population. Throughout WWII, 91-95% of Lithuania's Jewish population were killed.

Maps and Gazetteers
When researching Jews in any country, and especially in those countries of Europe during WW II, it is important to identify the name of the ancestral town.

JewishGen Gazetteer

 * The JewishGen Gazetteer is a useful online gazetteer for locations in Eastern Europe. Note that wild card searches are not supported. To view an entry page, click on the Jewish star to the left of the town name. Entry pages provide jurisdictions for before WWI, the interwar period, after WWII and modern-day. Alternate names and Yiddish and Russian spellings are also included. In the center, you'll find a map and a list of additional Jewish communities located nearby. Finally, under Additional Information and in the green box at the top, you'll find links to references and additional resources that may help you in your research.

Litvak SIG Shtetl Map and List

 * Use the Shtetl Map and List tool from Litvak SIG to determine the location of the town, spelling and district. Knowing the district will be important for knowing which District Research Group to join in Litvak SIG.

Maps of Lithuania

 * To view present-day Lithuania at Google Maps, click here.
 * For a Jewish population density map of Europe in 1900, click here.
 * For a map showing the percentage of Jews in the Pale of Settlement and Congress Poland, c. 1905, click here.
 * To view an additional historical map showing the historical percentage of Jews in governments, click here. Definition of "Pale of Settlement" from Wikipedia.org: The Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта́ осе́длости, chertá osédlosti, Yiddish: דער תּחום-המושבֿ, der tkhum-ha-moyshəv, Hebrew: תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, tḥùm ha-mosháv‎) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited. It extended from the eastern pale, or demarcation line, to the western Russian border with the Kingdom of Prussia (later the German Empire) and with Austria-Hungary. The English term "pale" is derived from the Latin word "palus", a stake, extended to mean the area enclosed by a fence or boundary.

JewishGen Family Finder

 * The Family Finder is a database of both ancestral hometowns and surnames that have been researched by their descendants world wide. The Family Finder allows you to connect with others who are researching similar ancestors and origins and collaborate your research. To add the surnames and locations you are researching, click on Modify (Edit your existing entries) or Enter (Add new entries). Type in the surnames and/or locations of interest and hit Submit. To search the database and see if you can connect to family members and other researchers, choose Search (Search the database) from the Town Finder home page. You can search for a surname and/or a town. Search results will appear in a chart format giving you the surname, town, country, and researcher information (often includes contact information) and the date they last logged into JewishGen.

1897 Census
The 1897 Russian Imperial Census was the first and only census carried out in the Russian Empire. The census enumerated the entire population of the Empire (excluding Finland), but after statistical data was gathered, many of the census returns were destroyed. There are, however; surviving census fragments from Kovno and Vilna guberni. Use the resources below to help you determine if census records survive for your ancestor's shtetl and how to access them. Use the Reading the 1897 Census "How to" Guide to learn how to read census records.

JewishGen and Litvak SIG (indexed records)
Census fragments from the Kovno and Vilga guberni have been indexed and are available through the JewishGen Lithuania Database and the All-Lithuania Database. To learn more about the collection, see the Lithuania 1897 Census Database article from JewishGen. Making a donation to Litvak SIG may allow you to see additional indexed records. To obtain the original record, contact the Lithuanian State Historical Archives with the information from the record, including the source (fond, series, and file number). For a nominal fee, a copy of the record will be sent to you.

Revision and Family Lists
Revision lists are enumerations of the taxable population (most Jews in the Russian empire fell into a taxable social class). There were ten revisions taken sporadically from 1772-1858. These records are a foundational source in genealogical research as they provide names, ages, and relationships.

Supplemental Lists, also known as Family Lists, can be found ranging from about 1860 through the end of the nineteenth century. They are similar in format to revision lists and are often grouped with revision list records in an archive.

JewishGen and Litvak SIG (indexed records)
Many Lithuanian revision list records have been indexed and are available through the JewishGen Lithuanian Database and the Litvak SIG All-Lithuania Database. Making a donation to Litvak SIG may allow you to see additional indexed records.

FamilySearch (digital images)
There may also be records available through the FamilySearch Catalog. Revision list records are catalogued at the uyezd level.


 * a. Click here to access catalog entries for Ukraine.
 * b. Click on Places within Ukraine and a list of gubernia will appear.
 * c. Click on the gubernia, then select Places within [Name of Gubernia].
 * d. From there, a list of uyezdi will appear.
 * e. Click on Places within [Name of Gubernia, Name of Uyezd].
 * f. Click on the Taxation or Census topics. Click on the blue links to view specific record titles.
 * e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the listing for the record. The magnifying glass indicates that the record is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the records. A camera with a key on top means the record is viewable but with certain restrictions that may mean the record can only be viewed at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, a Family History Center, or FamilySearch Affiliate Library. Take a look at the Family History Center Finder to discover a location near you.

Vital Records
Throughout the Russian Empire, birth, marriage, divorce, and death records were required to be kept by the Jewish community beginning in 1835. Jewish records were generally kept in a tabular format with the left-side of the page in Russian and the right-side of the page in Hebrew. Vital records are available online in both indexed and digital image formats.

Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation
The Routes to Roots site contains articles, essays, maps, archivist insights, and an archival inventory for Jewish research in Lithuania and other Eastern European countries. The website also contains a database of record inventories that is searchable by town. The search for documents in Eastern European ancestral towns is complicated, partly because of the destruction of documents during the Holocaust and changing borders and names. Only the first few letters of the town needs to be known, as all towns beginning with those letters will appear in the list. Some towns will even be cross-referenced with spelling variations or name changes. However, to determine the current spelling of a town, consult the JewishGen Gazetteer or Where Once We Walked by Mokotoff and Sack. The database will note the types of documents that has survived for that town, including army lists, Jewish vital records, family lists, census records, voter and tax lists, immigration documents, Holocaust material, school records, occupational lists, and more. The span of years covered by these documents and where to find them will also be provided. Records in the archives can be accessed on various websites or databases (such as JewishGen) in person at the archives, by writing to the archives directly, or by hiring a professional researcher to do the work.


 * See Routes to Roots Foundation and hover over Lithuania for a Genealogical and Family History guide to Jewish and civil records in Eastern Europe

Cemeteries

 * Litvak SIG All-Lithuania Database contains information from headstones from cemeteries in Lithuania.
 * Litvak Cemetery Catalogue, is a project to record, document and preserve all of the information from the cemeteries that still exist within Lithuania. The database requires a donation, but includes locations of cemeteries on a map as well as images and indexes of gravestones.

Passports

 * JewishGen Internal Passport Database, 1919-1940

Holocaust

 * JewishGen Lithuania Database
 * European Holocaust Research Infrastructure Online Portal offers information on Holocaust archival material held in institutions in Europe and throughout the world.
 * Arolsen Archives, also known as the International Center on Nazi Persecution, is one of the largest archives on the victims of Nazi persecution. Many of their holdings are available to research online.
 * Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is a database of victims of the Holocaust.

Yizkor Books
Yizkor books are memorial books commemorating a Jewish community that was destroyed during the Holocaust. Books are usually published by former residents and records the remembrance of homes, people and ways of life lost during World War II. Most books are written in Yiddish or Hebrew, but in recent years, many have been translated and made available online. Take a look at the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project to locate a translation or Yizkor book for your locality of interest.

Additional Resources

 * Lithuanian-Jewish Special Interest Group
 * JewishGen KehilaLinks Lithuania
 * Researching Your Lithuanian Roots Research Guide
 * Lithuania, Jews Saved by Passports From the Japanese Diplomate Chiune Sugihara, 1940
 * The Knowles Collection, is a collection of records of the Jewish people from all over the world. While it consists of five databases, the records from Lithuania will be added to the Jews of Europe database has they become available. Further information on the collection including announcements of updates can be fount at knowlescollection.blogspot.com.

Sources in Print

 * A guide to Jewish genealogy in Lithuania
 * The book The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania, Dov Levin, has included a listing of Jewish communities from war time Lithuania. He has listed both the Lithuanian and Yiddish names of the communities.
 * Another source is Where Once We Walked- Revised Edition: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust. This source lists the names of the towns with their varient spellings and also provides some information, such as the estimated population of the community pre-WWII.



Archives of Lithuania

 * Visit the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania website by clicking here
 * To view the Genealogical Search page at the archives, click here.
 * To search for online Lithuanian vital records, click here.

Archives and Libraries
As we research our Jewish ancestors it is so important to know what records are available in Lithuania, and how to access them in the Lithuanian Archives. In the book Jewish vital records, revision lists, and other Jewish holdings in the Lithuanian Archives, Harold Rhode and Sallyann Sack have made that task much easier. This is a very important book for those researching in Lithuania.

Records at the Family History Library

 * Metrical Books, 1837-1923, Vilnius
 * Metrical Books: Kovna, 1822-1940

Types of Records

 * Civil registration. Jews can be found in civil registration. See Lithuania Civil Registration to learn more.