Vilna

[samhaw]

Hi,
Does anyone have any information on the villages in this area (Gov) in the 1910-1917 time period, or any maps that might show the villages?
Thanks

[Hannia]

Vilna gubernia > Russian Empire 1802-1917.
Polish province of Wilno Interwar Period. 1921-1938.
Today, SE Lithuania and NW Belarus. Eastern Latvia.

The gubernias of the Russian Empire had been divided into uyezds and the uyezds were divided into volosts (earlier - poviets). In 1869, Russian was declared to be the official language in all provinces of the Russian Empire. Polish language terminology that was used prior to that date was replaced by Russian.

Russian Empire place name terminology: gubernia = province; uezd = district; volost = smaller district including several villages; gorod = town/city; selo/derevnaya = village
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Since the Vilna gubernia was part of the Pale of Settlement, it's the Jewish sites that provide the most extensive resources. Unfortunately many just include only the shtetls. Do you have a village name? What religion did the family you are researching practice?

[samhaw]

Thanks Hannia.

The ship manifest says czuki or czuni, gov Vilna. It was transcribed as sczuki, but I can only find villages in Poland named szczuki , and cannot figure out which one it is. She was Greek Catholic. I thought a good map might help with the location.

Thanks again

[Hannia]

From everything I've read, nothing of the former Vilna gubernia is part of Poland today.
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excerpt: JewishGen Lithuania Database - Geographical Regions

Vilna Gubernia:

The area that was Vilna gubernia is today the south-eastern part of modern Lithuania, and in the north-western Belarus. Between the two world wars (1919-1939), most of Vilna Gubernia WAS in Poland (Wilno province). The inter-war Polish names of the towns are in italics. Today, the four southern uyezds are in Belarus. Here are the seven uyezds of Vilna Gubernia:
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??? My guess is that we are looking for a village in what is BELARUS TODAY. Greek Catholic would put her someplace along the Poliesie (swampy region) border area.

Use Shtetlseeker.com (M) Mapquest portion for your search. I would first locate the Jewish towns, which are mainly district center towns (see link above), and then do a 30 mile radius search around the town, looking for the village. If you have trouble understanding the how-to, I will write out instructions in more detail.

[samhaw]

Thanks,Hannia

I will do as you say. It crossed my mind that she may have been Jewish and converted, but I have nothing to back this up other than I was told she was employed by a Jewish household to watch their children when she arrived in the US.

[Hannia]

samhaw,

Don't assume anything. You are just utilizing the best resources for research available to you right now.

One of things that happens on a default level when you are building a family tree, is you acquire loads of historical knowledge.

The Russian Czars had a mandate called Pale of Settlement, which dictated where Jewish people could or could not live in Czarist Russia. They were forbidden to live in places like St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, and other designated important cities, and since there were restriction on property/land they could own, many settled in the medium size towns in the empire. These were mainly the district center towns, where they could build their communities and institutions. Among themselves they referred to these as SHTETLS. There were also Christians that lived in these towns, but since they were mainly agrarian and the feudal system was longer lived in what is Eastern Europe today, most Christians were peasants that lived in one of the 30/40 small villages surrounding the towns.

Today the descendants of these Russian Jews, have invested money and time to make information about their ancestors available to themselves. Most of these sites are first rate and Christians can take advantage of having these resources and gleaning pertinent information from them and applying it to their own research.

Beyond that, there is nothing to be read into here.

[Hannia]

I checked Marya's detail on ship manifest and it looks to me that all those place names in Wilno are in Belarus. Her father was Andrej (Andrew).

???Look at Sychi (52-13-23.28) right on the border between today's Poland and Belarus, south of the Bialostock, directly opposite Podiaska district in Poland on map. It is located in what was the Poliesie region under Reconstituted Poland.

Make sure to examine all the possibilities, but Czuki is definitely in what is Belarus today.

PS> Like in most ex CIS countries, many villagers have migrated to the larger urban areas for economic reasons. Sychi above is not very far from Brest, so I checked to see if there were any Mandryk living there.

Following are Mandryk living in Brest today:
Мандрик Н Ф Набережная Ул.
***** Мандрик А С Героев Обороны Ул.
***** Мандрик В М Новосельская Ул.
***** Мандрик П С Дачная Ул.
***** Мандрик Ю М Луцкая Ул.