LitvakSIG's "All Lithuania" Database (ALD) incorporates data from many different sources into one searchable mega-database, and contains the largest number of Lithuanian Jewish records on the Internet. The ALD is the LitvakSIG's major project, and will always be a "work in progress." It will continue to grow as records are acquired by the various LitvakSIG Research Groups, and as further donations of privately acquired records are translated and entered.

    LitvakSIG has created a cadre of experienced individuals and groups, who are participating in the development of this database. Thanks go to the many hardworking, tireless, and generous people who have contributed to the success of our ongoing "All Lithuania" database. Pre-existing databases (including the work of the original NW Lithuania SIG) have been combined with newly acquired and translated data from many sources.

INTRODUCTIONS

    Each introduction describes the contents of the database, explains when, how, and by whom it was compiled, and defines all the fields and abbreviations which appear in the database. Please read the individual database introductions BEFORE trying to interpret any data. Sometimes, when the introductions are more detailed, there are hyperlinks to information files on topics such as

    Translations and Transliteration Standards or Exceptions

    In some cases, as noted in the introductions to each freestanding database, you may be able to contact the author or compiler about additional information or primary source documents. Some authors may require a fee for providing this service.

DATABASES INCLUDED within the ALD

 Revision / Family / Census Lists Table
    This major database contains revision, family, census lists, district merchants, craftsmen’s guilds, farmers, and town residents lists from 1765 until the early 20th century, for most of the districts in the old Vilna and Kovno guberniyas. It also contains lists for most towns in modern day Disna, Kaunas, Lida, Oshmiany, Panevezys, Raseniai, Siauliai, Telsiai, Trakai, Ukmerge, and Vilnius districts, including such diverse lists as:
     "Jews originally living in Vilnius Guberniya now living in Kaunas Guberniya"
     "Jews registered in Kaunas Guberniya living in Vilnius Guberniya"
     "Jews originally from Kaunas Guberniya who were expelled from Riga, Latvia" and a host of other lists showing  the mobility of our ancestors.

Tax Voters Table: 
     A large collection of Jewish community candle and box taxes, business taxes, savings book information, as well as property and real estate taxes will be found combined in this database. There were a great many different kinds of taxes which the Jews of Lithuania might have been expected to pay.

    The Voter Lists records come from lists of electors of rabbis, municipal electors, and those listed as eligible to vote for the Russian Parliament (Duma voter lists).

Vital records

    This database is split into three separate tables: Birth / Marriage and Divorce / Death

Vilna Ghetto Index

    LitvakSIG's Ed Cohen created a searchable index of the names and addresses in Volume 1. With the kind permission of Rachel Kostanian, the Museum's director, and Gary Mokotoff of Avotaynu, publications distributor, we are pleased to add this index to the "All Lithuania" database (ALD).

Directories Table

Information within this database is taken from:

• Privately donated original databases
• Indexes of names appearing within Lithuanian business, street and telephone directories, and several books of Litvak interest
• Lists of Lithuanian Jews found to have survived the Holocaust.
• WW2 Ghetto Arrest Lists and Pages of Testimony (Yad Vashem)

Prenumeranten Lists (Subscriber or Pre-Publication Lists for Rabbinic books from 1835-1913) for almost every Lithuanian shtetl, created by Ed Cohler

Eye Witness Accounts of the period before, during, and after the Holocaust by surviving Jews and Righteous Christians.

Lithuanian Medical Personnel - Information about Jewish medical personnel, found in two Lithuanian medical directories, 1923 and 1925. Compiled by Harold Rhode.

Citizenship Papers, Internal Passports, Immigration and Emigration Records.

    These records stem from many types of documents authorizing and registering internal passports, as well as from material in YIVO's Lithuanian Communities of the Interwar Period Collection. The records from these mixed categories are incorporated within several tables. See also the Online Journal article "Never Judge an Archival Collection by Its Description" or "Never Judge a Book by Its Cover: The contents of YIVO's Lithuanian Communities of the Interwar Period Collection" by Deena A. Berton.

Cemetery records for many towns and Landsmannshaften records include:

• Kovno Cemetery List (1941_1943) compiled by Sylvia Furshman Nusinov, Oct 30^th 1997. This 44 page Yiddish manuscript contains nearly 900 surnames of the Jewish dead buried in the Kovno Cemetery between the years 1941 to 1943.
• Keidan Cemeteries Database compiled by Ada Green.  Tombstone inscriptions from seven Keidaner cemeteries in Lithuania, New York, and Chicago.

HaMagid Lithuanian Donors 1871-72
    The names of 5,000 donors to Persian famine relief are listed in this Hebrew periodical, translated and compiled by Jeffrey Maynard.

HaMelitz Lithuanian and Latvian Donors
    The names of almost 20,000 Lithuanian and Latvian charity donors are listed in this Hebrew periodical, for the years 1893 to 1903. translated and compiled by Jeffrey Maynard.

Sugihara Database
    The names and visa dates of 2,139 Lithuanian, Polish, German, and Russian Jews, all of whom were saved by passports from the Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara in 1940.

Kelme Database by Bob Weiss.
    Indexes to various archival and published records about the town of Kelme, 1816-1944.  

Vsia Vilna 1915 Database by Scott Noar.
    This database contains over 17,400 entries from the 1915 city directory for Vilnius, Lithuania

To find out which Uyezd your town belongs to, look in the Shtetl/Uyezd/Guberniya Table first.  

Search the ALD

Search Lithuania Given Names Database

This introduction was compiled by Davida Noyek Handler, David Hoffman, Vitalija Gircyte, Carol Coplin Baker, Warren Blatt, Judi Caplan, Anne Rothman, and Trevor Tucker.