About this document

This census was conducted in 1784 under the administration of the Russian Empire (or its regional authorities), which at the time controlled large portions of Eastern Europe including the territories of present-day Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland. Jewish communities in these regions were subject to periodic population censuses known as revizskie skazki (revision lists), used by imperial authorities to enumerate taxable subjects and track household composition.

The pages shown here — a cover page followed by pages 17 through 23 — document Jewish residents of a specific locality or district. The records are written in Russian (Cyrillic script) with some Hebrew or Yiddish personal names transliterated into the imperial administrative language. Each entry typically records the head of household, male family members by name and age, and occasionally notes on absences or deaths since the prior census.

To read these pages: begin with the cover page, which identifies the district, year, and administrative authority. The numbered pages list households in sequence. Male given names appear first, followed by age at the time of the census. Look for surnames (when recorded), patronymics, and marginal annotations noting changes between census years. Researchers should note that name transliterations vary widely — a name recorded in Russian script may correspond to a Hebrew or Yiddish name that looks quite different in its original form.

These scans are provided as primary source reference material for genealogical research into Jewish families of Eastern European shtetl communities.