Bobruysk District migrations in 1795-1811

View on: Mobile Bobruysk History/Statistics Census 1811

Last year I translated 1811 census for Bobruysk district. This census should be very important to Jewish genealogists researching their roots.

• This is the first 19th century Russian census, and the second in total Russian census for the area covering The Pale.
• It was the first time Russian Jews officially had last names.
• It shows where within the district Jews lived at onset of the century.
• The census was taken only a year prior to Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

Even though Jews were not drafted in the army for the another decade, the authorities clearly entertained this idea at the time. The inevitability of the new war with France was obvious since the disastrous battle of Austerlitz in 1805. Thus one of the main reasons behind the 1811 census must have been accounting for all able-bodied males ready to fight.

Every 19th century census I encountered this far makes a note of all births, deaths, arrivals and departures for males as of the last census. For this reason this post covers the period of 1795-1811. Furthermore in case of Bobruysk, quite a few names are mentioned to be verified in the year 1800. This likely indicates an additional revision that took place at the time with the purpose of recording all missing persons. Luckily for us the census takers of this later revision wrote their notes on this very census which thus becomes two in one.

Below is an interesting statistical information I was able to extract.

Place	# of Males	# of Households	Common Last Names
Bobruysk	752	288	Katsnelnson (62), Shenderovich (40), Garelik (36), Unknown (34)*, Golburt/Goldberg (31), Altshul (24), Feginberg (20), Olshanskiy (18), Barshay (16), Kavalerchik (16), Levin (16), Matlin (16), Glant (13), Volfson (12), Zeldin (10)
Glusk	609	285	Unknown(96)*, Livshits/Levshits (48), Levin (25), Volfson (17), Mazlin/Meizlin (15), Dukhan (14), Finkelshteyn (13), Fishman (12),
Urechye	220	112	L'vovich/Levovich (59), Kantselenson (42), Epsten(ov) (34), Kustanovich (12), Paperniy (13)
Lubonichi	102	40	Kantselenson (45)
Parichi	425	169	Gorelik (155)
Ozarichi	105	63	Golts/Golots/Golad (25), Frenklekh/Fringlekh (7)
Kazimirovo	55	22	Volfson (17), Karelin (8), Erenburg (7)
Pobolovo	46	30	Shteynbak (5)
Svisloch	151	83	None, mostly 2-3 people with the same lastname

Based on this information we learn that in early 19th century almost three quarters of Jewish population in Bobruysk district concentrated in three places, namely Bobruysk, Glusk and Parichi. Further crunching the numbers, even though Bobruysk experienced small outflow of the population (-25 people), it was not significant when compared to overall population. Urechye lost about third of its population while at the same time both Glusk and Parichi lost about 6th each.

And this is how it looks on the chart.

As evident from the above chart, the population migration did not fluctuate significantly at this time comparing to the total population of each mentioned place. Based on the numbers, the place from where most of the people left was Urechye. This makes sense as Urechye was recently added to Bobruysk district from Slutsk area. Glusk had the most people deceased since last census took place, followed by Bobruysk itself. Bobruysk in fact had the largest number of newcomers. This is also explained by czarist policies at the times of moving Jews from villages to towns.

Where did all these people go?
So the question remains, where did those who left their Shtetls actually went? There is no definite answer. Some of the people were marked as "fled" as "whereabouts unknown", suggesting they might have escaped the authorities just to come back later on. From those that we have destinations:

Place	Departed	Destinations
Bobruysk	16	7 within the district
Glusk	31	4 to Bobruysk, 1 to Parichi, 2 to Svisloch, Schedrin (1), Pinsk (1), Parichi (2), Slonim (1), Nesvizh (1), Slutsk (2), Mogilev (1), Yurevich (1), Mozyr (2)
Urechye	69 (42 unknown)	16 settled within the district (12 of them in Glusk), 9 settled in Slutsk district.
Parichi	34	Most went to Bobruysk and Glusk, some to Minsk
Svisloch	24	18 to Bobruysk district (10 of them to Bobruysk itself), 4 to Igument district.
Lyubonichi	9	All went to Bobruysk
Ozarichi	25	14 left within Bobruysk district, 9 outside (6 of them to Mozyr)
Kazimirovo	1	unknown
Pobolovo	3	mostly to Bobruysk

Thus it is safe to say that most of the population migrations of this time was within the district!

Where did they come from?
Now let's look at those who came to their places since the last census.

Place	Newcomers	Places of origin
Bobruysk	84	Lyubonichi (20), Parichi (19), Glusk (1), Rogachev (6), Mozyr (2), Svisloch (6), Gorval (1), Smilovichi (2), (K)opel (1), Slutsk (5), Glush (1), Stary Bykhov (4), Mogilev (1), Pobolovo (1), Mstislav (1), Klichev(1), Igumen (5), Vilno(2), Glush (1), Borisov (1), Urechye (2), Mogilev (1)
Glusk	29	Urechye (8), Slutsk (6), Grodno gubernia (2) [+Slonim-1, Novogrudok-1], Rakov (1), Koidanova (1), Bykhov (1), Mogilev gubernia (1), Mozyr (2), Turov (1). Only few from inside: Svisloch (1), Parichi (3).
Urechye	5	All from outside of district: Slutsk area (3), Mozyr district (1), Igumen (1).
Lyubonichi	7	Slutsk (2), Dubrovka (1), Svisloch (1), Bobruysk (1), Mogilev (1), Rogachev (1).
Ozarichi	12	Yuravichi, Rechitsa (4), Kalinkovichi (1), Kopotkevichi (1), Mozyr (3), Parichi (2).

For the smaller towns of Parichi, Kazimirovo, Pobolovo most of their migrants came from Rogachev (outside of district) and some from Svisloch.

Thus again given the limited amount of data I can only conclude that majority of Jewish migrations of the time were within the Bobruysk district.

19th century Bobruysk district

During the times of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Bobruysk was a center of the small sub-district located within a Rechitsa district (called Pawet) of the Minsk province. It seems like most of the Jews only started to settle it in the 18th century. According to Jewish Virtual Library, in 1766 there were 359 Jewish taxpayers in Bobruysk.

The situation changed when Russians took over this land. They promptly reorganized the local administration. Bobruysk was elevated to be a center of the newly formed district. Its territory was greatly expanded, mostly in the western part, by the lands taken from the Slutsk district. The map below shows approximate 18 century sub-district borders in green and 19th century borders in red.

Click on the map for the better quality picture. My original map can be found here

These newly acquired territories also added large Jewish population. In 1784, barely a decade before the last Polish partition, there was a Lithuanian census which listed many villages were Jews lived in the Slutsk kahal. These are shown on the map with the star of David icon. Many of these communities were 1-2 family only. Following the official orders many Jews were forced to migrate from villages to the nearby towns. Since majority of the communities added to Bobruysk district were located between the towns of Urechye and Glusk, they undoubtedly contributed to their growth, although many possibly made it to further towns including the local center that Bobruysk was to become.

Further in 1811 now Russian census listed only a handful places where Jews lived. These are shown as red circles on the map: Urechye and Glusk on the west. Lubonichi, Svisloch and Bobruysk on the north. Parichi and Ozarichi in the south with Pobolovo and Kazimirovo on the east.

Two thousand years of European Jewish history in one Map

This map is part of my personal project to map the Jewish history. A picture that worth a thousand words.

My original map can be found here.

This map is based on Google Maps template. It is best viewed in full screen where one can Zoom-In/Out, drag the mouse cursor etc. It shows the outline of modern borders.

• The lines indicate major migrations from one country to another.
• Orange color indicates Judea with light orange indicating towns with the early Jewish diaspora in Pre-Roman times.
• Red shows major Jewish settlements within Roman empire.
• Each country's earliest known Jewish community are shown in different color group. I define earliest communities as those established within the first hundred years of Jews settling in the country.

Enjoy!