Recently we carried out research on a family of German colonists which settled in Belowesch (Bilovezhі) nearh Chernihiv (Chernigov).

Gorodok (Horodok) near Haivoron, a german collony in Bilovezhi, on a map from 1880.

The colonies were established by the decision of Catherine II. Her idea was to  modernize agriculture in the region by creating well managed farms which could serve as an example for local villagers and rise general level of productivity in the area. The ideas were much in spirit of the Enlightment and idea of well managed, absolute state, which emerged in the Western Europe in 18th Century which also the Russian Empire tried to follow. 124 families  were granted land on Bilovezha steppe in the district of Borzna in 1767  and 23 families established a town — Gorodok (Horodok). The 23 families were initially involved in crafts, but soon they switched to agriculture. Remaining 124 resided in 5 villages:

• Grosswerder (Velykyi Verder, Великий Вердер, today Zelenivka, Зеленівка),
• Rundewiese (Rundevize, Рундевізе, today Kruhloluhivka, Круглолугівка, does not exist since 2009),
• Kleinwerder (Malyi Verder, Малий Вердер, today Pershotravneve, Першотравневе),
• Belowesch (Bili Vezhi, Білі Вежі, today Bilovezh Pershi, Біловежі Перші),
• Kaltschinowka (Kalchynivka, Кальчинівка, same name today).

The town of Gorodok does not exist anymore, it’s marked on the maps only by the Horodok train station in the middle of forest.  In 1951 Gorodok was renamed to Vosmoye Marta (8th of March, Восьмое Марта) and later included in administrative borders of nearby Haivoron.

During the research we localized following documents on the colonies and the colonists in State Archives in Chrnihiv, Odessa and Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk, Yekaterinoslav). Let us know if you’d like to have these records researched.

Censuses

1. Revision list of the merchants, state serfs and colonists in the Borzna district; 1816
2. Revision list of the townspersons-colonists and stat serfs; 1854
3. Revision list from 1813; 1813
4. Revision list from 1815; 1815

Tax records

1. On the land tax on colonists from Belowesch colonies; 1810
2. On the land tax on colonists from Belowesch colonies; 1811
3. On the land tax on colonists from Belowesch colonies; 1814
4. On the collection of taxes from the Belowesch colonists to maintain postal services; 1814
5. On the collection of the land tax from the Belowesch colonists; 1817
6. On the collection of taxes from the Belowesch colonists to maintain public space; 1817
7. On the collection of the tax from the Belowesch colonists to sustain state roads; 1817
8. On the collection of the land tax from the Belowesch colonists; 1818
9. On the collection of taxes from the Belowesch colonists to maintain public space; 1818
10. On the collection of taxes from the Belowesch colonists to support postal services; 1818
11. On the collection of the tax from the Belowesch colonists to sustain large state roads; 1818
12. On the collection of taxes from the Belowesch colonists to maintain water regulations; 1818
13. On the land tax on colonists from Belowesch colonies; 1819
14. On the collection of taxes from the Belovezha colonists to maintain public space; 1819
15. On the land tax on colonists from Belowesch colonies; 1819
16. On the collection of the tax from the Belowesch colonists to sustain state roads; 1819

Other documents

1. On the correspondence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the resettlement of the Belowesch colonists to the Chernihiv governorate and other documents regarding the colonists; 1805-1812
2. Lists of the Belowesch colonists with sizes of their lands indicated; 1808-1809
3. Report on the economic state of the Belowesch colonies; 1809
4. Notes on the documents regarding re-settlement of the Belovezha colonists and on investigation of illegal activity of the Khreshchatyn colonists; 1809
5. On voluntary donations from the colonists from Belowesch, Gdańsk (Danzig), Sweden and from Mennonites residing in Yekaterinoslav to support military draft; 1807-1808
6. Information on economical situation of the Belowesch colonists; 1817
7. Information on the situation of the Belowesch colonies; 1828
8. On the re-settlement of the Belowesch colonists to the Yekateinoslav governorate; 1833Statistical information on the Belowesch collonies from 1836; 1836
9. On the fire in the colony of Velykyi Verder; 1838
10. Request of the superintendent of the Belowesch colonies to send him books of tax income; 1812
11. Request to send 8 copies of the state regulations on village production [?] in german language; 1812

You can find more information on these colonies here:

• http://www.grhs.org
• http://lib.chdu.edu.ua/pdf/monograf/17/15.pdf

We are beginning a new, huge project on the 1897 census of Odessa!

Please, contact us if you are interested in joining it. The more participants the lower costs of research per person!

About the census

The 1897 census of was the first modern census enumerated in the Russian Empire and at the same time the last one before the Bolshevik revolution. It registered:
family name, given name, patronymic, sex, relation to householder, age, marital status, social estate, place of birth, place of registration, place of residence, notice of absence, faith, mother language, literacy, occupation, secondary occupation, military status, mental illnesses and disabilities, address.

What exists today

As you know as a rule it was customary to destroy the census lists after contemporary officials computed information they were interested in. Odessa is one of the few exceptional cities for which the original census list from 1897 are still kept. The State Archives of the Odessa Province holds 2752 files with census lists. Judging by the overall number of pages in these files and total number of population in Odessa, I estimate that about 44% of original census lists has survived. In other words existing information covers about 61 thousands of Jews out of 139 thousands living in 1897 in Odessa (assuming that the files were lost spatially randomly). It makes this collection one of the most comprehensive genealogical source for Odessa. The files cover only the city of Odessa, they do not include information on nearby locations.

Accessibility of the files & research

LDS Church have scanned all 2752 files. Due to the limitations imposed on the LDS Church by Ukrainian archives, scans are accessible solely at the Family History Centers with disabled option for downloading the scans. 

In order to accomplish the research we will need to go through all 2752 files page by page (67250 scans, 134500 pages!). The files are arranged by houses and streets. There are no name indexes to the files. After finding family with last name researched, we will: 
– translate to English information on all household members from the census list
– retrieve photograph of the file from the State Archives of the Odessa Province for selected, relevant families.

Timing

Accomplishing whole research may take even one year, as it requires going through almost 3000 archival files. Family History Centers in Ukraine are open only for limited number of hours per week. In any case we are going to update you with partial results every 2-3 months.