from Arlene Beare, who is away

We announce with great pleasure another landmark for the Latvia SIG and the
All Latvia Database. Our new Dvinsk [Daugavpils] database is now "live" and
can be searched by visiting the All Latvia Database at:
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Latvia/
The database contains over 8,200 entries with references to over 12,000
individuals who were part of the Jewish community of Dvinsk, Vitebsk
Gubernia [now Daugavpils, Latvia]. The list includes excerpts >from
Merchants lists, lists of petit bourgeois, tax and military recruits lists.
This is a special project of the Latvia SIG and has taken nearly a year to
achieve. Mike Getz, past president of the Latvia SIG and I are grateful to
those who made it possible both by their financial contributions to the
transliteration >from the Russian Cyrillic and also by sharing their
technical skills. Once again we acknowledge advice and assistance of the
archivists in Riga. Michael Whippman has done extensive work computerising
the material. Constance, our database co-ordinator, has written an
extensive introduction to the material giving background information about
the Jewish community, the context of the list and the way in which the
database is organised and can be used to best advantage. Our webmasters,
Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias have gone far beyond the realms of duty to
ensure that the material was brought on line in record time and looks
terrific.
It is very exciting to think that on many continents families with roots
in the Jewish Community of Dvinsk will be sharing a very special experience
searching for information about ancestors and finding information that will
benefit many.
I hope you will join us in celebrating this milestone and also in saying
thank you to all of those who made what was a dream little more than a year
ago a reality.
Now enjoy! Let us know how you get on.
Arlene Beare, President of the Latvia SIG

London2001 - 21st International Conference on Jewish Genealogy
8-13 July 2001 www.jewishgen.org/london2001
info.london2001@talk21.com