Regarding the Vitebsk Business directory, I wish to thank Mike Glazer
for pointing out that this directory has introductory pages that are
calendars of both Jewish and Roman-Catholic holidays.
I also want to express my overwhelming gratitude to Natasha Genkin
for her expert work in enlightening me on how this directory is
organized and for translating a portion on my family's town of
Volyntsy in Drissa ueyzd.

For those who are struggling with this directory, here is what
I learned >from Natasha. This book is called a business directory,
but is in fact more of a gazetter or yellow pages for the gubernia.
The first section, as Mike has pointed out, consists of calendars.
Subsequent sections give information about churches, monasteries,
schools etc. Starting at about page 100 or so are charts which
give some demographic information about each of the ueyzds (or
districts) and the towns within them. For example, Natasha was
able to tell me that under Drissa Yezd (ueyzd) are listed seven
towns including my grandmother's town of Volyntsy.
Column 1 is the town name, Column 2 is a geographical location
of the town, Column 3 refers to town ownership, Column 4 is the
male population, Column 5 is female population, Column 6 is
distance >from the city of Vitebsk, Column 7 is distance >from
the main city of each ueyzd (in my case, >from Drissa).

from what I understand, unless your relatives were teachers

(correct me if I'm wrong Natasha), they are probably not
listed in this "directory". So, it is best to use this book
to gather information about the shtetls of Vitebsk gubernia,
rather than try to locate your surnames. I hope this helps
explain the mystery. Good luck to all.

Best,
Ava Cohn
Long Grove, IL

Searching in Vitebsk gubernia: SHENKMAN, FRIDMAN, SELIGMAN