Hello -- it is easy to find a map of Kovno Guvernia, for example on
JewishGen at www.jewishgen.org/databases/Lithuania/LithuaniaRegions.htm ,
but it doesn't seem >from the rest of your question that the map will
be very helpful. That map includes only the few largest shtetls.

JewishGen's shtetl map at
kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/vabalninkas/Shtetl_Map_files/widget0_markup.html
might be more useful, but even that does not contain all the dorfs
(villages that contained only a few Jewish families, too small to be
shtetls), and again, I'm not sure that will provide what you are
looking for.

There is no map of all the cemeteries in Kovno Gubernia and many
(probably most) of the ones that once existed are no longer there. The
Maceva site at www.litvak-cemetery.info/ estimates that in pre-war
Lithuania there were between 200 - 240 Jewish cemeteries. Some have
simply fallen to the ravages of age with no one to care for the
gravestones. In some cases, buildings were erected on top of old
cemetery sites. Most disturbingly, in several cases, gravestones were
taken >from cemeteries and used as paving blocks or building materials.

Some localities have begun efforts to reclaim gravestones and
refurbish Jewish cemeteries. However, the JewishGen Online Worldwide
Burial Registry on JewishGen includes listings for only 6,044 burials
in 35 cemeteries in Kovno Gubernia. Since the Jewish population of
Kovno Gubernia in 1897 was 212,666, you can see that hundreds of
thousands of graves have been lost or destroyed. Searching for
cemeteries is not likely to be the best method for finding information.

If you write again with more specific information, there are probably
people in this group who can offer more helpful suggestions.

Good luck - Judith Singer

From: Carol Karp <bckay1@...>