Hi everybody,

I was working on a "2nd reading" for Akkerman records of 1874 and decided to share with you some
information.

First, this information is not related just to Bessarabia, but rather to all JewishGen regions.

The are many types of records we put into "Revision Lists": General Lists, Special Lists, Alphabetical
Lists, Revision Lists, and more. Every such list has a specific meaning and features.

Before going into the details, I need to point you to a presentation I did on the Jewish Genealogical
Conference in Paris in 2012: "Estate and other categories of Jews in Bessarabia, Russia in the 19th
century." Here is the link:
https://www.jewishgen.org/Bessarabia/files/conferences/2012/EstateOfJewsinBessarabia.pdf
That article gives you an understanding what Estates or Categories of Jews one had to be part of.
The Jews were obliged to join one of several Estates or Classes or Categories: "Meshchane" -
we translate into Middle Class, "Kuptsy" - Merchants (this is not a profession, but a large category.

Go back to the records... Jews used to live in many towns in Russian Empire, but they also had to
register in one of the Estate, and in many cases the town they were registered was not the town
they lived in.

Revision Lists are the list of people where they were registered, not necessary where they lived.
The Common List or Alphabetical List are the lists of people in towns, they where were living.

I am working for Akkerman "Common List" for Akkerman with about 450 Jews, and also for
Akkerman uezd with 550 Jews.
For the list of Akkerman about 50% of Jews were registered in different towns in Bessarabia or
other gubernias - Podolia, Volyn, Vilno, Kiev.
For the list of Akkerman uezd all 100% of Jews were registered in other places! It seems that
they did not have Jewish Societies to Register.
In these lists you will see the town where people lived and also in the comments the town,
uezd, gubernia where they were registered.

My question is to all of you - Why a family lived in Tarutino, Akkerman uezd, Bessarabia
and was registered in Volyn gub., Rovno? It is not that they were registered somewhere
online or by mail... the only reason I see is that most likely at some point they lived in Rovno,
and possible came to Bessarabia to work or for a marriage... I wish that all our databases
were connected and you do not need to search in a dozen different places, but search in
one and get all references to that name/town.

If you never searched Romania (Bessarabia) database, I invite you to do so, and you may
be able to find your ancestors who travelled >from far away to Bessarabia to get some
privileges or to start a family.

All the best,
Yefim Kogan
JewishGen Bessarabia SIG Leader and Coordinator