Hello fellow travelers,

I'm having some difficulty in finding information about a place in
Galicia called Blotnia (alternatively, Blotnya or Bolotnya or Bolotnia).

It's at 49 degrees 33 minutes N, 24 degrees 41 minutes E, according
to the JewishGen Gazetteer.

Blotnia is not listed in Gesher Galicia's town directory. It was
apparently a place with a very small Jewish population. It's still on the
map today, just a little to the northwest of Narayev, Ukraine. I would
be grateful for suggestions as to how I might be able to find some
basic information about it, such as its population, industries, history,
and so forth.

D Strausfeld
Durham, NC, USA

David Mark Strausfeld writes:

"I'm having some difficulty in finding information about a place in
Galicia called Blotnia (alternatively, Blotnya or Bolotnya or
Bolotnia).

"Blotnia is not listed in Gesher Galicia's town directory. It was
apparently a place with a very small Jewish population. It's still on the
map today, just a little to the northwest of Narayev, Ukraine. I would
be grateful for suggestions as to how I might be able to find some
basic information about it, such as its population, industries, history,
and so forth."

Although we don't have every Galician town in Gesher Galicia's
directory yet, it was part of the Przemyslany administrative district and
that's where the Jews worshipped. If you want to find out more about
the town, I suggest you consider starting a "Galician Archival Records
Project" for the town. Our projects are "town centric" and even though
the vital records might have been registered in a different locale, the
cadastral community records (property/landowner records, the
Franciscan census, a listing of damage during WWI by family, and
cadastral maps) all would be categorized under the town name in
various archives in Poland and Ukraine and could yield a great
deal of information in these "alternative records." In the project we
first do inventories of what records exist, then start digitizing or
indexing records. To read more about how to start a project, which
requires start-up funding, go to our informational page:

http://www.geshergalicia.org/projects/garp/

You could also find the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of
Poland's entry describing the town and have it translated into English.
(There are some English translations, done by different Polish
genealogical groups, but not for the majority of towns yet.) You can
read more about the dictionary here:
http://www.pgsa.org/Towns/slownik_eng.php

You can find it online here:

The University of Warsaw:
http://www.mimuw.edu.pl/polszczyzna/SGKPi/SGKPinfose2.html#x3

The Digital Library of Malopolska
http://mbc.malopolska.pl/dlibra/publication?id=113&from=plannedpubssearch&dirids=1&tab=3

A how-to PDF file is here:
http://www.polishroots.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=pcfmobrIo2Y%3D&tabid=61

You will need a special plug in to view it or... the LDS microfilm with
the town's entry is 920957.

Gesher Galicia welcomes new projects for even the tiniest of Galician
towns... and we've had great success getting information for these
places.

Good luck!

Pamela Weisberger
Gesher Galicia
pweisberger@gmail.com

David Mark Strausfeld wrote:

I'm having some difficulty in finding information about a place in
Galicia called Blotnia (alternatively, Blotnya or Bolotnya or Bolotnia).

It's at 49 degrees 33 minutes N, 24 degrees 41 minutes E, according
to the JewishGen Gazetteer.

Blotnia is not listed in Gesher Galicia's town directory. It was
apparently a place with a very small Jewish population. It's still on
the map today, just a little to the northwest of Narayev, Ukraine. I
would be grateful for suggestions as to how I might be able to find
some basic information about it, such as its population, industries,
history, and so forth.

------------------------------------

Dave,

In the Kingdom of Poland Geographical Dictionary (circa 1870)
Blotnia is described as a village in Przemyslany district, located 2.5
[Austrian] miles SW >from Przemyslany on the government owned
Przemyslany-Brzezany road. The village population during this time
was 1,071 which included 1,005 Greek Catholics (Ruthenians), 59
Roman Catholics (Poles) and 7 Jews. The village is identified as a
Greek Catholic parish since there was a GC church, but Roman
Catholics have been worshiping in a nearest RC parish in Firlejow.
The village had one educational facility known as "szkola etatowa",
an elementary school under control of the (Galician) National School
Council. Jewish records have been located mostly within Przemyslany
and Narajow (this is where Strassfelds records are found), some have
been also located within Brzezany.

The village was owned by the Lwow municipality, and this was most
probably the reason that the local school was founded and
supported by the National Council. This a bit unusual ownership of
the village was bestowed by the last of the Gosiewski family
members, once mighty Lithuanian magnates.

Blotnia was the name of the short (about 8 miles long) stream that
originated near Blotnia village in a hill by the same name, a left
contributory to a larger stream Gnila Lipa.

During WWI, exactly 100 years ago, there were heavy battles around
Blotnia and nearby Janczyn between the imperial forces of
Austro-Hungary and Russia.

During 1921 first Poland National census, Blotnia village population
was 1,436 which included 1,253 Greek Catholics, 15 Roman
Catholics and 35 Jews.

Best

Alexander Sharon
Calgary, AB