Dear Ukraine experts,

Does anyone have an idea why my 19th-century ancestor lived in Podolia
Gubernia, but held an internal passport issued in a town some 350
kilometers away, in Kiev Gubernia?

I have a record for my gggf Meir-Leib Gitgarts, living in Podolia
(Olgopol District) in 1875. It notes that he was originally registered
in an agricultural colony not far away (Balta District of Podolia).
But the strange thing is that it also says his internal passport was
issued in 1873 by the office in Voronkov (modern Voron'kiv), just
outside Kiev, a distant locale by the standards of that era.

Could this be evidence that the Gitgarts family originally came from
Voronkov before settling in the agricultural colony?

many thanks

Adam Goodheart
Washington, D.C.

In Imperial Russia there was a concept called "registration." At some time,
your ancestors were registered in Voronkow. Changing one's registration was
a complicated and difficult process. Many Jews lived far >from where they
were registered. They were supposed to register births and deaths in the
town of their registration, and get their internal passports at that
location. Sometimes they didn't bother to register since it was so
difficult -- but that was a crime. Many Jews weren't registered at all,
since registrations were used for tax and conscription purposes.

Doug Cohen
Lexington, MA
Sarasota, FL

Adam,

I don't know about Voronkov, but my relatives were in the Abazovka colony near Balta and later lived in Olgopol and other towns in Podolia, Kiev, and Taurida guberniyas.
Many retained their registration as farmers in the colony, perhaps because it cost money to re-register and there was no incentive to do it. Did the passport say he was registered in the colony?
As a farmer? If so, he could have gone >from the colony to Voronkov and then to Olgopol. There seems to have been more mobility in those days than is often thought.

Which colony was Meir-Leib in?

Alan Shuchat
Newton, MA

SHUCHAT (Talnoye, Simferopol, Sevastopol, Odessa, Balta (Abazovka),
Tavrig, Pogrebishche)
VINOKUR (Talnoye), KURIS (Mogilev-Podolskiy, Ataki, Berdichev)
SILVERMAN (Soroki, Kremenets), BIRNBAUM (Kamenets-Podolskiy)
KITAIGORODSKI (Zvenigorodka)