A small number of records are freely available at
http://usdine.free.fr/dvinskrabbis.html
http://usdine.free.fr/dvinskdoctors.html
http://usdine.free.fr/dvinskhousesofprostitution.html
http://usdine.free.fr/listofjewsborninvishki.html
http://usdine.free.fr/dvinskmelamedteacher.html
http://usdine.free.fr/listofwatchmakers.html

A much larger number of links (about 20) are at http://usdine.free.fr/rigacensuscontentsnewest.html and also go to records that you can freely view.

(The numbers I am giving are the number of webpages, not the number of records.  The number of records per webpage is not consistent so do not attempt to compute the percentage that is freely available or to estimate the total number of records from those that you can view.)

At http://usdine.free.fr/dvinskcensuscontents.html there are the links to occupation-based pages that I listed at the top of the this post and then there are an even larger number of geographic-based links (over 100) that go to a paywall saying "Sorry to say, that, henceforth, the translations of the records and census are available only by contributors.  If you wish to contribute ... Then I shall send you all the links of my translations."  At this time, I don't recommend contributing, because I don't think it's an automated system that sends out the links without her; I think that she sent the links manually and that they are no longer sent.  At http://usdine.free.fr/thevitalrecordsdonation.html there is a list of who contributed in 2012-2013 and should have received the links.  If you recognize any of the names on the list as someone you know, you may be able to contact them and ask if they still have links that still work.  I don't know if you will be successful.

Stephen Weinstein
Camarillo, CA, USA

* The Dvinsk Rabbis, Cantors and Ritual Slaughterers
* Doctors, feldshers, dentists and pharmacists
* The houses of prostitution
* List of the Jews who lived in Dvinsk, but were born or/ and registered in Vishki.
* List of teachers, melameds and pupils in Dvinsk 

I am listed as a donor during that period, and I am able to access the links to these occupation-based pages.
Is JewishGen able to access these pages, and therefore enter the information into the data base? If not, will someone "collect" the information from those of us who had donated to Christine Usdin's effort and therefore still have access?

--
Ellen Caplan
Ottawa, Canada
Researching: EISENBERG, NAGLER, GINIGER, KLINGER: Mielnica, Ustye Biscupie, & Zalescie, Galicia; BREGER, LIEBMAN: Gomel & area, Belarus; PARADISGARTEN,  SOLOMON: Tukums & Mitau, Latvia

Ellen,

Everyone has access to the pages listed at http://usdine.free.fr/rigacensuscontentsnewest.html and the occupation-based pages (doctors, brothels, rabbis, etc.), even if they did not donate.  As a donor, do you also have access to the other pages listed at http://usdine.free.fr/dvinskcensuscontents.html (the over 100 location-based pages)?

I'm not sure what Jewishgen can access, but access isn't enough to get it into the database.  Doing the death, birth, marriage, and divorce records, even with access, the real challenge was that Christine didn't format things consistently, so when I would paste data into a spreadsheet, data would not land in the correct column.  I don't know of anyone planning to take on the census records, which are even trickier to do because it's families with multiple members rather than individual records.

I'm also not sure about the legality of doing it now, in that putting the paywall-protected data on Jewishgen will allow anyone to access it, even if they didn't donate to her.  I don't know French copyright law but it may be necessary to get permission from her estate.

If you want to take on the project, the first step is to contact Paul Cheifitz paulcheifitz@...>, make sure that no one else is working on it (so you don't duplicate efforts) and get the template that shows how Jewishgen needs it formatted.  Then you would go to each of her pages one at a time and copy the records onto the spreadsheet.  (When I did the death records, I tried programming a computer to concatenate her html files into one large one and process it automatically, but this turned out to be more of an hindrance than a help, so I did the birth, marriage and divorce records manually, webpage by webpage.)  But again, first step is to coordinate with Paul Cheifitz and the Latvia Research Division, and square away the legal issues, so you don't waste a lot of effort -- and believe me, no matter how much effort you expect to be involved, it will be more.

If you search in Google, you can see the link to the translated vital records page, with the links by city, type of record and date.   The link to the open version is the same URL as the one without the links,  but with X’s in various places.    I had assumed that since she passed away, that they had opened it up.   That’s not the case?

at least some of the records, such as the marriage of my great grandmother and the deaths of her mother and stepmother are in JewishGen now.

Roberta

This may be active for those that aren’t on the contribution list:
http://usdine.free.fr/rigacensuscontentsnewest.html

Also, for those who are on the contribution list there used to be the capability to enter a search word and have the master list bring back all links that contained it. Does anyone know how that could be implemented again?

Sam Glaser
Searching:
GLASER, ISRAELSOHN, MANSKY from Latvia
ZLOTNICK, PERETZ, GOLUBOWSKI, GOLDSTEIN from Belarus
SCHLINGER, WEISZ from Romania/Hungary
GOLDBACH, ELKAN, HAHN, KLEIN, KANDL, LANSCHUR from Czechia

I was a contributor to Christine Usdin for the important work she was doing and below is the email I received in reply:
I'm not sure if the links will work  but you can try.

Feige Kauvar Stern
Cleveland, OH