I would like to locate Gordon relatives in the huge 1897 Odessa Census. A 2007 Avotaynu article indicated a Jewish surname index had been created:

"Every year material on Jewish history is presented at exhibits in cooperation with Jewish, literary and historical museums. A documentary presentation was organized in May 2007 for the 160 participants of the Klezmer Festival Tour (Unger Travel, Toronto, Canada) at the Odessa Historical Museum. Some special databases were created, for example, name indexes of the Odessa’s Jews in the 1897 All-Russian Census; the Odessa Board for Small Business, 1894–1918; a family register. Name and thematic catalogues on Jews also were updated [CD in Russian]."

[https://avotaynuonline.com/2007/10/jewish-history-as-reflected-in-t...]

If you know how to purchase a copy of the name index on CD, please reply publicly. If you have a copy of this CD and would be willing to find the street names/page numbers for me, please reply privately and I will give you the given names.  I have the 1907 Odessa death certificate for the matriarch. She was registered in Moletai (Lithuania). At least one son and multiple adult grandchildren were living there in 1897 but later emigrated.

The Odessa Historical Museum said it does not have a copy of this name index. Avotaynu has not replied to my query. I don't know how to reach anyone who organized or was part of the Klezmer Festival Tour of 2007.

Thank you for any help you could give me,

Roberta Jaffer
robertajaffer@...
Massachusetts

 

Roberta,

Thanks for posting the link to this interesting Avotaynu article.

The index of the Odessa Board for Small Business, Fond 359 is described at

http://thefamilytree.info/odessa/RES_AODB_AllDocs.asp?colid=9&colname=Odessa%20Fond%20359%20-%20Jewish%20Head%20of%20Household

and you can look up names at http://thefamilytree.info/odessa/RES_AODB_Home.asp.

Footnote 41 in the Avotaynu article gives the Russian name of the book Jews of Odessa and Southern Ukraine: History in Documents. The book is online at 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Евреи_Одессы_и_юга_Украины_история_в_документах._-_Кн._1_(кон._ХVІІІ-_нач._ХХ_вв.).pdf

The actual index for the Board begins on page 95 in the pdf file. Page 111 contains several Gordin and Gordion names, including the dates on which they were recorded in this register.

You can look up the addresses in the 1897 census at familysearch.org and, if the families were at those addresses in 1897, get information about them. On the other hand, I have found relatives in the census (by looking through streets in Jewish neighborhoods) who are listed as meshchanin (townsperson, petty bourgeois) but apparently didn't have businesses that were registered with the Board. 
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Here is another source with the name index: https://archive.odessa.gov.ua/files/derjarhiv/INFO/about_us/fond_359_jewish_desk_database.pdf. This is easy to read (but in Russian). The Gordin/Gordion names and addresses begin at #1181 in the database.
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