In the 1888 Revision list for Lida (now in Belarus), my great great grandparents Shimel and Gusa Lev (Simon and Ada Lavine) are listed as living in Iazovitsa village. I have gotten an image of the original Revision list in Russian, and have confirmed that the place name is Iazovitsa and that it is designated as a village. My great great grandfather was a maker of turpentine, which is distilled from the resin of pine trees, so I would expect that the family would be living in a small village.

On the Jewishgen Gazetteer, the closest place to Lida that has a similar name, is the location called Urochishche Yazovets (Урочище Язовец), which means the Yazovets tract; it is 15.4 miles ESE of Lida. On Google Maps, the location of the place is shown with the red marker, though the name does not appear on the map:

 

So my question is – Is this Urochishche Yazovets the likely location of the village of Iazovitsa? Is it possible that there was not ever a village there, but just some houses? I have looked on the 1915 Russian military maps for anything labeled between the towns of Krivichi and Ol’khovka, but don’t see a village listed there.

On Google Maps, there is the following photo for the coordinates on the map, and it looks like a dirt road leading into some woods, with lots of pine trees. Does anyone know if this photo is of the actual place, or is this just some stock photo?

 

Thanks in advance.

--
Michele Lock

Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania
Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania
Rabinowitz in Papile, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia
Trisinsky/Trushinsky/Sturisky and Leybman in Dotnuva, Lithuania
Olitsky in Alytus, Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania
Gutman/Goodman in Czestochowa, Poland
Lavine/Lev/Lew in Trenton, New Jersey and Lida/Vilna gub., Belarus

It doesn’t seem to be close. Urochishche, Polish uroczysko, usually means an uninhabited wilderness area wirh no clearly defined borders, often related to some historical or legendary event. 
--
Kris Murawski
Raleigh, North Carolina
krismurawski24@...

I found this additional information.
Jazowica was a village in Hołowno district/gmina (now Holovne in Ukraine), Luboml county/powiat, Wołyń voivodship in pre-1939 Poland. The distance between the Luboml and Lida areas is about 20-25 miles.
--
Kris Murawski
Raleigh, North Carolina
krismurawski24@...

Hi Michele,

I've had good luck with small village IDs from the Lida Group on FB (https://www.facebook.com/groups/JewishLidaDistrictinVilnaGuberniya/). There are some folks in the group who are extremely familiar with the area.

More generally, it could be that the 'village' you are looking for was what we might call an agricultural estate where Jews lived as laborers (both agricultural and trade labor). I have such a location in my tree as well, that doesn't appear on maps but was found by a helpful member of the Lida group.
--
Adam Cherson

Thanks all for the suggestions. I have contacted the Facebook Lida group with my question. I joined that group about a year ago, and it never occurred to me to check with them.

I do recall a couple of months ago, someone mentioning a website that has a list or database of villages and hamlets that have disappeared, in what was the Russian Empire. Does anyone know about this website? Perhaps today the place called Urochishche Yazovets is uninhabited, but 140 years ago, there may have been dwellings there.
--
Michele Lock

Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock and Kalon/Kolon in Zagare/Joniskis/Gruzdziai, Lithuania
Lak/Lok/Liak/Lock in Plunge/Telsiai in Lithuania
Rabinowitz in Papile, Lithuania and Riga, Latvia
Trisinsky/Trushinsky/Sturisky and Leybman in Dotnuva, Lithuania
Olitsky in Alytus, Suwalki, Poland/Lithuania
Gutman/Goodman in Czestochowa, Poland
Lavine/Lev/Lew in Trenton, New Jersey and Lida/Vilna gub., Belarus