One of my ancestral families has a narrative that its surname was
created for them as part of a reward for a great service a remote
ancestor did for the tsarina.  Apparently, she took ill while
traveling in his area of Lithuania, he took her in, got a doctor, and
cared for her.
The reward included rights to a forest's lumber, and I have
confirmation from many cousins that these ancestors ran a lumber
mill.  I spoke with a direct descendant of the individual who did this
deed (my ancestor appears to have been a brother) and she described
the house where she grew up, a structure that would be a mansion even
today.  Some cousins have visited the site of the sawmill, which is
now nothing more than a bend in a road.
There is disagreement on when this event took place -- not a good sign
for its authenticity -- with the two candidates c.1810 and c.1840;
different individuals with the given name from the narrative would
have been the right age at these times.
If there is any paperwork confirming it, it hasn't turned up.  I'm not
even sure what to look for or where to look.  The significance of such
a document is that it would presumably include the surname this family
used before the new one was created for them, and is thus the key to
connecting further back than I already have, to c.1800. Any ideas?
Yale Zussman

My great grandfather Orel Leybman made boots for the Czar's calvary
officers - as a lowly paid, poorly treated army conscript (oral
history of my grandfather). I have no illusions about the reality of
his time in Lithuania, in contact with anything related to the Czarist
government.
My other great grandfather Chaim Lak ran a dairy farm outside of
Gruzdziai, in the far north of Lithuania. Jews were not allowed to own
farmland, so he most likely leased the land from a noble person, who
owned huge amounts of land. I have found 1848 tax records on Jewishgen
for nearby Joniskis, which list Jewish farmers who leased land from
the Noblewomen Narishkina, or the Nobleman Komar. These Litvak Jews
did not have direct contact with these noble persons - they would have
dealt with estate managers. Just like tenant farmers in England during
the same period in the 1800s - they didn't have personal relationships
with the nearby count or duke or prince - they dealt with estate
managers. Why would it be any different in Lithuania?
On leasing land to harvest lumber or run a sawmill - a common
occupation for Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which
continued into Russian times. Again, the land owned by noble persons
or Polish princes, the leasing done through estate managers, who
sometimes were Jews, sometimes not. This is well detailed in the book
"Money, Power and Influence in Eighteenth Century Lithuania", by the
economic historian Adam Teller. Very worth reading to understand the
limited economic roles that Jews had during this time period.
And last - a friend of mine, whose family hails from tiny Dorohynka in
Ukraine, told me with complete seriousness that her great grandfather
was a musician - and he played for the Czar! Who knew that the Czar
liked Klezmer music, and he'd travel all the way from Saint Petersburg
to Ukraine to enjoy it.

Michele Lock

Alexandria, VA

The talltale in my family is that an ancestor tutored the Czar's
daughter. In truth it was probably a local gentile nobleman and that's
most likely the case in other stories of Jewish interaction with the
Czar. Of course stories where the Jew was employed for something  of
low social standing are easier to believe.
Some hints as to whether there is any truth behind the story can be
found if the family lived in an area that was otherwise exclusive to
gentiles or if they seem to have been of higher class and wealth than
other Jews. But some stories are totally made up.

Binyamin Kerman
Baltimore MD

Interesting
Last week we were informed that he had a Jewish *dentist* [
/Shneyer/]  and I grew up with a story from my mother that the family
in Berdichev, Ukraine had a relative who was in the Czars retinue On
line I have come into contact with ? a DNA relative Scott Schwarzberg 
[ my heritage] who informed me that a since deceased relation was the
Czars *treasurer* - so I  assumed maybe  this was the person of whom
my mother was referring to. However another of my my DNA connections
also relates to a family /SCHNIER/ so maybe it was the dentist!
However according to Google --Sergei Kostritsky was his dentist but no
DNA correlation
  Who knows ? If only we could find a definitive list of those who
worked for the Czar.

I would be grateful for any further info
David Barrett

I take that by "employed by the Czar" you mean  DIRECTLY employed.
There are such cases but all those Jews were practicing the Russian
Orthodox faith.

Luc Radu
Great Neck, NY

My wife’s grandfather from Latvia told the family that he had been a
watch repairer in the Czar’s army. He continued that trade in America.
He also said Russian soldiers taught him to fish and hunt which he
also did. I can’t vouch for the truth of this though one cousin is
said to have some type of certificate attesting to his service in the
Czar’s army. That’s the family lore.

Larry Posner, Salem MA
researching LISAK, TUREK, RESNICK, GURNEY, POZNANSKY
Laurence Posner

My maternal grandfather was employed by Czar Nickolas as a beaurocrat
in his village of Yurovichi in Belarus with responsibilities including
postmaster and director of official documents and his family owned the
means of moving cargo and passengers within his geographical area. He
was able to permit HIMSELF to leave his home in 1914 to travel to a
nearby city large enough to have a teaching program to make him a
shochet and a butcher in order to bring a useful skill in his
emigration to America. He returned home 4 years later to bring his
immediate family to New Jersey where he had established himself with a
house for them. There are many interesting tales of what occurred
during those 4 years but those will only be told on demand.
Murray Stollman, St Pete Beach, FL