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Moldova

Gazetteers

In order to research your family in Moldova, it is essential that you have identified the actual town name of where they came from. It is not enough to know only ‘Moldova;' you really need to determine the town name the district/province name. Once you have determined the name of the town your ancestor came from, you'll need to locate it in a gazetteer to find both current and historical town names, jurisdictions, and the parish.

Introduction

Much of the former Bessarabia Gubernia is now in modern-day Moldova.

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or index. Depending on the gazetteer, it may contain information about locations such as:

• their jurisdictions (gubernia, province, county, uyezd, etc.)
• parish churches or synagogues
• location of civil registration offices
• population numbers
• postal facilities
• communication facilities (telephone, telegraph, and so on)
• local commerce, agriculture, manufacturing works, canals, docks, and railroad stations
• schools, colleges, and universities

Gazetteers are produced to cover a country generally, and cover the locations as of the date they are published. Historically, the area that is now modern-day Moldova was a part of the Ottoman Empire until Bessarabia Gubernia of the Russian Empire.

Online Resources to Help you Locate the Town

JewishGen Communities Database

The JewishGen Communities Database contains data on approximately 6,000 Jewish Communities in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It is a great resource to help you locate your ancestor's town - regardless of whether or not your ancestor was Jewish. You can use this database to find modern and historical place names as well as jurisdictions over time. To learn how to use the JewishGen Communities Database "How to" Guide.

• First, read through the Instruction.

• Practice what you learned with the Activity.

• Use the Answer Key to check your answers.

Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii

The Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii, often referred to as simply the Spiski, is the foundational gazetteer for the Russian Empire. The gazetteer is organized by locality - first by gubernia (province), then by uyezd (county), and finally by the city, village, colony, or town. Each volume contains a locality index at the back of the book. In order to use this gazetteer effectively, you'll need to know which gubernia your ancestor's hometown was located in. Latvia consists of three former gubernia: Courland, Livland, and Vitebsk. Find links to each of these gazetteers below:

• Bessarabia Spiski Mest, 1859-1861

Bessarabia Special Interest Group Town List

The JewishGen Bessarabia Special Interest Group has a clickable map that allows you to browse locations within Ukraine (excluding Bessarabia and Galicia). To use the map, click on the name of the province (gubernia) that your ancestor lived in (you click on the map itself, or the list of locations on the right hand side). From there click on the district (uyezd) that your ancestor lived in, and then the town. An entry for a town provides historic jurisdictions, names in both Ukrainian and Russian, alternate names, and more. Under the Projects heading, you'll find information regarding indexing or record acquisition projects for that specific town. Note that these indexing and record acquisition projects are focused specifically on Jewish research. You can also browse towns by viewing the alphabetical Town List.

Germans from Russia Gazetteers

For information about Germans from Russia Gazetteers and resources, visit the Germans from Russia Gazetteers page on the FamilySearch Wiki.

Print Only Gazetteers

The following gazetteers and resources are available at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The links take you to the catalog entry page where you can find information on availability and the call number.

• Dicţionarul statistic al Basarabiei : intocmit pe baza recensamântului populaţiei din anul 1902, corectat prin datele actuale, statistice ale primariilor şi prin tabelele biurourilor de populaţie centralizate in 1922/1923. Chis̜ina̮u, Romania : Tip. societaţii anonime "Glassul ţarii", 1923.
• Gazetteer of Bessarabia (Moldavia/Ukraine) : 1:200 000. Gloucester, Ontario : The Schindler-Spring Family Organization, 1985
• Heimatbuch der Bessarabiendeutschen. Hannover, Germany : Hilfskomitee der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche aus Bessarabien, 1976.
• Verzeichnis der deutschen Gemeinden Bessarabiens, 1938-1939. Tarutino, Russia : Karl Liebram, 1940.