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Sunday, February 18, 2007
First set of Vilna / Antokol / Novygorod / Snipishok records out for translation
I have just sent out the first set of records for the towns of Vilna, Antokol, Novygorod, and Snipishok to a newly found
translator. These records are combined in a single metrical register book, so they are classified as part of the Vilna county
records.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Additional Vilkija death records sent for translation
In addition to the Vilkija births 1880 - 1900 and Vilkija deaths 1881 - 1891 already completed, additional death records
for the years 1892 - 1900 were sent to a translator today.
Records for Kudirkos Naumiestis sent for translation
All filmed vital records for K.N. were sent out to a translator this week.
Records for Aukstadvaris / Stakliskes sent for translation
All filmed vital records for Aukstadvaris / Stakliskes were sent to a translator this week. Some, if not all of
these records are labeled Stakliskes - Aukstadvaris rabbinate. It remains to be seen whether any of these records are for
Aukstadvaris proper.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Birth records for the Vilna county 2nd / 3rd okrug records sent for translation
All birth records in the Vilna County 2nd and 3rd okrugs [court districts] were sent to a translator today.
First set of Mikhailiskis records sent for translation
The first set of records for the town of Mikhailiskis have been sent today to a translator.
First round of Vilna translations are now complete
The entire first set of Vilna records sent out for translation have just been completed. We now have the translations
of birth, death, marriage, and divorce records for the years 1861 - 1865. The translations are being proofed and
will be distributed to all qualifying [$100+] contributors.
Vilijampole translations received
The translations of the Vilijampole birth records for the years 1880, 1881, 1882, 1884, 1885, 1890, and 1891 have
been received from our translator. They will be proofed and sent to qualifying contributors [$100+] shortly.
1884 Kovno births
The translation of the 1884 Kovno birth records have been received. They will be proofed and sent to qualified contributors
[$100+] shortly.
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The Vital Records Indexing Project grew out of the newly gained access to the Lithuanian Archives
in the late 1990s. The Archives and the Family History Library [FHL or Mormons] came to an agreement which allowed
the filming of the metrical register books. These books cover the 19th Century and include 20th Century
records through 1915.
LitvakSIG came to agreement with the Archives and the FHL which provides LitvakSIG with digital images
[TIF files] of the vital records in exchange for translations we produce.
The Records
The images
contain records for 100 towns which were in Vilna and Kovno gubernias, with a few towns from Suwalki gubernia as well. Prior
to conversion to digital format, the records were contained on 225 microfilms. There are approximately 200,000 unique images
and with an average of 4 records per page, there are approximately 800,000 records in total. This estimate is after subtracting
20% of the films to account for the approximate number of duplicate pages, register book cover pages, etc. The list of towns
represented was developed by FHL and JewishGen and posted to the JewishGen web site. Updates to this list have been required
and LitvakSIG maintains the current version of this information – more on that later.
The Translations
The images provided to LitvakSIG are organized by the microfilm they came from, rather
than the town the records cover. LitvakSIG received the films as digital images and began translating various films. It was
immediately apparent this was not an efficient way to proceed, since records for many towns exist on a single film [sometimes
over 10 towns per film]. We have taken the 200,000 images and have reordered the images by town. We are now better able to
coordinate the translations on a town by town basis.
The Translators
The beginning of the translation effort saw a few volunteer translators come forth, although
the primary need is for paid translators. The project is of such a large scope it is necessary to employ paid translators.
Some of the translations submitted by volunteers are of good quality, whereas others had to be scrapped. We are currently
reformatting and correcting some of the early work to save that which is useable.
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