My great grandmother's naturalization petition has the town of Beiitchva or Bolitechva (same place)

LegacyUser

My great grandmother's naturalization petition has the town of Beiitchva or Bolitechva (same place) listed. We can't find the town in the online searches. Can you let me know if there is another spelling or name? I've attached the record. Thanks!

Ellie Vance

Hi Amy!

 

I found the passenger list (link is below), that says they are from Biely Sakow, Kiew (Kiev). Biely is probably a transliteration of Белая (Бiла in Ukranian). In looking for places that began with Бiла in the Kiev area, I found a city called Бiла Церква, (Белая Церковь in Russian). It is transliterated into English as Bila Tserkva. I can see how Bila Tserkva became Bolitechva on the naturalization document or Biely Sakow on the passenger list.

 

Additionally, it appears your ancestors were Jewish, and this is known to be a town with a large Jewish population. It is located about fifty miles southwest of Ukraine which fits the Kiev found on the passenger list. Here is a link to it on the Jewish Gen Gazetteers page: https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-1035624 You can also read about the history of the Jewish community on this website: http://jewua.org/belaya_tserkov/

Keep in mind that your ancestors could have been from the town, or the broader region. But this will at least give you a bit of the start.

Not sure if you already have this or not, but here is the link to the passenger list on Ancestry:

https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7488/NYT715_1553-0417?pid=4008347054&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D7488%26h%3D4008347054%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3DePj140%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=ePj140&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.115626118.1258727399.1576525500-954807454.1557939699

 

Ellie Vance

Also, just so you are aware, there are a few Jewish records available online for Bila Tserkva. You can find them here. They are categorized under the heading Васильківський повіт. If you are using google chrome, you can right click and choose translate to English to help you read the page. A few things might have difficulties translating into English - one of those is Ревізька казка євреїв, this means a revision list of Jews. Revision lists were taxation records that look a lot like a census. They list every member of the household as well as ages and relationships.

It looks like there might also be some metrical books (birth, marriage and death records) for select years. Let us know if you need help navigating this page or using the records. The FamilySearch Wiki offers some great resources as well.

Good luck!

Here is the link: https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%84%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B5_%D0%BC%D1%96%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%BE#%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BA%D1%96%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%96%D1%82

LegacyUser

Thanks Ellie! I’m new to this....

Ellie Vance

Of course! Eastern European Jewish research is tricky. Feel free to post any other questions here good luck!