PRUZHANY UYZED RESEARCH SOCIETY (PURS)
NEWSLETTER
Volume 1-1
JULY 2001
The information that
PURS gathers relates specifically to the towns of Pruzhany
Uyzed and is of three types:
a)
Lists of
names of people from Pruzhany
b)
Reflections
of the human, social and political environment as told in Yzkor
books, personal memories, and other stories
c)
Images or
pictures.
PEOPLE OF
PRUZHANY: We are not sure if it is well known that many archival documents have
not still been found, including the registers of births, marriages and deaths
of Pruzaners. We understand that they have
disappeared in successive fires or willful destruction, particularly during
WWII. It is not anecdotal that in Pruzhany’s archive
files during the year 2001 there still existed vital statistical records in the
archives of Christian and of Russian Orthodox people from the beginning of XX
century, but not those of Jews. For that
reason there was no alternative for us than to look to other sources to
identify and obtain certain vital statistical information that we have
presented in our web site, according to two views:
Ř
In
consolidated alphabetical order by last names for all data found, that
includes, where available, town, date/year, business or work connection, etc as
secondary references. Linking family
names in this manner allows members to locate ancestors who appear in different
localities, etc.
Ř
By town,
for those that are interested exclusively in certain towns, this view also
permits us to make comparisons through different files and different years in a
single town.
A digest of the record
groups contained in our exhibits is as follows:
Main records - Here
one sees register groups of two types:
Ř
Those that
our researchers have been able to hand copy from the
Ř
Those that
some survivors of the Shoa have been able to recall
and those that have been copied from Yzkor (memorial)
Books. Included here are more than 3500 people by last name from all towns of Pruzhany Uyezd.
Business directories -
Since Jews worked mainly in trades and in crafts, we were able to extract and
reproduce data from Business Directories
Voting Lists – For
those available years, our researchers have copied various kinds of voter
records. Here there are over 3000
names. In future months we hope to be
able to add other years to this section.
People Murdered to
Honor His Name – This is a painful memory of those murdered in the Shoa. Included are Symbolic Memorial Stones listed in the
1958 Pruzhany Yzkor Book, a
partial list of Pruzhany Ghetto Residents sent to
Survivors of the Holocaust - Life
continued for Pruzaners in the post Holocaust days as
survivors migrated primarily to the
Images – A limited
start has begun towards adding to our web site a selection of images, pictures,
etc. Included here will be current
scenes in Pruzhany Uyzed
and scenes of olden days. As time goes
by our significant inventory of images will be posted.
In this, our initial
issue of the PURS newsletter, we have presented a more or less concise overview
of our accomplishments in our startup period.
We hope you will find it interesting, informative and of value from both
a historical and a scholastic standpoint.
We invite your comments. In addition, we hope that any information that
you privately possess you would consider donating to PURS. This could be letters, pictures or other
correspondence that would potentially fill some missing links in the
genealogical pursuit of our members.
In our next Newsletter
we will feature the holdings we have and will have as regards Yzkor Books and of pictures. This is the beginning, and it
is an account of the investment of the funds of our members, of special donors,
and of the time of numerous volunteers.
Finally, we encourage
all members to keep checking our web site to access new and important
additions.