Raseiniai District Research Group

The Raseiniai District Research Group (DRG) of LitvakSIG is chartered with obtaining records from all shtetls (towns) in the Raseiniai Uyezd (district) of Kaunas Gubernia (region) of Lithuania. This includes the city of Raseiniai itself as well as records that pertain to the entire Uyezd.

Effective January 1, 2012, the group will translate all available vital records for towns within the district, 19th century and early 20th century Revision Lists and Other Census Lists and Tax Lists from the Kaunas Regional Archives (KRA) and the Lithuanian Archives in Vilnius (LVIA).

We access records, translate and database them, and distribute the data to our contributors. We distribute the data to our contributors in Excel format via the Raseiniai District website at http://donors.litvaksig.org/site/raseiniai. As part of LitvakSIG’s overall mission, our group data is made publicly available in the LitvakSIG All Lithuania Database (ALD) about 18 months from when members first receuve access but only via the web interface and not in Excel format.

Since the Raseiniai DRG was established, we have spent over $11,000 on acquiring and distributing data for records for Raseiniai Uyezd and the shtetls in Raseiniai Uyezd – that’s over 50,000 individual record lines of people! Our project is ongoing and progress is based on our available funds. There are ample available records for Raseiniai District but we are constrained in our progress by funds at present.

Our contributors are people who are researching ancestors from any shtetl in Raseiniai Uyezd who have joined together to make the most of our shared resources. Since many of our ancestors lived in one place but worked, were officially registered, owned property or assets, or had relatives in another place nearby, it is only by researching on the broader geographic scale of the uyezd that one can be sure where a family was really "from" and that one has searched thoroughly.

Shtetls in Raseiniai Uyezd are:

Batakiai,Dauglaukis, Erzvilkas, Gaure, Girkalnis, Jurbarkas, Kaltinenai, Kelme, Kraziai, Kvedarna, Labardzai, Liolai, Lyduvenai, Nemaksciai, Pajuris, Raseiniai, Rietavas, Sartininkai, Silale, Siluva, Skaudvile, Sveksna, Syliai, Taurage, Tytuvenai, Upyna ,Vainutas, Veivirzenai, Vidukle and Zemaiciu Naumiestis

We hope you will consider becoming a qualifying contributor at the $100 level or more to the Raseiniai District Research Group. Effective January 1, 2012, a $100 contribution provides early access for a 5 year cycle, based on calendar year. Instructions on how to contribute may be found here.If you have questions, you may contact the District Coordinator Bonnie Birns