Speaker: Tomasz Jankowski, Ph.D.

The introduction of vital registration (the recording of births, deaths, and marriages) for Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an essential state-building measure associated with Enlightenment reforms. Registration of these vital events was one of the first steps in transforming Jews from state subjects into citizens, providing them with an official identity and, thus, better legal protection. Following the partitions of Poland-Lithuania, the annexing states—Austria, Prussia, and Russia—applied various solutions, ranging from relatively quick emancipation in Prussia to the maintenance of inefficient regulations in Galicia and the Russian Empire, which forced Jews to defend their right to informational self-determination and underreport vital events—the latter much to the dismay of contemporary genealogists and family historians. This lecture provides a deeper understanding of the context in which primary genealogical sources were formed in Eastern Europe, and how basic limits to Jewish genealogical research were established.

Bio: 

Tomasz M. Jankowski is a historian and genealogist specializing in Jewish studies, digital humanities and demography. He is currently affiliated with the Max Weber Research Center in Lviv and completed post-doctoral fellowship at Vilnius University earlier this year. Jankowski's research explores Jewish social entanglements in east-central Europe from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. His research ranges from family history and demography to popular music. Jankowski has published two books: Hebrew Polish Tango (Polin Museum, 2019) and Demography of a Shtetl (Brill, 2022). He has also been involved in documenting Jewish heritage for several institutions, including UNESCO and ESJF (European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative). In 2013, Jankowski established a team providing professional genealogical and guiding services in Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania. (http://jewishfamilysearch.com).

Meeting: Zoom