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How closely we lived together in the 19th century! Among the documents of Vitebsk Jews, I came across a remarkable address book of Vitebsk residents from 1865. It lists the inhabitants of each house! (Although it only covers half of the city). The variety of houses described is astonishing. For example, here are the lists of residents of two ordinary single-story wooden houses: one housed four tenant families alongside the owners, totaling 26 people, while the other housed 17 people within an extended family. Moreover, in these same rooms, a melamed taught students, a bookbinder, a coppersmith, and a goldsmith worked in their workshops, and shopkeepers, ritual slaughterers, butchers, day laborers, beggars, and the sick also lived there—these were just typical homes and families in a large provincial city within the Pale of Settlement! Below are excerpts preserving the original style of the document:

City of Vitebsk, Part 1, Quarter 1, Ploshchad Street, House No. 110, owned by Vitebsk townsman Zolman Shub.

This house is a single-story wooden building. On the property is a single-story wooden outbuilding. In the outbuilding resides a goldsmith.

Names and surnames of all residents, both permanent and temporary:
Owner of the house: Zolman Shub.
Social class and occupation: Townsman, assistant to a ritual slaughterer.
Religion: Jewish.
Age, marital status: 35, married.
Literacy and language: Illiterate (likely referring to Russian).
Province of origin and time in the city: Vitebsk Province.
Animals owned in the city: Horses: none, cows: none, goats: none, pigs: none.

Family:

Wife: Rivka, 32 years old, married.
Sons:
Izroel, assists his father, 17 years old, single.
Berki, 7 years old.
Girsha, 4 years old, sick.
Daughter: Feiga, 14 years old, unmarried.
Tenants in the house:

Gilka Zabezhensky, townsman, butcher, 24 years old, married.
Wife: Sora Riva, 25 years old, married.
Sons:
Gershen, 3 years old.
Elya, 1 year old.
Tenant: Vulf Dyshon, townsman, day laborer, 26 years old, married.
Wife: Rivka, 23 years old, married.
Relative: Sheyna Ester, beggar, 60 years old, widow.
Outbuilding tenants:

Herz Borenbum, townsman, shopkeeper, 37 years old, married.
Wife: Minka, 36 years old.
Children:
Daughters: Hana, 14 years old; Sorka, 12 years old; Kreina, 10 years old; Basya, 1 year old.
Son: Notka, 3 years old.
Yesel Shverdlin, townsman, craftsman, 30 years old, married.
Wife: Bluma, 32 years old.
Children:
Daughters: Sheyna, 14 years old; Itka, 11 years old; Rivka, 3 years old.
Son: Abram, 6 years old.
(Source: NIAB, f. 2631, op. 2, d. 1, ll. 205–206).

City of Vitebsk, Part 1, Quarter 1, Smolenskaya Street, House No. 150/188, owned by Hatzkel Liburkin.
This is a single-story wooden house with a single-story wooden outbuilding in the yard.

Names and surnames of all residents, both permanent and temporary:
Owner: Hatzkel Liburkin, Vitebsk townsman.
Religion: Jewish.
Age, marital status: 66, married.
Literacy: Illiterate.

Family:

Wife: Tsirlya, blind, 65 years old, married, illiterate.
Sons-in-law:
Israel Kagan, melamed (teacher), 40 years old, married.
Wife: Khava, housekeeper, 35 years old, literate in Hebrew.
Children: Sons: Khaim, 5 years old; Yankel, 3 years old.
Daughters: Khaya Sima, 11 years old, literate in Hebrew; Leah, 1 year old.
Aron Kabisher, coppersmith, 32 years old, married, literate in Hebrew.
Wife: Rohlia Khena, housekeeper, 30 years old, married, literate in Hebrew.
Children: Sons: Borukh, 5 years old, starting Hebrew lessons; Shmerka, 3 years old.
Daughters: Genya Gruna, 7 years old; Feyga, 1 year old.
Movsha Shubik, bookbinder, 26 years old, married, illiterate.
Wife: Rasya, 27 years old, married, illiterate.
(Source: NIAB, f. 2631, op. 2, d. 1, ll. 283, ob.).

The book itself is extensive—over a thousand double-sided pages.