Some thoughts about projects

I'd like your ideas about projects we can undertake together in this and future years.

A huge amount has been achieved in recent years with help from many researchers in the the district. We have thousands of revision list and other records that allow some of us to trace our families to the 18th century. Rokiskis has created a first class shtetl website.

These achievements allow us to consider projects that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But for some shtetls basic translation work still needs to be done, and for a few there are very limited or no records available. Whatever the position for each shtetl and for each researcher there are worthwhile projects that should allow us to build a better understanding of our families' history.

For me there are three main questions that motivate my research:

• where did we come from?
• where did we go?
• who are we today?

I'll be posting summaries of information about each shtetl in the district to allow for informed discussion.

I look forward to your comments.

Other contemporary district maps

These are tourist maps from the Utena county website: they cover Zarasai, Ignalina and Utena districts.

Click on the maps to see them in larger size.

Rokiskis district map

This is the current Rokiskis municipality area. It covers a central part of the old Zarasai district.

Click on the map to see it in large size.

1650 Blaeu map

This part of a map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania published in about 1650 and drawn by Blaeu.

Unusually north is to the right -->. So Vilna is on the far left and Dinaburg (Dvinsk/Daugavpils) on the far right.

Salakas (Solok) and Rokiskis (Rakisski) are swapped around. And Kamajai looks to have travelled east.

Click on the map to see it at a good size.