Sunday, November 9, 2014

The Muravitsa Fire of 1858

My Zitelman/Suttleman family at one time lived in Muravitsa (adjoining Mlyniv) in the Russian Empire; the town is now in the Dubno district of Volhynia, Ukraine.  My great-great-great grandfather, Pesach Hirsch Zitelman, was living there in 1858, when 11 Jewish-owned houses--including his--were burned down.
Court Transcript: State Archive of Rovno Oblast. Fond 567, opys 1, file 28

In the surviving transcript, Pesach Hirsch, son of Menash Zutelman, testified that his own house worth 700 silver rubles was burned in the fire of April 18, 1858.  He testified that he doesn't know how the fire started and does not suspect anyone in the arsons.

While there's no satisfactory outcome of this case, it did confirm Pesach Hirsch's father's name which also appeared in a revision list from 1850.  And it's just a cool document to have.

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