Researching Ripky and Environs
Researching Ripky and Environs
Chernigov region has always been a frontier area. Many languages were spoken there during 15-18 century, including Polish, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Yiddish, Russian, etc. Thanks to JewishGen and their partners, many of the original documents came to light recently.
A plethora of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth documents have already been scanned and digitized. They are accessible from Polish local national and university archives. One has to be reasonably comfortable with Polish though.
One of the useful tools for researching Ripky and its environs is the Internet Archive. Search with a string "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich”. This dictionary covers the XIV-XVIII centiries. For Repki specifically, a plethora of historical details emerged after searching the metadata with the following strings: "Rzepki", "Perocka", "ziemie Perocka", "Rzepcyc"," Rybczyc", "Danice". In all those cases we had to qualify the results with the string "Czernihowski", as there were other Rzepki towns across the Commonwealth. Many other topnyms exist in the dictionary.
When looking into Cossack Hetmanate era (late 16th-mid 18th century), one can tap the modern-day Ukrainian research papers. Start with 'Сіверянський літопис' (Siverski Chronicle). This online publication offers research of prominent Ukrainian scholars. Look for materials by Igor Kondratiev, a lead researcher from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. This material is written in Ukrainian.
Modern-day Ukrainian genealogists study the history of Cossack regiments (by the Ukrainian nomenclature - Polk). Useful information could be extracted from the description of Chernigov Polk and its smaller detachments called 'sotnia'. Repky was under control of Royska sotnia. Also various businesses in and around repky used to belong to Chernigov Polk commanders. They have uncovered cossacks chronicles detailing demographics. This material is written in Ukrainian and some in English.
The Chernigov region is bordering Belarus. This region is commonly known as Polesia (a.k.a. Polissia, Polesie, Polesye). Ripky is situated within ~15-20 miles from Loyew, Braghin. Both those townships had Jewish population. They used to be a part of Minsk voevodeship. During the Russian Imperial rule they were a part Rečyca uezd of Minsk guibernia. Start with Rechitsa {BEL:Rečyca} district. There are materials referring to Jewish residents of Rečyca uezd registering birth and marriages in Chernigov region during 1760-1850. More data is coming on every month. This material is written in Belorussian.
Yad Vashem is continuously adding WW-II records. Collections include evacuation records and victim's lists. There you can find the survivors of 1915-1932 pogroms, each document lists a destination town in Eastern provinces of USSR where one could do additional search.
FamilySearch is useful for detailing both Jewish and gentile residents of Chernigov region. Look for Repki residents there.