One of Ari’s 6x great-grandmothers was called Itka. She was born in 1804 in Lithuania, probably in Svencionys (also known as Švenčionys, Sventzion, Święciany, Shventsian, Śvianciany, Schwintzen, Švenčoņi, Svencionyz, Shvintzion, Shvyentsiani, Shvyetsiani, Sventsian, Sventsiany, Swenziany, and Svintzian!).
I don’t have any photos of Itka, but here are some of her descendants and their families in South Africa.
Itka is a derivative of the name Judith, according to Alexander Beider’s Handbook of Ashkenazic Given Names, mentioned before.
We know that her father’s name was Leiba, and that she was 30 in 1834. Thanks to the Svencionys District Research Group of LitvakSIG (a group of people who have contributed to making data about Svencionys available), we have a list of people who lived in Svencionys in 1834 when there was a Revision List, which was a census used to collect poll taxes. Itka is listed as the wife of Movsha Gurvich (Hurwitz), and her father’s first name is also provided.
Also in the household on 30 April 1834 were her son Leib (aged 11) and daughter Sheina (aged 5).
To find out her surname, I checked the 1811 Revision List for a man called Leiba (or Leyba or Leib) with a daughter aged 7 called Itka. The closest was a Leyba Muchan, with a daughter Ita, aged 12, so I’m not convinced.
The 1850 Revision List shows our family again in October of that year, with Itka now aged 46. Also in the household is her son Kopel Leib (27), his wife Tema, and their daughter Buska, aged 8.
I have found no other records for Itka, and she does not appear in the 1858 Revision List.
Contributions to LitvakSIG are very much welcomed, to enable further records to be transcribed and made available. See https://www.litvaksig.org/research/
Ari, this is how you are related to Itka:
