Kishinev's Country in 1904
April 13, 2014 5:29 PM   Subscribe

When I was young, I was told that my maternal grandparents were from Russia. I had my grandfather's birth certificate translated by a friend, and found that he was born in Kishinev in 1904. Currently Kishinev is in Moldova, but my reading has uncovered a ping pong game of ownership regarding Bessarabia and the surrounding areas during that time frame. Perhaps I'm being dense, but I can't quite make out what country Kishinev was a part of in 1904. Any help would be appreciated.
posted by blurker to Grab Bag (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Kishinev was the capital of the province of Bessarabia in the Russian Empire in 1904. Now the capital of Moldova.
posted by Right On Red at 5:36 PM on April 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Considered Russian territory until 1917 when it requested autonomy from the Russian Empire. Joined Romania in 1918.
posted by Karotz at 5:50 PM on April 13, 2014


Ping pong is not really accurate, but the fact that the polities claiming Bessarabia/Moldova were changing forms of government, names, and boundaries all during this period related to the First World War can make it confusing.

1817 Bessarabia ceded to Russia by treaty
1917 Moldavian Democratic Republic established
1918 Union with Romania
1940 Occupied by Red Army, soon becomes Moldavian SSR, constituent republic within the USSR
1991 Independent

I have some similar questions about the actual authority over where my ancestors in Germany at the time of their emigration, so I sympathize. From a genealogical standpoint, though, it mainly matters where the records are kept and in what language, and whether they survived any wars.
posted by dhartung at 6:52 PM on April 13, 2014


An added wrinkle: this area was also known as the Pale, which is where all Jews were sequestered. Your family (like mine) might have been there less as a function of national origin or identity, and more because that's where they had to live.
posted by judith at 7:42 PM on April 13, 2014 [1 favorite]


That area east of Kishnev was also home to a large German immigrant population.

This article may be helpful as well.
posted by blob at 10:07 PM on April 13, 2014


Ethnic identity was more important than geography or political boundaries at the time.

It's very possible your ancestor was Jewish. There was a notorious and historically important pogrom in Kishniev in 1903. There are some good geneological resources available if you are interested.
posted by RandlePatrickMcMurphy at 6:51 AM on April 14, 2014


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