"The Gombin Society is committed to obtaining and disseminating relevant materials, encouraging research, and preserving the documents and relics of the culture, genealogy and history of the Gombin Jews." From the Gombin Society Message

Plock State Archive: Gombin Document AKT507

PLOCK STATE ARCHIVE (PSA)

Established in 1919, the State Record Office in Plock gathered acts coming from the XIX and XX^th century, issued by the Polish authorities, as well as by the Russian and German Occupation authorities. It was closed by the Nazis and documents moved to Krolewiec. 30% only of the acts were saved. In 1951 the Archive was re-opened and consisted of saved XIX century documents and documents of Plock town dated 1808-1951, stored in Plock City hall.

The resources were systematically increased with variety of documents, state archive acts acts of courts, attorneys, notaries, Plock jail records, banks registrations, school documents, political and professional organizations and more historical documents.

One of the most precious are acts of the town of Plock (birth, marriage, death), dated 1808 - 1954, altogether 31,000 documents, which are a unique collection of town acts in Poland. Also stored there are the acts of the towns of Gabin, Gostynin, Raciaz, Sierpc and Wyszogrod.

Address of the Polish State Archive in Plock is:

ul. Kazimierz Wielkiego 9B
09-400 Plock
Poland
Ph: 622491

In order to obtain a license to research in the Archive you have to apply first to the headquarters of the PSA:

Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwow Panstwowych
akr. Poczt. 1005
ul. Dluga 6
09-950 Warszawa
Poland
Ph: 8313206
Fax: 831-7563

Plock State Archive

AKTA Magistratu Miasta Gombina nr 507:

INTRODUCTION

In July99 I went to Poland for the 5^th time. The aim of this trip was research. I wished to see in my own eyes, copy and record the vital records of my family from Gombin and Plock. I obtained a special research permit from the Polish authorities, valid for one year. Without the knowledge of the Polish language, the task was actually "mission impossible"...

I spent some hours in the Plock State archive, helped by a very nice and cooperative archivist. The only problem was that she didn't speak any English, but with the my enthusiasm and eagerness, we have somehow managed to communicate... I obtained index of my family Zlotnik in the family house Registration Book , with more than 70 entries... It opened new horizons to my research.

Than, as was always the case, I started inquiring about my parents' old and beloved lost shtetl GOMBIN. Many of the Jews are registered in the books containing vital records of the 19^th century, and microfilmed by the Mormons.

Two incredible documents attracted my eyes and held my breath... One was the old registry volume, akta 454 the original volume, which the 181 pages Old Registry Book referred to... This is a real treasure... ALL Gombin's family history is written down, including names, profession, dates of birth/marriage/death, parents - including maiden name of mother, dates of emigration. EVERYTHING! The book contains thousand of pages... Including the Polish entries. It seems that this is the only Civil Registration Book they have about Gombin. It covers the events which took place in the years 1888-1914. Familiar names, familiar families, most of them lost and destroyed in the tragic end of Gombin Jewry, BAUMAN, FRENKIEL, FRIEDMAN, GELBERT, GOSTYNSKI, HOLCMAN, SLOMA, TENENBAUM, TYBER, TAJFELD, WYSPA, ZAMOSC, ZIELONKA, ZILBERSZTEJN, to mention just a few...

These are the last traces... They have deep meaning for us, Jews, survivors, descendants... Living remnants of a special community; "Bnai Gombin" who are determined to keep the heritage. Many of the families didn't even have a single survivor relative, to keep the name.

A typical entry is: Szlama Zelig ZAMOSC, parents Abram and Raisa, born 18.5.1840 in Plock, died 20.11.1915 in Gombin... He is probably Leon's great grandfather, and now Szlama Zelig's parents are also known - nearly 200 hundreds of roots... This book should be transliterated once... It is waiting for redemption out there, in the dusty shelves of Plock... Due to the magnitude of the task, this will wait for a while...

The second document which attracted my eyes was act (akta) 507. This consists of few lists of Jewish men from Gombin born 1866 - 1899, in Russian. There were 65 pages and the names repeated in some cases, meaning that the lists were made by the Russian authorities a few times. They are most probably recruit lists to the Czarist army, or they were made for taxing purpose or other civil reasons.

After I came back, I proposed to transcribe akt 507 to the Gombin Society. The project has been approved by the board of directors of the Gombin Society last December and was commissioned to a researcher in Poland who transcribed the 65 pages of the lists from Russian to English, translated and published them in a booklet. The Polish researcher did a fantastic work, which consisted of 5 long sessions of hours and hours of hard work in Plock and later typing the lists and publishing them. The original booklet done will be sent to Noam Lupo, the Gombin Society's secretary and editor of the newsletter. It will be published in the future and distributed by the Society, in addition to the variety of publications already done by the Gombin Society.

I have slowly re-typed all the lists, edited and scanned the double entries. There is also another related list which the researcher marked as "Supplement") and which was prepared in 1916 and in it the age is marked and not the year of birth. I transformed the age into year of birth and left the original age in the note field, preceded by "SUPP.", meaning "SUPPLEMENT".

Since the names repeat in many cases, with sometimes different year of birth. I couldn't be the judge as to what is correct or what was modified (by intention(!) or by error - only the clerk who registered the men and/or the Jews themselves who submitted the data, would have known... I copied the two or three years of birth whenever the years were different. It is up to the researcher to decide what was the correct year of birth, based on other sources.

In the end of the process there were recorded total of 911 men from Gombin in the document AKT 507.

I have now posted on the web, accessible to all those who care for their origins from Gombin. I am sure all those who were engaged really in research in Poland, and encountered the endless difficulties and costs, will appreciate the material and its accessibility.

And from the dry entries, the shtetl comes to life... Our ancestors' memory is alive - I could see Mordka Abraham, Josek, Majer Aron, Wolek, Szaja, Jakob, Chaim, Abba, Moszek... our grandfathers, never known in their lives to my generation... I could visualize them, strolling in the streets of Gombin, praying in the grand synagogue and in the shtibbls, working hard to make a living, keeping tradition and faith while opening up to the new spirits of the 20^th century, fighting anti-Semitism and dreaming of Zion... Behind every name, hides a whole world... This is the magic of Jewish Genealogy in general, and of my Gombin Genealogy in particular... I am glad that with this work, I contributed just another additional piece of information to this patchwork of memory...

We Remember Gombin!

Ada Holtzman 28.3.2000

THE SURNAMES

THE DATA

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J-R

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