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Billets as person documents3 Names: Martinovs, Fjodorovs, Skuja
| The first document I am describing here is a Billet written in the Russian language - a kind of dwelling certificate - issued by the officials of Riga city in 1838 and valid till October 23, 1839. The number of the document was 1616 which allows to estimate the quantity of people who applied for dwelling certificates in that year. Now the information on the front side of the document follows: |
| The right-hand side of the Billet bears information about
the document holder, and namely: Lena Martynova.- a daughter
of a soldier. Soldier's daughter in this case was her estate. The
soldiers after they retired and their children (daughters) as well were
free persons and were allowed to live in any part of the Empire and were
registered in the appropriate community lists free of charge. In 1839 the
soldier sons were sent to kanton schools as soon as they were 10 years old,
however. The peasants of the Baltic provinces, though they were formally
free, were not allowed yet at 1839 to leave their pagasts without special
permission of the manor owner.
Some instructions for the document holder are printed below the name. The Billet was to be registered at the Police officer of the block where the holder lived. As far as I understand, L.Martynova had another document issued at her permanent living place, and on the basis of that document the Billet was produced. If L.Martynova wanted to leave Riga, she had to give back the Billet, and then she would receive her initial document back. Her name is of Russian origin and it allows to suppose that she went to Riga either from Latgale, where lived relatively many Russians, or from Russia proper. Some information on Lena and her appearance is given on the left-hand side of the Billet. She was 22 years old, of middle-size height, her hair was brownish, her eyes were grey and the face was white. On the backside of the document the Police officials certified by signatures and stamps that the document was registered on Nov.22, 1838, Apr.24, 1839, June 12, 1839 and June 28, 1839. The document was issued by Rižskaja Uprava blagočinija that is difficult to translate from Russian, but it was an institution of the Police responsible for the order in the city. The Police officers of blocks were under this Uprava. The department of this Uprava that in reality made the document was called Pašportnaja Ekspedicija.
2I also have a quite similar Billet that was issued by the same Uprava on October 17, 1859 to Dorotea Fjodorova born Skuja, the widow of surgeon's assistant (feldšer) Filip Fjodorov. She was 37, and two children were with her - a son Ivan 8 years old and a daughter Anna 7 years old. The name Fjodorov is also of Russian origin, but in the 1850s a lot of Latvians converted to Greek Orthodox Church and sometimes got Russian first and family names. In any case, her maiden name Skuja is plain Latvian. |