Josefstal Census: February 14, 1858
For tax purposes, a census was done in 1857/58 of all villages and colonies in Russia.
The importance of this census for “daughter” colonies such as Josefstal, was that it listed all the residents as of that date, just shortly after its founding in 1852, and it listed where the residents originated.
Researchers can thus discover the ties to the “Mother” colony, and from there, research their family tree with accurate certainty.
Copies of these census returns were made for a number of reasons, and would be used to track draftees, head of household counts, marriages, deaths, etc, as each family was assigned a family “number” – all originating from this 1858 census.
The Josefstal census is available in at least 2 Russian archives, Saratov and Volgograd.
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