The ancestral area of our Mervis families is entirely in the north-central part of modern-day Lithuania, in what was once the Kovno Gubernya in the 19th century.  Nearly all of the 60 trees being researched by the Group are for families that found their beginnings in a small circular region centered on Baisogala, and about 40 kilometers in radius;  the red star shows the location of Milvidai, a shtetl proposed as a possible source of the Mirvis clan.  By far, the main center of Mirvis's was the Siauliai Uyezd (District) of Kovno Gubernya.  The districts (Uyezd's) within the Kovno Gubernya where they started out were (in order of decreasing concentration):

Siauliai District:	Baisogala, Grinkiskis, Seduva,
	Siaulia, Zagare
Kovno District:	Dotnuva, Grinkiskis, Krakes,
	Kovno, Keidan
Panevesys Dist.:	Birzh, Krakinova, Ramigola
Telshi District:	Plunge
Rassein District:	Kelme
Lida District:	Radin

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Archival Revision Lists have been collected by MRG in order to discover where Mirvis's were registered in the mid- and late 19th century in Lithuania.  Most of the data checked so far have been for 1858 Revision Lists for the Siauliai Uyezd (District) which contains the central shtetl Baisogala, but some others were checked for parts of other districts (Rasseiniai, Panevezys, Telsiai, Ukmerge, and Kalvarija) where data were readily available.

It should be noted that registration of an individual in a certain shtetl does NOT guarantee that the individual was actually living in that shtetl -- it only indicates that he was registered there.  Frequently, families moved to another shtetl and did not register there.

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Mirvis's found in Archival documents: Mirvis's were found to be registered ONLY in Baisogala, not in any other shtetl in the Siauliai District, nor in the other districts which were checked for the dates listed above.  In the Siauliai District, no Mirvis's were found for the other shtetlach Seduva, Siauliai, and Zagare, despite the fact that the Researchers stated that some of their Mirvis's lived in those shtetlach on some dates;  no archival data were available for Grinkiskis.  For the other Districts, archival data were not available for most of the shtetlach where Mirvis's were known from tree data to have lived.

The conclusion from this is that Baisogala does indeed seem to be the main center of Mirvis family life, where Mirvis's were officially registered to live.

The documents covered were:

    Revision Lists, 1858
    Additional Revision Lists, 1858, 1866, 1868, 1869
    Siauliai 1890 Merchants Lists (Individuals: 1858-95)

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The shtetlach examined were the following:

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So where did they come from?!

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