Tsirlin Family - St. Petersburg

Note: the name is given as Tsirlin (masculine) or Tsirlina (feminine). These are the same name, with a Russian feminine ending for women which would not be used except when speaking Russian. In my chart below I have omitted this ending.

The second name is always the father's name. So for example Aleksandr Semenovich is the son of Semen (Simon)

Dates are for the most part simply the dates of the documents.

Perhaps the most significant information is that no Tsirlins were found in these records for the years 1866-1904 in St. Petersburg (the books from 8 of these years were examined). Some other family-related names were checked, such as Bulkin, and none were found. So the situation changes after 1900.

Here are some forms in Cyrillic: the common forms Tsirlin', Tsirlina, Tsyrlin, Tsyrlina, and the deviant Tsirlin and Tsirling; these are taken from St. Petersburg directories, for 1917 and 1934.

It appears that the terminal hard sign may have disappeared with the spelling reform of 1918.

Prerevolutionary

• Abram Iudelevich Tsirlin
1915
#32, Kolomenskaia Street
• Aleksandr Semenovich Tsirlin
Addresses:
Rented apartments at, successively:
• #53-6, B. Okhtinski Avenue
• #27-9, Mokhovaia Street
• #18, Zabalkanskii Avenue
From 1910, a homeowner:
• #8, Rizhskii Avenue
Profession:
• Clerk, 31st department of the Justice of the Peace since 1899
• Clerk, 2nd District of the Justice of the Peace since 1901
• Private attorney, 1903-1913
• Mariia Iakovlevna Tsirlin
1916-1917
#5, Sofiiskaia Street
"Wife of the hereditary honored citizen."
• Meyer Davidovich Tsirlin
1915
#5, Pushkinskaia Street
• Moisei Berkovich Tsirlin
1915
#44, Ligovskii Avenue
• Sonia Movshevna
1911
#15, Vladimirskii Avenue

Post-revolutionary

From the St. Petersburg directories for 1917 and 1934, via Pavel Bernshtam:

1917
Name	Address
Tsirlina Ek[aterina] Iv[an-ovna]	Kamennoostr[ovskaya] pr. 66
Tsirling' Vlad[imir] Mih[ail-ovich]	Palyustr. uch. der. Kabaniha 45
Tsirlin' Mar[ya] Yak[ov-lena] see also Mariia Yakovlena.	Wife of honorary citizen. Sofiiskaya 5
Tsirlin' Ars[enii?] Fed[or-ovich]	V.O. 16 lin. 91 T57531. (hay, oats, salt)
Tsirlin' Meer' Ios[e(f)-vich]	Galernaya 50. (Tailor)
1934
Name	Address
Tsirlin Grig[orii] Il[y(a)-ich]	Z-d im. Engel'sa. Podol'skaya 8 kv. 4
Tsirlin Miron Mois[e-vich] Dr.	Sovetskii 54 kv. 6 tel. 531-06
Tsirlina Mar[ya] Lev. Dr.	P. Lavrova 15
Tsyrlin Veniam[in] Lev[ovich]	Upolnom k-ry Tochmashsbyt. Gertsena 27 kv. 19, tel. 280-90
Tsyrlin Iog[an?] Mois[e-vich]	F-ka im. K. Libknehta. Barmaleeva 4 kv. 84. tel. 532-93.
Tsyrlina Eva Mark[ovna]	LIKI. Kirochnaya 24
Tsyrlina Ol[ga] Lev[ovna]	Kand. chl. Smol'n. Raisovata. Lahtinskaya 9 kv. 9

From Yad Vashem

• Mendel Tsirlin
M. Rebeka
Children:
• Vera Tsirlin Markh

Information from

   Blitz-USA Information Center
   907 San Rafael, CA 94901
   Tel. (415) 453-3579
   Fax. (415) 453-0343
   Contact: W. Edward Nute
   email: enute@igc.apc.org
  

From Semjon Tsyrlin, a student at Hunter College, we receive the following:

My grandfather Tanhum Berkovich (Natan Borosovich) was born in Klintzi and had two brothers, Abram and Haim (Yefim). All three travelled to St. Petersburg shortly before the revolution looking for jobs and education.

From this description, it sounds like they were about 20 years old at the time. None of this corresponds to anything on the list above; we do have a Moisei Berkovich Tsirlin, sharing the same father's name Berk (is this Baruch?). As all these names are quite common, it seems like a coincidence.

Note that the variants Chirlin/Tsirlin/Tsyrlin are treated as more or less interchangeable in the Russian documents, which complicates matters. (Furthermore, in transcriptions into English, Tsirlin is often given even when the original is more properly read as Tsyrlin).