Orla & Łopaty (Slownik Geograficzny translations)

Note:  The family of Maria Baniukiewicz, the wife of Jozef Prokopowicz, brother of my maternal grandfather Aleksandr Prokopowicz, was from the Orla-Łopaty area.  Łopaty is due south of the Prokopowicz village of Kozarezy.  Dirt roads connect them; the distance between the villages is about 6 km, a little over 3 miles.  All of these locations may be seen on the colored map that accompanies my Żołudek translation.

Orla

A private town on the Niemen River, Lida district, in the 3rd police precinct, Orla gmina and rural precinct, at 50 wiorsts [approx. 50 km] from Lida, on the road to Zelwa, and at 138 wiorsts from Wilno, has 83 houses, 598 inhabitants (280 male and 318 female); wooden Pokrowska [Eastern] Orthodox church, erected in 1783; a Jewish house of prayer; harbor and ferry across the Niemen.  Property of Countess Hermance Uruska. Orthodox parish, Szczuczyn deanery (błahoczynia), has 2,497 faithful (1,244 male and 1,253 female).

The gmina consists of, from the 4th rural precinct: Orla, Lipczanka, Stukaly and Korutnica, 43 villages, 518 huts/cabins, and has 5,474 inhabitants (2,604 male and 2,870 female). According to the roll of 1864, it counted 2,187 male dusz reviz. ["revision souls"], namely 1,744 enfranchised peasants, 394 treasury peasants, and 49 jednodwórce [minor szlachta; jedno = one, dwór = manor, thus, nobility whose property was only one manor]. It belongs to the 2nd peace district of peasant affairs in Szczuczyn, as well as to the 2nd circuit of summons to military service from Lida district in the town of Żołudek.

Within the composition of the rural precinct come the town of Orla, the villages Przecim (Pretym), Hołynka, Długa, Kupieli, Łopaty, Korsaki, Papiszcze, Romanowicze, Turzejsk, Rymki, Soroki, Białogórce, Borć-Turzejsk, Pietraszki and Dworczany; the zascianek Dworczany and the szlachta settlements Paszyce and Romanowicze, all in all 889 dusz reviz., within this number, 575 enfranchised peasants, 277 treasury peasants, and 37 jednodworce.

(Słownik, vol. VII, p. 582)

Łopaty

Peasant village, Lida district, 2nd administrative precinct, Żołudek parish, along the road to Różanka, at 50 wiorsts from Lida, 13 houses, 121 inhabitants.

(Słownik, vol. V, p. 720)