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Machine translation. For accuracy, consult the Russian original. Names and documents are preserved in their original form.

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Capaclia

Historically
Capaclia-Răzeși, jud. Cahul
Now
Capaclia, Cantemir district, Moldova
Years
1913–2013
South of Bessarabia on a map of 1913. Kapaklia is shown approximately; the tag does not identify the family's address.
South of Bessarabia on a map of 1913. Kapaklia is shown approximately; the tag does not identify the family's address.

Family documents name the parish of Capaclia-Răzeși. Grigore Călugăreanu (1913) and Maria Pleș (1921) were born here and married in church here in 1938. Soviet documents recording the birth of their daughter Ekaterina in 1953 place the same settlement in Baimakli district.

Place names. Romanian records use Capaclia-Răzeși, parohia Capaclia, județul Cahul; Russian sources use Kapaklia-Rezesh. Today the village is in Cantemir district. Capaclia Nouă, later Vishnevka, is a different settlement; the records of these two parishes must be kept distinct.

Village history. The Cantemir district tourism plan dates the settlement of the răzeși to 1783 and presents the account of Poana-Răzeși in the time of Stephen the Great as a tradition. The Codri Tigheci woodland lies near the village. According to the plan, St Demetrius Church was built in 1805 and renovated in 1893. These details concern the village’s history and do not establish the family’s origins.

Family records. Maria’s 1921 birth extract names her parents, Ioan and Ekaterina Pleș; her mother’s maiden name is not given. Grigore and Maria’s marriage on 5 June 1938 is confirmed by a separate extract. Grigore’s death in Capaclia in 2011 is confirmed by a certificate. Further research requires the full original parish entries and archival inventories for St Demetrius parish.

Administrative descriptions differ between family documents: S3 places Capaclia in Baimakli district, while S4 names Comrat district. The wording reflects when the documents were issued and recorded. The place of an event or a person’s origins cannot be inferred solely from the district name in a later extract.

A present-day village account. In a 2015 article, local resident Daniela Trofim described a celebration at St Demetrius Church, a concert and a village hora dance (S95). It is a recollection of contemporary Capaclia and gives no direct evidence about our ancestors’ lives.

20th-century background. The National Archive of Moldova has published materials on the 1946–1947 famine (S101) and a map of the 1949 deportations (S102). Family documents do not yet show how these events affected Grigore, Maria and their children. Named lists or family recollections are needed to establish this.

The mill. According to the Romanian directory Anuarul Socec for 1923–1924, Capaclia-Răzeși had one steam mill, owned by Dumitru Băcăianu (S600). No Pleș appear among the millers and traders of Cahul county in the directory.

Parish and district. In 1878–1917 Capaclia-Rezesh belonged to Izmail district of Bessarabia Province, the Cahul zemstvo section, with its post office in Vishnevka (S615). Its church was St Demetrius, of brick, built in 1805; in 1922 the parish priest was Pavel Caitas, aged 67 (S614). “Capaclia Nouă” with St Nicholas church is today's Vishnyovka, a different parish. So the records of the birth of Maria Pleș (1921) and of the other children of Ivan and Ekaterina Pleș are in the registers of St Demetrius church.

The name. The church of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki, according to the 1908 “Kishinev Diocesan Gazette”, was built by the parishioners in 1805 (wooden at the time) and renovated in 1893; the same article explains the word “Rezesh”: the peasants received land under Prince Cuza, and “rezesh” means landowner in Moldovan (S620). Tradition says there was a church in the forest near the village, destroyed by the Turks.

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