Beridze › What we do not know

Research · What we do not know

What we do not know

71 open questions

Where the research stops, and what evidence it needs to go further. This page is a wanted list, not an admission of failure.

Our research rests on documents that can be opened and checked, but several sources are still out of reach. Five printed works could not be obtained, and page 48 of I. Akhuashvili's (ი. ახუაშვილი) 1997 book, on which the chain of Kartli (ქართლი) records rests, has never been read by us. The portrait of Vominija Beridze (ვომინიჯა ბერიძე) from Castelli's album, once the most wanted image, has been found in the 1976 edition (plate 112) and is shown on the site; what stays open is the form of her name and who her husband was, because the sources disagree. On genetic origin there is still a single published result, which is not a picture of the surname.

Contradictions

The site stops where the sources grow thin and the records contradict one another. The analysis found inaccuracies of various kinds and facts that exclude one another, from the oldest dates to the statistics. The critical lines of inquiry were checked. This shed some light on the epigraphic and documentary material, but many questions are still unanswered. We did not find a published genealogy of the Beridzes (ბერიძე). We also could not find documents such as the 1448 charter of the Palavandishvilis (ფალავანდიშვილი) or the text of Kveli Chkhataraishvili's (კველი ჩხატარაიშვილი) 1959 study.

  • not confirmed B-018 · In იმერეთი (Imereti), Georgian reference works describe the…
  • not confirmed B-203 · Imereti: Tsereteli aznaurs and the Sveri fortress garrison
  • not confirmed B-205 · როსტომ ბერიძე, mouravi of the გურიის უდაბნო, 1790
  • not confirmed B-206 · The 1824 Dadiani certificate restoring the Khoni Beridzes'…
  • not confirmed B-207 · ციხე ბერიძისა at ძიმითი, and "Saberitzeo" on Delisle's 1766…
  • not confirmed B-208 · ვომინიჯა ბერიძე's exact name and husband
  • not confirmed B-209 · The ბერიძეთა საგვარეულო კავშირი (Geostat id 25222463)
  • not confirmed B-210 · ბერიეთობა, 2 August
  • not confirmed B-211 · The Y-DNA result, G2a2b2a1a2b
  • not confirmed B-213 · Appendix A items 51, 52 and the long §9.2 quotation
  • not confirmed B-214 · The identification of Dumin's Нина Симоновна Беридзе with…
  • not confirmed B-215 · Which ფარცხისი

Claims →

Five works

Finding five works we could not obtain would be decisive for filling many of the remaining gaps. The first is Eter Beridze's (ეთერ ბერიძე) 2003 study „ბერიძეები (სოფელი ფურტიო, ფარნას შტო)“ [rendering: The Beridzes (the village of Purtio, the Parna branch)]. Merab Beridze (მერაბ ბერიძე) wrote two of them, „ნასოფლარი ერკოტა“ [rendering: The former village of Erkota], published in 2013, and „მაჰმადიანი მესხების ფესვები“ [rendering: The roots of the Muslim Meskhetians] of 2009. Then come L. Kozaidze's (ლ. კოზაიძე) 2012 work „ბერიძეთა გვარი ვალეში“ [rendering: The Beridze surname in Vale] and E. Baramidze's (ე. ბარამიძე) dissertation, defended in Batumi (ბათუმი) in 2021. These texts probably hold material that would shed more light on the history of the Adjara (აჭარა) and Meskheti (მესხეთი) branches. At present none of them can be found in open access.

Akhuashvili 1997

The great majority of the records in circulation about the Beridzes (ბერიძე) of Kartli (ქართლი) and Imereti (იმერეთი) depend on a single source. That source is page 48 of I. Akhuashvili's (ი. ახუაშვილი) 1997 book. The information on the 1448 charter, the Saakadze (სააკაძე) document, and the aznauri, or lesser nobles, of Satsitsiano (საციციანო) and Saamilakhvro (საამილახვრო) all rests on this page. Even so, the page itself proved out of reach for researchers, and no independent texts of the primary sources are available. Until page 48 of the book and the archives it cites have been read, the records that depend on them remain not confirmed.

Timeline

  • B-202 A

    The Akhuashvili chain of Kartli Beridzes (1997, p. 48, via Georgian Wikipedia), 1448–1715, checked item by item against PAL I (1991) and the printed 1715 Ruisi register (Takaishvili 1907, pp. 126–130), where Aradeti has one Beridze, იორდანე; the second name is printed ბერაძე.

Timeline · Akhuashvili →

Castelli

The 1630s portrait of Vominija Beridze (ვომინიჯა ბერიძე) in Castelli's album has been found and is shown on the site. The written description is known, and so are the ten baptisms held in her house. Two important details are still unresolved. It is unclear whether her name was Vominija, Vominisa (ვომინისა) or Vomijina (ვომიჯინა), and who her husband was. Castelli calls the husband a Gurian prince (tavadi, თავადი), while Sharadze (შარაძე) names her as the wife of Malakia Gurieli (მალაქია გურიელი), the Catholicos. These accounts have not been reconciled.

The poet Vominija Beridze
The poet Vominija Beridze · 1630s · Public domain

Person

  • Vominija Beridze B

    XVII · Guria · poet

  • B-208 not confirmed

    ვომინიჯა ბერიძე's exact name and husband

Vominija Beridze →

DNA

On the genetic side there is at present only one public result, haplogroup G2a2b2a1a2b. The claim that many different haplogroups occur among the Beridzes (ბერიძე) has no data behind it and should not be used. The view that the surname arose from several separate, independent centres therefore rests only on documentary sources and reasoning. It has not been tested genetically. A full picture needs a targeted genetic study of members of the Guria (გურია), Adjara (აჭარა), Meskheti (მესხეთი), Imereti (იმერეთი) and Samegrelo (სამეგრელო) branches.

Evidence

  • B-211 not confirmed

    The Y-DNA result, G2a2b2a1a2b

  • Source C

    Georoyal - ქართული გვარები ჰაფლოჯგუფების მიხედვით

  • Source C

    Georgian DNA Project

Wanted

To go further, each item and document on the wanted list has to be found, because these are the pieces of evidence that would fill the gaps. A reader who has access to the books we could not obtain, to archival documents or to DNA testing can contribute directly to recovering the history of the family.

Sources · 55

Claims · 12

Photographs · 4

Contribute →

CiteBeridze, a history of the surname · What we do not know · https://beridze.info/en/unknown/ (accessed 2026-10-07)

unknown · last updated 2026-10-07 · send a correction