Russia Church Records: Difference between revisions

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The keeping of metrical books was mandated by a 1722 decree of Peter the Great. A format of three parts, christenings, marriages, deaths, was established in 1724, a printed format in 1806, and in 1838 a format that prevailed until the revolution. The consistory copy was considered official record. A Russian diocese - ''eparkhia'' was coterminous with a Russian state - ''guberniya''. The registers of each parish - ''prikhod'' in an country- ''uyezd'' were commonly filed together for a single year. Confession lists are often interfiled with parish registers. Each Orthodox Christian was to confess and partake of the sacrament at least once a year. The principal time for confession was Lent. Children of both sexes in obligatory fashion were taken to confession, beginning from their seventh year. The form of confession lists was established in 1737: the sequential number of the household, surname, given names of all children at least a year old, sex, ages, whether or not the person attended confession, and if not, why (rarely noted).  

=== Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church Records ===

Followers of the Byzantine rite, primarily Ukrainians, that returned to union with Rome. In 1839 the Church was formally dissolved in the Russian Empire and its members considered Orthodox. The church persisted only in Galicia and Transcarpathia, then under Austro-Hungarian rule. When these areas were assimilated into the Soviet Union, this religion was outlawed. The descendants of Ukrainians may not be aware of the distinction between Uniate and Orthodox.  

=== Roman Catholic Church Records ===

Russian mandate to keep registers in 1826. Three copies made. One may have been for the deanery - ''dekanat'', the level between the diocese and the parish. There were five dioceses in 1900: Tiraspol (located in Saratov), Zhytomyr (Zhitomir), Mogilev, Vilnius (Vilno), Kaunus (Kovno).  

=== Lutheran (Evangelical) Church Records ===

In 1832 Russia mandated keeping these records. There were eight diocesan offices, one in St. Petersburg, one in Moscow, and six in the Baltic states. The registers were kept in German, until law of 1891 required that they be kept in Russian.  

Handwritten records were kept for all births, marriages and deaths that were reported to the Lutheran Church. If an event occurred before the establishment of a Lutheran parish, the record is most likely in a nearby parish that was already established before the time of the event. In some cases, even though the event was for a person of the Evangelical (or Lutheran) faith, the event may be recorded in the Catholic Church records for that area.  

Family History Library filming generally ends with about the 1880s records, because the remaining records were not yet 100 years old at the time of filming. Because records after about 1869 are in the more difficult (to us) Russian Cyrillic, the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe will, at this time, limit the translation of Lutheran parish indexes to 1869.  

=== Old Believer Church Records ===

Dissenters from orthodoxy who refused to accept alterations of religious rituals and prayers. Civilian registration of birth and marriage by police mandated in 1874 for those who were born into old believer families. One copy made. Kept in the provincial administration (gubernskoye pravleniye).  

=== Baptist Church Records  ===

 

Included with all of the people who lived in Russian Poland, a significant number were of German ancestry, some of whom were of the Baptist faith. These people moved into Poland from the German states and Prussia at least as early as the late 18th century, and somewhat continuously in large numbers until at least the 1870s. By about 1900, many of these people had left this area to move to present-day eastern Poland, Volhynia, or other places. It appears that a significant number never left Poland until at least World War II.  

In 1828 and 1832 Russia mandated keeping these records. Two copies were filed, one in the mosque and the other in either Orenburg or Tavri. The mandate was extended to the Transcaucasus in 1872.