Russia Church Records: Difference between revisions

A very special source, to which we do not know analogues in other countries, were synodicals, the prayer list for certain deceased people, who were somehow related to that particular church or monastery. That could be a landlord, a priest, but also some peasants and town citizens. To get your family mentioned by such rememberings, one had to pay some money, of course. Some synodicals are very short, and tell only family name. But lots of them are a list of all deceased ancestors, which were known to the person who ordered the synodical. Synodicals of the 17th century are sometimes a unique source for ancient genealogies. Only one problem is with them, - that there was no stable algorythm of the order in which one put his ancestors. So, synodicals could be used only with a help of some information from other sources. <br>  

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 - епархия (''eparkhia'') was coterminous with a Russian state - губерния (''guberniya''). The registers of each parish - приход (''prikhod'') in an country- уезд (''uyezd'') were commonly filed together for a single year.  

'''Record type:''' Register of orthodox parishioners taken at Easter confession. Attendance at confession and communion was required of the family members over the age of seven.  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).<br>

'''Time period:''' 1723-ca. 1930.<br>

'''Reliability:''' High.  Comparison can be made between the returns annually for verification of reliability.<ref name="profile">The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Family History Record Profile: Russia,” Word document, private files of the FamilySearch Content Strategy Team, 1996-2001.</ref>

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 think their ancestors were Orthodox when they were really Uniate before 1839.  

Russia mandated the keeping of Roman Catholic registers in 1826. Three copies made, the third for the deanery - ''dekanat'', the level between the diocese and the parish. Aside from Russian Poland, there were five dioceses in 1900: Tiraspol (located in Saratov), Zhytomyr (Zhitomir), Mogilev, Vilnius (Vilno), Kaunus (Kovno).  

The Russian Poland region is a unique situation within the old Russian Empire.&nbsp; After the defeat of Napoleon, the Polish regions governed by Russia were given semi-autonomy.&nbsp; They therefore continued to keep the records, with minor 1826 variations, in the old Napoleonic paragraph form.&nbsp; They were in the Polish language until 1867 when Russian Cyrillic was mandated by the government.&nbsp; More information can be found on the Poland resources pages.  

In 1832 Russia mandated keeping these records. Aside from Russian Poland, 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. Before the Russian revolution of 1917, there were 32 [https://www.revolvy.com/page/Evangelical-Lutheran-Church-of-Ingria Ingrian] parishes in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area founded in the beginning of 1600. The priests came from Finland and Sweden. The books were written in Finnish, Swedish and German. The transcripts in St. Petersburg for 1832-1885 have been microfilmed.  

A list of Lutheran Parishes along with relevant microfilm numbers for Russian Poland can be found on the [http://www.sggee.org/research/parishes/church_parishes/LutheransInRusPoland.html SGGEE website].&nbsp; Many of these (especially from times prior to the introduction or Cyrillic) are being indexed in a Master Pedigree Database.&nbsp; It contains over 500,000 line items and is only available to members.<br>  

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 was made and kept in the provincial administration - ''gubernskoye pravleniye''.  

Civil registration was mandated in 1879. Two copies, one in the provincial administration and the other in the regional police headquarters - ''uezdnoye politseiskoye upravleniye''.  

==References==