GRHS Northern California Workshop
- Russian Genealogical Sources -

© copyright 1996 by FEEFHS; all rights reserved

Latest Update: 25 August 1996 (Links updated)
The first annual Northern California Chapter workshop of the Germans From Russia Heritage Society (GRHS) held in Sacramento on Saturday 18 November 1995. The keynote speaker was Gwen Pritzkau of Riverton, Utah.

Gwen has gained the reputation of being the formost advocate in Salt Lake City for obtaining German-Russian genealogy materials. She is known to have been an important advocate and a moving force in encouraging the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) to locate and place a high priority on the St. Petersburg Lutheran consistory duplicate churchbooks microfilming project. The wisdom of her recommendation is clear. These 137 reels have become the most popular of any collection ever filmed by the GSU, with the lone exception of the U.S. Census.

The GSU is the LDS entity, based in Salt Lake City, that overseas and conducts the microfilming activities that result in accession into the FHL of large quantities of microfilm of important genealogical value. It is understood that the GSU's Office of Collection Development (OCD) works with GSU negotiators to schedule and prioritize future filming projects.

Gwen reported thedeath of Jared Suess on Monday 31 October 1995. Mr. Suess was the veteran director of the GSU Office of Collection Development (OCD). Mr. Suess was author of several significant genealogy texts. He was an important decision maker in identifying high priority projects while mounting the extensive microfilming program in Eastern Europe earlier this decade. His death leaves a large void in this office. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Other talented members of this office, including his assistant Kahlile Meher and Steve Blodgett reportedly will continue these important tasks. It is understood from Gwen that East European author, lecturer and expert Daniel Schlyter, A.G. of the International Reference Desk (FHL Level B-1) will be moving upstairs to add his expertise to this office.

Gwen presented a lecture titled: "Family History: Why, What and What's Wunnerful About It". Her talk was based in part on her personal knowledge of recent developments in German-Russian microfilm availability at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City, where she has volunteered her time for many years. The main substance of her extended comments came from a mid-November 1995 paper on Russian Genealogical Sources authored by Kahlile Mehr, of the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU).

The FEEFHS INTERNET JOURNAL is pleased to offer the text of this Kahlile Mehr paper with Gwen's full consent. At this moment it is the most current and authoritative review of this subject generally available to genealogists today. The text is copyrighted and all rights reserved. The creative content is by Kahlile Mehr. Any errors are the full responsibility of the FEEFHS Webmaster, who re-typed, formatted and coded it for posting on this web site 19 November 1995.


Russian Genealogical Sources
by
Kahlile Mehr


copyright 1995 by Kahlile Mehr and FEEFHS; all rights reserved

1) GENERAL
The two primary sources for pre-revolutionary genealogy in Russia are revision lists (poll tax census) and parish registers (more precisely, parish register transcripts). In both cases, the annual returns for a particular region were often bound together, no matter how many folios existed for that region.

2) METRIKI, metrical books (parish registers)
The majority begin in the middle of the 18th century. Normally two copies were made. One (a transcript) was sent annually to a central ecclesiastical or civil office. The transcript is the copy most likely to have survived the civil disruptions in Russian history.

2a) Russian Orthodox
In 1589 the Russian Patriarchate was established. It followed the Byzantine rite in Russia. The keeping of metrical books was mandated by a 1722 decree of Peter the Great. The format of three parts -- christening, marriages and deaths -- was established in 1724. The printed format was established in 1806. The 1838 format prevailed until the revolution. The consistory copy was considered official and the parish record was considered a copy.

Russian dioceses were coterminal with Russian guberniias. A diocese (eparkhia) was divided by blagochenie, then by prikhod (parish).

2b) Roman Catholic
In 1563 the Council of Trent mandated the keeping of parish registers for christening and marriage. Burial was mandated in 1614. Russia mandated the keeping of registers in 1826. Three copies were made. One may have been for the deanery (dekanat), the level between the diocese and the parish. There were five dioceses in 1900: Tiraspol, Zhitomir, Mogilev, Vilnius (Vilno) and Kaunus (Kovno).

2c) Evangelical (Lutheran)
Russia mandated the keeping of records in 1832. There were two diocese offices, one in St. Petersburg and the other in Moscow. The registers were kept in German, until the law of 1891 required that they be kept in Russian.

2d) Jewish
Russia mandated the keeping of records in 1835. Two copies were made, the official one was turned into the government. Beginning in 1857 a Crown rabbi, paid by the state, kept the registers.

3) REVIZSKIE SKAZKI (revision lists)
Church books are not the best research source for Russian genealogy. Both archivists and researchers told me that the best place to begin research is in the revision lists. Revision lists were kept between 1719 and 1858 to support a national poll tax. They covered 95% of the population.

The poll tax was announced by Peter I in 1718 and was undertaken in 1719. He instituted it in order to change the basis of taxation from households to individuals. It still took several years for the returns to come in. In the meantime Peter I died.

The second revision was initiated in 1743 by Elizabeth.

The third revision, 1761-1767, coincided with the ascension of Catherine II to the throne. It included females for the first time.

The fourth revision (1778-1787, was the first to be conducted by the region fiscal chamber (kazionnaia palata), established in 1775 to handle income and expenses of governmental institutions, the collection of taxes, and the conduct of revisions.

The fifth revision was in 1794-1808.

The sixth revision was in 1811-1812.

The seventh revision was in 1815-1825.

The eighth revision was in 1833-1835.

The ninth revision was in 1850-1852.

The tenth revision was in 1857-1859.

The last three revisions noted changes in families during the interim between the revisions.

The tax was imposed on all male persons of the lower classes at a rate of 80 kopeks a year. Nobility, clergy, officialdom, army, and higher strata of the urban population were exempt -- about 10% in the 19th century.

Separate volumes were kept for the different classes of society.

4) PEREPIS 1897 (1897 census)
The 1897 census was the only universal census in tsarist Russia. It was conducted on January 28, in the middle of winter because this was the time when the population was least mobile. The census tabulated information on name, age, sex, relationship, social class, occupation, religion, native tongue, literacy, birthplace, military status, and disabilities.

A copy was made locally and both copies were forwarded to the provincial census commission. One copy was kept by that commission and the other sent to the Central Census Bureau in St. Petersburg. The name lists of that copy have been thrown away but the statistical sheets have been kept. The local copy has survived in some regional archives. For example, the 1897 census for Ekaterinoslav is in Dnepropetrovsk.


5) MICROFILM PRODUCTION
Cameras sponsored by the Genealogical Society of Utah are currently located as follows:

Production of microfilm reels as received in Salt Lake City to the present time is:

6) GEOGRAPHIC AIDS
(Webmaster's Note: Book citations [call numbers] listed in bold below are for the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City, Utah. The FHL uses the Dewey Decimal System. When searching for these books at other libraries, remembr that many universities and archives in America use a different numbering method - the Library of Congress Cataloging System. Some of the newer books at the FHL are not available on microfilm due to copyright restrictions)

6a) RUSSIA
Vasmer, Max. Russisches Geographisches Namenbuch (Russian Geographic Name Book). Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz, 1964-1981. Nachtrag (Supplement) 1988. 11 volumes (947 Er5, copyrighted)

Spiski Naselennykh Mest Rossiiskoi Imperii, v 1-65, 1861-1885 GS 6002224 Additional spiski were published in a later series.

6b) BALTICS
Feldmann, Hans. Baltisches historisches Ortslexikon (Baltic Historical Dictionary of Placenames)
Wien: Boehlau, 1985. Tiel 1: Estland, Teil 2: Lettland. GS 947.4 E5fh

6c) UKRAINE
Istoriia Mist i. USSR (History of Towns and Villages in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). 26 volume encyclopedia of Ukraine. Missing Zhytomyr, Krym, Rivne, Ternopil, Chernivets. GS 947.71 E5u

Ukrains'ka RSR admynystrativno-teritoryal'nii podyl (Ukrainian Republic administrative Territorial Divisions). GS 947.71 E5u

6d) WESTERN UKRAINE/German names
Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Koenigreiche und Laender (Gazetteer of the Crownlands and territories Represented in the Imperial Council [of Austro-Hungary]. 14 volumes Vienna: K. K. Statistisches Zentralkommission, 1903-1908. Q 943.6 E5g, FHL Film #1187925 - 1187928, 924736

6e) WESTERN UKRAINE/Polish names
Bystrzycki, Tadeusz. Skorwidz miejscowosci rzeczypospolitej polskiej (Listing of Localities of the Polish Republic). 2 volumes Przemysl: Wydawnictwa ksiaznicy naukowej, 1934 943.8 E5sm,
FHL Film #1343868

7) RUSSIAN BORDER CHANGES
Bessarabia/Ottoman Empire:
Bucovina/Ottoman Empire:
Courland (Kurland)/Russian Empire:
East Prussia/Germany:
Estland/Russian Empire
Galicia/Poland
Grodno/Russian Empire
Kovno/Russian Empire
Livland (Livonia)/Russian Empire
Memel/East Prussia
Poland
Suwalki/Poland
Ruthenia/Hungary
Vilna/Russian Empire
Vitebsk/Russian Empire
Volhynia/Poland
Vyborg/Finland

© copyright 1995 by Kahlile Mehr and FEEFHS; all rights reserved


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