Russia, Tatarstan Church Books - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection covers various church denominations and their records, such as baptisms/births, marriages, and burials/deaths for the area now belonging to Tatarstan. Places are identified by their historical name and jurisdiction when it was part of the Russian Empire. The collection includes records from 1721 to 1939. These records are written in Russian. Most churches priests created the records in registers that were kept at the local church archive, and a duplicate copy was sent, at a later time, to a higher level church archive for preservation.

Reading These Records
These records are in Russian. For help reading them see:
 * Russia Language and Languages
 * Russian Genealogical Word List
 * Russia Handwriting
 * FamilySearch Learning Center videos:
 * Reading Russian Documents: The Russian Alphabet
 * Russian Alphabet, Language and Handwriting, part 1
 * Russian Alphabet, Language and Handwriting, part 2

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism
 * Date and place of baptism
 * Name of principal (usually an infant)
 * Age or date of birth of principal
 * Names of parents and their residence
 * Names of godparents
 * Sometimes names of grandparents
 * Witnesses

Marriage
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Names of bride and groom
 * Ages of bride and groom
 * Names of parents
 * Residence of all involved
 * Witnesses

Burial/death
 * Place and date of burial
 * Names of the deceased
 * Place and date of death
 * Age of the deceased
 * Cause of death
 * Residence
 * Sometimes parents may be listed

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the person
 * Approximate date of the event

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * If available, check the image for additional information
 * Analyze the entry to see if it provides additional clues to find other records of the person or their family
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Try searching by surname only
 * The person may be recorded with an abbreviated or variant form of their name
 * Remember that spelling was generally not standardized until the early part of the 20th century

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in Russia.
 * Russia Record Finder
 * Russia Research Tips and Strategies

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

Rússia, Tatarstan, Livros da Igreja (Registros Histórico do FamilySearch)