Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates - FamilySearch Historical Records

Collection Time Period
This collection covers the early duplicates, 1833–1885. The later material is located in the Central State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg.

Record Description
The records consist of bound volumes with entries on two facing pages for births and baptisms and for burials and deaths. Marriages are on a single page. The images were from scanned from microfilm copies of the originals, which are housed in the Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg.

Record Content

 * Key genealogical facts found in all duplicates are:
 * For births and baptisms, the date of the events, the child’s name, the parents’ names and residence, and the father’s occupation. They also contain the godparents’ names and residences (the godparents may be relatives).
 * For deaths and burials, the date of the events, the name of the deceased, sometimes the mother’s maiden name, the birthplace, sometimes the birth date, age at death, gender, and marital status.
 * For marriages, the date of the event and the couple’s names and residence.

How To Use This Record
Use the duplicates to uniquely identify individuals and to determine parentage. Compile families from the entries for a single couple.

Record History
The Lutheran Diocese of St. Petersburg was created in 1833. It covered mostly ethnically German congregations but included Swedes and others of the Lutheran religion. Each year a duplicate record was sent to St. Petersburg and kept in the Consistory Court.

The books pertain to the German Lutheran population along the northwestern, western, and southern edges of the Russian Empire, primarily in the historical provinces of Sankt-Peterburg (Ingria), Volhynia, Bessarabia, and Novorossiysk.

Why This Record Was Created
The duplicate served as the civil vital record when there was no civil registration system conducted by the government.

Record Reliability
This is the most reliable record for birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial dates.

Related Web Sites
St. Petersburg Archives

Related Wiki Articles
Russia Church Records

Sources for This Information
"Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates," from Russian State Historical Archive. "Kirchenbuchduplikat, 1833–1885." Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg, Russia. FHL 135 rolls. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Evangelische Kirche. Konsistorium Petersburg (Rußland). "Kirchenbuchduplikat, 1833–1885." Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg, Russia. 135 microfilm rolls: FHL 1792290, 1882493, 1882594, 1882634–53, 1883181–93, 1884064–129, 1895610–29, 1897588–97, 1897691–95. FHL Digital at: search.labs.familysearch.org, "St. Petersburg Lutheran Church Book duplicates."

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