Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Record
Россия, дубликаты Лютеранских метрических книг

Image Visibility
Whenever possible, FamilySearch makes images available for all users. However, ultimate rights to view images on our website are granted by the record custodians. Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates collection is available to the Family History Library, FamilySearch Centers, and to members of the supporting organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The images can be viewed at a FamilySearch Center near you.

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 scanned from microfilm copies of the originals, which are housed in the Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg.

For a list of records by localities currently published in this collection, select the Browse.

This collection covers the early duplicates, 1833–1885. The text of the records is in Russian. The later material is located in the Central State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg.

The Lutheran Diocese of St. Petersburg was created in 1833. It covered mostly ethnic 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 local St. Petersburg parishes were more cosmopolitan so more ethnic groups can be found there. In some regions such as Kiev and Podolia, French and Russian nobility, in particular those with military connections, register with the Lutherans.

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.

Alaska, which was part of Russia until 1867, is also included.

The duplicate served as the civil vital record when there was no civil registration system conducted by the government.

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

Coverage Table
The Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates (FamilySearch Historical Records) Coverage Table shows the places and time periods covered in the indexed records for this collection. Most of the records in the collection are from the time periods listed in the table; however, the collection may have a few records from before or after the time period.

Record Content
Baptismal records usually contain the following information:


 * Name of the child
 * Child's date and hour of birth and birthplace
 * Child's date and place of baptism and by whom baptized
 * Parents’ names and residence
 * Father’s occupation
 * Child's legitimacy

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of the marriage
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Page number in the Family Register is noted
 * Reference to Main Register is noted with entry number and page number

Death records usually contain the following information:


 * Name, age and gender of deceased
 * Date and place of death with time noted
 * Cause of death
 * Date and place of birth
 * Marital status of deceased
 * Sometimes, the maiden name of a woman is given if she is the deceased
 * Date and place of burial

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.

Search the Collection
Searching by index: To search the collection by name, fill in your ancestor’s information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about those in the list to what you already know about your own ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person.

Searching by image: To search the collection images, you will need to use the following series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "Province" ⇒Select the appropriate "District" ⇒Select the appropriate "Town" ⇒Select the appropriate "Volume year range: event type (volume number)," which takes you to the images.

Search each individual image. Again, you will need to compare the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor.

Be aware that with either search you may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

As you are searching, it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

For Help Reading These Records
These records are in Russian. For help reading the records, see the following wiki articles:


 * Russian Genealogical Word List
 * Russia Languages

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Related Web Sites
Portions of these Lutheran records have been extracted and indexed. As with any extraction project, errors are known to exist so care must be used in using these sites.


 * St. Petersburg Archives - Odessa Site - Provides lists covering the regions of Volhynia, Bessarabia, and southern Ukraine (the Black Sea region).
 * Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe - Repeats the Volhynia data of the first one (with known corrections) and adds the Kiev and Podolia regions.

Related Wiki Articles

 * Russia
 * Russia Church Records
 * Germans from Russia

Citations for This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image. Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):  Image Citation: