Russia, Tver Confession Lists - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Records
Россия, Тверские исповедные ведомости

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. The Russia, Tver Confession Lists collection is available only to members of the supporting organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Record Description
The form of confession lists was established in 1737. It includes the sequential number of the household, surname, given names of all children at least one year old, gender, ages, whether or not the person attended confession, and, if not, why the person did not attend (this is rarely noted).

Confessions were done at the time of Lent, the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Children were taken to confession beginning in their seventh year. Russian Orthodox confession lists were sometimes interfiled with the church records of baptisms, marriages, or deaths. The text of the records is in Russian.

For a list of records by localities and dates currently published in this collection, select the Browselink from the collection landing page.

This collection of church confessions for the Province of Tver includes the years 1728 to 1913.

Church confession lists were created and kept by priests to record the information related to their parishioner’s confessions.

These were considered an official record and are normally very reliable.

Record Content
Confession records usually contain the following information:


 * Place of confession
 * Complete names and ages of those confessing
 * Number of males and females

How to Use the Record
To browse this collection, follow these links:

⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the "Province" ⇒Select the "District" ⇒Select the "Year/Vol" which takes you to the images.

Look at the images one by one comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. 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 Websites

 * The Russian Orthodox Church
 * Orthodox Christian Information Center

Related Wiki Articles

 * Russia
 * Russia Church Records
 * Russia Genealogy

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
Citations for individual image records are available for this collection. Browse through images in this collection and click on the "Show Citation" box: Tver Confession Lists, 1728-1913

When you copy information from a record, you should also list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org Historical Records. It may include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.

Original records are also housed in various parishes throughout the Province of Tver, Russia.