Russia Genealogy

Europe Russia

Guide to Russia ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Online Databases and Websites

 * Various Church books from Latvian, Estonian, St. Petersburg, and the Russian State Historical Archives.
 * Church Records from Belgorod and villiage records in various uezdz of Voronezh and Kursk gubernias from 1753-1925.
 * Church Books for the town of Kozlov (Michurinsk) for 1901-1905 and 1907-1909.
 * Perm Archives Database. Includes birth, marriage, and death records as well as revision lists.
 * All-Russian Agricultural 1917 Census for the Penza Province. Contains the name, patronymic, surname, place of residence, and family composition of the householder and names of family members.
 * All-Russian Agricultural 1917 Census for the Smolensk Region. Contains the name, patronymic, surname, place of residence, and family composition of the householder and names of family members.
 * All-Russian Agricultural 1917 Census for the Republic of Bashkiriya. Contains the name, patronymic, surname, place of residence, and family composition of the householder and names of family members.
 * Leningrad Evacuation Database. Searchable database for the 1.7 million people evactuated from Leningrad during 1941-1943. Project in progress.
 * Database of those that died in the Siege of Leningrad (Leningrad Blockade). Searchable database of the the 629,157 victims of the siege from 1941-1944.
 * Russian Immigrants from China to Australia, Brazil, and the U.S.A. An Alphabetical database of Russian immigrants who were living in China/Manchuria. Entries include individuals who left between 1935-1945. There are 56,472 of various lengths.
 * Orenburgskaya and Ufimskaya Gubernia Revision Lists for 1795-1858. Images, no index

Country Information
Russia is a country in Eurasia bordered by Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It was known as the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1991. The official language is Russian.

Jurisdictions
Imperial Russia (Russian Empire) before 1917 was divided into governorates (gubernias or provinces). These were sub-divided into several uyezds or districts. Russia and Ukraine and other former Soviet republics were, and are still, divided into oblasts/provinces which were and are divided into raions/districts. Peripheral areas like the Caucasus sometimes use krai instead of raion for district. It is generally good to know both the old and the new jurisdictions in which a smaller place is located, because currently the FamilySearch Catalog uses the new jurisdictions for Ukraine, but the old ones for Russia. Archives all over the former Soviet Union concentrate their holdings according to oblast borders. Old documents refer to the old jurisdictions, and most of our Russian and Ukrainian microfilms are from the old Imperial time.

List of the governorates created in 1708: • 4

Current administrative division consist of 46 oblasts (oblastey, singular - oblast), 21 republics (respublik, singular - respublika), 4 autonomous okrugs (avtonomnykh okrugov, singular - avtonomnyy okrug), 9 krays (krayev, singular - kray), 2 federal cities (goroda, singular - gorod), and 1 autonomous oblast (avtonomnaya oblast') as follows.Although retaining a lot of similarities, administrative-territorial division and regions boundaries undergo substantial changes during the 20th century, affecting the records storage sites.

Oblasts
• 6

Republics
• 6

Autonomous Okrugs
• 4

Krays
• 6

Federal Cities
• 2

Autonomous Oblast

 * Yevrey [Jewish] (Birobidzhan)

Note: Administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses)

More Russia Research Strategies
Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy Wiki articles for Russia.
 * Germans from Russia
 * Class on Russian Research

More Russia Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in Russia.
 * Class on Reading Russian Handwritten Records
 * Russian Empire Genealogical Primer
 * German Collections in Russian Archives
 * Russia
 * Hamburg Passenger Lists
 * Emigration Records of Europe
 * Archival Maps of Russia

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in resourcing your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map