Vilna Gubernia Civil Registration

In the Vilna Gubernia, records of birth, marriage, and death were performed by churches of various confessions or synagogues. It was not until the 1940s, under Soviet rule, that the responsibility of recording vital events shifted from the church to the state. Thus, during the time of the Russian Empire, registration of birth, marriage, and death, were kept by a church or synagogue and were known as metrical records. To learn more about locating metrical records for Russian Empire era ancestor, see the Vilna Gubernia Church Records article.