Where are records of Jewish families from the Russian Empire kept?

In the state archives of the countries where the towns are today — Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Russia. Many are indexed on JewishGen and microfilmed on FamilySearch.

Why do my ancestor's first names differ between records?

Jewish given names were recorded in Hebrew, Yiddish and Russian forms, and immigrants often adopted English names; one person can appear as Moshe, Movsha, Moisei and Morris.

Jewish ancestors from the Russian Empire

Updated October 5, 2026

A large share of American, Israeli and Canadian Jewish families trace their roots to the Russian Empire — mostly to the Pale of Settlement, the western provinces that today belong to Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova and Poland. Their records are scattered across these countries, but many are indexed and searchable online.

Key record types

Metric books — Jewish births, marriages and deaths were registered by state-appointed "crown rabbis" from the 19th century onward. They often give the parents' names and the father's patronymic.
Revision lists (1795–1858) — household lists of taxpayers, with ages; Jewish communities were listed separately.
Box tax and voter lists, family lists — later 19th- and early 20th-century lists of community members.
Passport and emigration records, passenger lists and naturalization papers in the destination country.

Where to search online

JewishGen — searchable indexes of revision lists, metric books and other records for Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Latvia and Poland, contributed by research groups.
Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names — pages of testimony often name parents, spouses, children and the hometown.
Arolsen Archives — documents on victims of Nazi persecution, forced labourers and displaced persons.
FamilySearch — microfilmed records for many towns.
Geneteka — indexes for the Polish provinces of the Russian Empire.

Rodoslov searches Arolsen Archives and other open databases together and links to JewishGen and Geneteka with your query pre-filled.

Names to watch for

Jews in the Russian Empire were required to adopt fixed surnames in the early 19th century; earlier generations are identified by first name and father's name.
Given names appear in several forms: Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian and later English — e.g. Moshe / Movsha / Moisei / Morris.
Children were traditionally named after deceased relatives — a clue to the names of earlier generations.
Surnames are transliterated many ways: Rabinovich, Rabinowitz, Rabinowicz.

Find the town first

Everything depends on knowing the town (shtetl). Look for it in naturalization papers, passenger lists (which give the last residence) and gravestones, then find which modern country and archive it belongs to. Use the Cyrillic and Polish spellings of the town name when searching.