How to trace ancestors from the Russian Empire
Millions of families in the United States, Canada, Israel, Germany and Argentina descend from people who left the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union. Their records exist — often in remarkable detail — but they are in Russian, in old handwriting, and spread across archives in several countries. This guide shows how to find them.
1. Start with what your family already has
Collect naturalization papers, passenger lists, gravestones, letters, photos with writing on the back, and family stories. The single most important fact is the town or village of origin — and, if possible, the province (guberniya) and district (uyezd). Immigration documents and naturalization records in the destination country often name it.
2. Understand names
- Every Russian has a patronymic derived from the father's first name: Ivan Petrovich is "Ivan, son of Pyotr". One record therefore names two generations.
- Surnames change form by gender: Kuznetsov / Kuznetsova, Rachinsky / Rachinskaya.
- The same name appears in many spellings: Kuznetsov, Kusnezow, Kuznecov, Kouznetzoff. Search all of them — and in Cyrillic: Кузнецов.
More in Russian names and patronymics for genealogists.
3. Mind the calendar and the spelling reform
Until February 1918 Russia used the Julian calendar: add 12 days to 19th-century dates and 13 days to dates in 1900–1918. Records before 1918 use the old orthography with letters such as ѣ, і and ѳ.
4. Know where the records are today
Records are kept in the archives of the country where the town is now: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Moldova and others. The key record groups are:
| Record | Period | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
| Metric books (parish registers) | 18th century – 1918 | births, marriages, deaths with parents and godparents |
| Revision lists (revizskie skazki) | 1719–1858 | whole households of taxpayers with ages |
| Confession lists | 18th century – 1917 | households of a parish, year by year |
| 1897 census | 1897 | every resident — survives only for some areas |
| Soviet civil registration (ZAGS) | from 1918 | births, marriages, deaths |
| WWII military records | 1941–1945 | service, awards, losses — see our WWII guide |
5. Free databases to search first
- FamilySearch — free microfilms of metric books for many provinces (free account).
- Yandex Archive Search — handwriting-recognized Russian metric books and revision lists, searchable by name (Russian interface).
- Geneteka — indexes of Polish and western-province parish records.
- JewishGen — databases for Jewish families of the Russian Empire; see Jewish ancestors from the Russian Empire.
- Pamyat Naroda and OBD Memorial — Soviet WWII soldiers.
- Arolsen Archives — documents on victims of Nazi persecution and displaced persons.
Rodoslov searches several open databases at once, in Cyrillic and Latin script, and opens the others with your query already filled in.
6. Read the documents
Old Russian handwriting is the main obstacle. See How to read Russian church records for the vocabulary — or upload a photo to Rodoslov's assistant, which transcribes, translates and extracts the people and relationships from a record.