Russian Research

Wars, revolution and lack of preservation have destroyed a significant part of Russia’s written records

Each person has a given name, a patronymic and a surname

• The patronymic usually ends in -ovich for men or -ovna for women

• Orthodox and Catholic families tended to name children for saints

• Jews in Russia did not adopt surnames until the government required their use in the early 19th century

• Many Russian immigrants Americanized their names

• Dictionary of Period Russian Names

Archives from the former Soviet Union concentrate their holdings according to oblasts (provinces). You need to know both the old and new jurisdiction to search

• Most records will have to be accessed in person at Russian archives

After the Seven Years War (1756-1763) Catherine the Great invited European colonists to found "closed cities" on the Russia steppe along the Volga River. Over 30,000 German speakers accepted the offer

Major groups included

• Volga Germans

• Black Sea Germans

• Volhynians

• Hutterites and Mennonites

Useful Websites

• American Historical Society of Germans from Russia

• Black Sea German Research

• • Family Search Wiki - Germans from Russia

  • Germans from Russia Heritage Society

  • Germans from Russia Settlement Locations

  • Odessa: A German-Russian Genealogical Library

  • Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe

  • The Volga Germans

• Finding Lost Russian and Ukrainian Family - contains cemetery databases

• Russian Archives has contact information for all archives and links to each archive’s website, if one exists. The website is in Russian

• Russian Maps

• Free database containing descriptions of Russian archive holdings

• The Russians to American Passenger Data File, 1834-1897

• LI-RA-MA collection holds Jewish, Ukrainian and Finnish immigrants’ passport applications and questionnaires from 1898-1922