Russia, Simbirsk, Church Books, 1768-1939

What is in This Collection?

This collection contains images of births, baptisms, marriages, divorces, deaths, and burials in the Simbirsk Governate (Симбирская губерния, Simbirskaya guberniya). In 1924 the Simbirsk Governorate was renamed Ulyanovsk Governate, and reorganized as Ulyanovsk Oblast in 1928.

A common misconception is that metrical books (parish registers) were destroyed by the Soviet regime in its campaign against religion. On the contrary, these records were preserved in the archives. Cut off by political circumstance, or unresponsive to genealogical inquires, these sources remained untouched for most of the twentieth century.

For a list of records by localities, document type and dates currently published in this collection, select the Browselink from the collection landing page.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Reading These Records

These records are written in Russian. For help reading them see:

• Russia Language and Languages
• Russian Genealogical Word List
• Russia Handwriting

FamilySearch Learning Center videos:

• Reading Russian Documents: The Russian Alphabet

To Browse This Collection

You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for Russia, Simbirsk, Church Books, 1768-1939.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Baptism Date and place of baptism Name of child (usually an infant) Age or date of birth of child Names of parents and their residence Names of godparents Sometimes names of grandparents Witnesses

Marriage Date and place of marriage Names of bride and groom Ages of bride and groom Names of parents Residence of all involved Witnesses

Death Date and place of burial Name of the deceased Date and place of death Age of deceased Cause of death Residence Sometimes, parents' names may be given