National Archives of Karelia : Archival Mosaic of Karelian Culture

Civil Registers

Civil registers are public books for registration of births, marriages and deaths where basic biographical points are recorded.Presently such registers are not only primary genealogical source but also the most reliable source in comparison with the rest ofgenealogical documents. Besides, in spite of their civil-and-legal significance they represent important statistical data.

Keeping the registers was in jurisdiction of ecclesiastical department and was carried out in parishes.

Records of documents of civil status were registered in a parish book daily during a year in chronological order. So, each registerconsisted of three parts that kept data about births, marriages and deaths and reflected annual number of births, marriages and deathsthat took place in this parish.

Records in the registers were kept by a priest and signed by all clergymen of the temple and relatives if the latter were literate.

Each register had a copy. At the end of the year one copy was sent to Consistory archives and another one was kept in the church.

The register of the Peter-and-Paul Cathedral of Petrozavodsk (1793) is the earliest one kept in the fund of the Olonets Consistory of the National Archives of the Karelian Republic.

In 1793 124 newborns - 62 boys and 62 girls - were registered in the Peter-and-Paul Cathedral of Petrozavodsk. Most of themwere born in autumn: 17 in September, 15 in October, 20 in November. According to the yearly data most girls were also born inNovember. There were 16 girls out of 20 newborns. Records show that Ivan, Andrey and Vasiliy were the most widespread namesamong boys, and Catherine was most preferable among girls.

In 1793 41 marriages were entered into in the Peter-and-Paul Cathedral. There were no marriages in March, April, August andDecember; most marriages were entered into in February - 17. The average age of brides was from 17 to 20. The youngest bride was14 years old. The following record proves that the marriage took place in July: “Petr Dmitriyev, a menial of the Vice-Governor of theOlonets Region Nikolay Alekseyevich Verderevsky, married a girl transferred from the Lutheran confession into the Greek-Russian oneand named Yevfimiya Petrova when anointed; the bride is 14. The intention was declared on the 10th of this month; there were noguarantors but the marriage certificate was signed by the Vice-Governor Nikolay Alekseyevich Verderevsky; married by a priest VasiliyIvanov, deacon Ivan Yeliseyev, sexton Yevgraph Zlochastiyev, sacristan Petr Antonov”.

The third part of the book contains records about the dead. A total number of those registered in the register of deaths is 54 - 30men and 24 women. 15 children died before they turned one year. Analyzing death cases in this register one can notice that the burialservice was mostly read at home, and only in six cases the burial service was read in the cathedral.

The interest towards genealogical issues does not decrease both among specialists and ordinary people; that is why civil registersare a significant historical source nowadays. Unfortunately, not all civil registers were kept till today. There were different reasons forthis. Nevertheless, more than 1500 civil registers of 5 districts of the Olonets region are kept in the fund of the Olonets Consistory of theNational Archives: these are the registers of Petrozavodsk district dd. 1745-1932, Kem district dd.1779-1921, Olonets districtdd.1788-1928, Povenets district dd.1787-1923, Pudozh district dd.1796-1931. The earliest register kept in the archives is the one ofKosmozersky parish of Petrozavodsk district dd.1745.

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National Archives of Karelia : Archival Mosaic of Karelian Culture