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The clergy is an estate comprising ministers of various religions. In Russia, the predominantly Orthodox clergy has its own rather complex history, consisting of four main eras: pre-Mongol, North Russian metropolitanate, patriarchal and synodal.
The synodal period began in 1700 and continues to the present day. In the 19th century, a henchman was appointed on the basis of parishioners’ opinions. An important factor here was the appropriate education of the clergyman. In 1841, the Charter of the Spiritual Consistories regulated the parishes. The clergy and priesthood, making up the so-called parables of the parish, now kept records of the parishioners and filled out registers; that is to say, they did what the registry offices, notary offices and passport offices began to do in later years. Births, marriages and deaths were recorded in churches. In addition, records were kept of transfers, acts of purchase and sale, donations, and even the political reliability of people. This is why, for professional genealogists, it is much easier to trace a family’s eastern European ancestors.
In 1702, Peter I issued a decree requiring parish priests to submit information about births and deaths. In addition to the duties of the clergy, they had to compile parish books (1722) in which data were entered on the confessors and schismatics who arrived and left.
Later, the Holy Synod issued a Decree (1779) obliging parishes to keep registers of births, and since 1802 they have been stored exclusively in churches. From the 1840s to the 1950s, marriages, births and deaths were recorded in other documents.
In 1838, a unified form of birth register was adopted, collecting detailed information about a person. However, it must be said that these books have some inaccuracies due to either inattention or the lack of opportunity to record an entry on time. And, by the middle of the 19th century, significant events such as christenings and weddings were being freely registered in other parishes.
It was the church rites (christenings, funeral services, etc.) that were recorded in the register of births so there could be no stillborns or babies who died soon after birth as they had not been baptized. This policy also applied to suicides who were not buried and to those who died far from their place of residence who were buried without a ceremony.
The Roman Catholic Church officially introduced registers of births in 1826, although they had already existed among Catholics much earlier. The entries were recorded in Latin by the Catholic priesthood. Meanwhile, the Evangelical Lutheran Church established registers of births in 1764. The preachers completed the decoration. For Muslims, metric books were established in 1828, and in 1872 in the Transcaucasian region, they were filled in by imams. In the Asian area of Russia, as well as among the nomads, there were almost no records.
The Jews had drawn up registers of births since 1804 (officially, since 1835 in Russian and Hebrew). The rabbis prepared the first copy of the book for the synagogue and the second for the city office.
The police kept registers of births for Baptists, Maryavites, pagans, and, until 1905, schismatics, Old Believers (except for co-religionists) and sectarians. After 1905, the registration of births of adherents to these religions was entrusted to their confessors or elders.
Since 1918 (in some regions since 1921) in Russia, the functions of parish registers were taken over by the registry offices. A large number of birth registers were lost due to them being written off in the 1950s and 1960s. The remainder are kept in the archives.
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