Confession List – Staritsa, Russia – 1776
Below is an example of an Orthodox confession list. This document is from the city of Staritsa, which was part of the Tver Viceroyalty in 1776 and is part of the Tver oblast in modern-day Russia.
Below are a Russian transcription and an English translation of this confession list. Click on any image on this page to open it in a new tab where you can zoom in and take a closer look. To see common column headings, review frequently used vocabulary, and learn more about confession lists in general, go to the Confession Lists Overview page of this tutorial.
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Because this document uses archaic spelling, it may still prove difficult to read for those familiar with modern Russian. See our Alphabet Overview page to familiarize yourself with uncommon Cyrillic letters or our Individual Letters pages to see examples of handwritten Cyrillic letters.
Alphabet Chart
You may recognize the following advice from Practical Suggestions guideline number 5.
"On particularly difficult documents, making your own alphabet chart can be helpful. For example, once you understand how a scribe writes the letter A, make your own list of those variations. Scribes often kept records over the course of several years, meaning that if your research stays in the same geographic location, you may come across other records written by the same scribe. Even if you do not encounter other documents kept by that scribe, your letter charts and lists will help you to recognize alternative ways a letter may be written in future documents."
This alphabet chart, made by the researcher who transcribed this record, is included to give you a sense of the research process and how you might apply these suggestions in your own research.
- Document: "Россия, Тверские исповедные ведомости, 1728-1913." Database with images. FamilySearch. (www.familysearch.org : 18 June 2024. госархиве Тверской Oблacти (Samara State Archives, Samara).