Church books record events, one person at a time. Household lists record who was living together, and in a country where church books can have gaps, that is often what connects one generation to the next. This guide covers the three main kinds of Lithuanian household record from the Russian period: revision lists, family lists and the single nineteenth-century census of 1897. It explains why each was made, what survives and how far to trust it.
Why these lists exist
They were never meant for genealogists. Revision lists and family lists counted people to assess the poll tax and to identify men for military conscription, and the 1897 census was taken mainly for statistical purposes. That origin explains both their value and their flaws: they name households and ages, but people had reasons to avoid being counted.
Revision lists
- What they are. Periodic enumerations of the taxable population in the Russian Empire. The FamilySearch wiki describes family lists as continuing the data previously collected in the revision lists.
- What is online. A Lithuanian researcher notes that FamilySearch has posted 1795, 1795 to 1844, 1811, 1816 and 1834 to 1841 revision lists of Vilnius gubernia. The 1795 lists cover parishes including Adutiškis, Alanta, Alytus, Antakalnis, Aukštadvaris, Butrimonys, Dieveniškės, Dubingiai and Eišiškės, among many others. The researcher also warns that the online images are not yet identified well enough to know the content of every book.
- Language. The early revision lists are in handwritten Polish and the later ones in handwritten Russian.
Family lists, or local censuses
| Feature | What FamilySearch says |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Population enumeration to assess a poll tax and identify men for conscription |
| Period | 1860 to 1920 |
| How they were made | There was no universal mandate, unlike for the revision lists, so they occur randomly at different times and places. Some areas called them supplemental revision lists. Conscription offices also made lists of male family members with their parents |
| What they contain | Head of household, family members and ages, with other details varying |
| Where they are | The State Historical Archive in Vilnius and the Kaunas State Archive |
| Coverage | Estimated at 30 percent, because they were made locally and not always preserved |
| Reliability | Not completely reliable because of efforts to evade taxation or conscription |
The 1897 census
The only general nineteenth-century census in Lithuania was taken on 28 January 1897, in the middle of winter, when the population was least mobile. It was an All-Russian Empire census run by the Central Census Bureau. Two copies were created, one kept locally and one sent to the Ministry, and the Ministry’s copy was eventually destroyed. A second census was planned for 1914, but the First World War intervened. A remnant of the 1897 census is held at the State Historical Archive in Vilnius.
Each household has its own list. The first page of the form records the province, county, district and village, the head of household, the number of dwellings and the number of people present, with divisions by sex and by residence status. The following pages list, for each person, the name, relationship to the head, age, marital status, social rank, birthplace where registered, residence, whether absent on census day, native tongue, literacy, place of study, main profession, any additional profession and military status, with a note if the person was blind, deaf, mute or insane.
- What survives for Jewish families. JewishGen hosts a database of translated extracts of the Jewish records among the remaining 1897 census documents, translated by the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, which covers only the records found in Vilnius as of November 2002.
- Twentieth-century counts. The Lithuanian Central State Archives preserves population census data from 1942 and 1959.
Using the lists well
- Start from a baptism or marriage and look for the household in the nearest list, using the parish and the village.
- Compare ages across lists. Ages in household lists often drift, so use them to confirm the household, not to fix a birth year. The baptism fixes the birth.
- Read the occupations and social ranks. They help to tell two men of the same name apart.
- Use the 1897 birthplace field to learn where an adult was born, which can lead to another parish.
- Note who is missing. A man absent on census day may have emigrated or been conscripted.
- Treat a gap as a clue, not a dead end. Only about 30 percent coverage is estimated for family lists.
Example (invented, for illustration only): A reader has the baptism of a girl in 1888 and the 1897 census fragment for a nearby village. The census lists a household whose head has the father’s name and whose members include a daughter of the right age. The 1897 entry also gives the father’s registered birthplace, which points her to the parish of his baptism.
What to do when the list you need is missing
- Check neighboring parishes and the other years’ lists.
- Ask the archive whether lists for the district are digitized. See how to request records.
- Look for the same family in church books and, for noble families, in the lists of noble families at the State Historical Archives.
- Consider that your family may appear in the LitvakSIG or JewishGen collections if they were Jewish, which we point to but do not cover in depth.
What these lists cannot tell you
They cannot tell you who was left out. The Ministry’s copy of the 1897 census was destroyed, only a remnant of the local copy survives, the second census planned for 1914 never happened and family lists were made only here and there. A family missing from a list may simply not have been enumerated or the page may be lost, so absence is weak evidence.
Continue with the complete Lithuanian genealogy guide and church books explained, and browse Archives & Records. Sources: the FamilySearch wiki on Lithuanian censuses, a Lithuanian researcher’s guide to online revision lists, JewishGen’s page on the 1897 census database and the Office of the Chief Archivist’s genealogical search page.
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