Records of the Russian Consular Offices in the United States, NARA publication M1486 1862-1928

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Some folders and many documents were missing at the time of microfilming and are not available. Many of these are listed in the index.

In order to locate ancestors in the Russian Consular Records, the following information must be known, or located thru the use of an index: Eastern European Soundex code number, surname, given/maiden name, town and state of residence, consulate and box number, folder/book number, document/page number.

These records are primarily in Russian, although a variety of other languages are used including Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and others including some English.

The library has an index (in English) to these records. See entry in the Author/Title catalog: Sack, Sallyann Amdur. The Russian Consular index and catalog.

During the time these records were created, the United States had Russian Consulate Offices in Chicago, Honolulu, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.

These records contain data on subjects of the Russian Empire (Jews, Poles, Ukranians, Lithuanians, Finns, and others) who came to the U.S. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Includes passports and passport applications, visas, nationality certificates, certificates of origin, inheritance information, contracts, and correspondence.

These documents include name, date of birth, exact place of birth, details on family relationships, relatives living in the U.S. and Russia, physical description, photographs, details of military service, reasons for immigration, date and place of immigration, religion, and other information.

Some boxes contain a listing of names at the beginning of the box. They are listed in order of their appearance within the contents of the box. The names are not listed in alphabetical order. This list was was prepared by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Washington, D.C. It is expected that the list will assist non-Russian reading users to locate a particular document within the box.

A small number of files concern individuals who died in the U.S. or on board ship requiring that the consulate handle various matters relating to notification of family, estate settlement, burial and disposition of the body and personal effects.

Microfilm of original American Russian Consular records located in the National Archives at the Suitland, Maryland Branch.

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