Read Russian imperial documents
Imperial Russian passports, travel permits, and civil certificates from before 1918 were written in pre-reform Russian cursive with historical letters like yat (ѣ) and fita (ѳ). Upload a photo of the document. FamilyLore transcribes the imperial cursive, translates it into English, and marks words it found doubtful.
Your first three pages need no account and no card.
Official imperial Russian handwriting from our shelf
A dotted underline marks a word FamilyLore was unsure of; [?] is its own note on a doubtful reading.
Matvei Lapatin to Grigorii Shelikhov · 24 Oct 1792
- Милостивый Гдрь;
- Григорьи[?] Ивановичь;
- Имелъ честь получить отвас пи
- Смо отъ числа сего мца чрезъ игнатья
- петровича котелникова прикоторомъ
- итоварной регистръ сценою Суммою на
- 7256[?] р.[?] изначущимися понакладной фанту[?]
Also on the shelf: V. K. Arsenyev’s 1910 letter in pre-1918 Russian · Taras Shevchenko’s 1860 letter in Ukrainian cursive
How well it reads, measured
| Script | Pages | Characters read correctly | Names, dates and numbers right | Misread words it marked | Last run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian and Ukrainian7 pages · 3 Nov 2026 | 7 | 86%Characters read correctly | 69%Names, dates and numbers right | 80%Misread words it marked | 3 Nov 2026 |
Measured on pre-1918 Russian cursive documents. Printed certificates and records set out in multi-column tables are not yet measured. How well FamilyLore reads
Questions
- Can’t ChatGPT do this?
- A general chatbot can read some imperial Russian documents, sometimes well, but it usually hands you clean text with no sign of which words it guessed, and its makers publish no figures for this script; FamilyLore marks the words it is unsure of and publishes how often it reads correctly, in the table above.
- Does FamilyLore recognize pre-1918 Russian letters?
- Yes. FamilyLore recognizes historical letters dropped in the 1918 orthographic reform, including ѣ (yat), і (decimal i), ѳ (fita), and ѵ (izhitsa), transcribing them as written.
- Can FamilyLore read tabular passports and internal travel permits?
- Not yet. Continuous narrative passages, certificates, and petitions are read line by line. Multi-column tables and stamped form grids are not yet measured.
- What if it reads a word wrong?
- Tap a word to see the other readings FamilyLore weighed, and correct it if you know better. The translation is redone from your correction. Most misread words carry a mark, but not every one, so a name or a date that matters is worth checking against the photo.
- Who sees my pages?
- Only you. A page becomes public only if you share it, and then only to people who have the link. Deleting your account deletes the photos you uploaded.
What FamilyLore doesn’t read well yet
- Passports, revision lists, and official forms set out in multi-column tables. Tabular layouts are not yet measured.
- Official wax seals, ink stamps, or revenue stamps that obscure handwritten text.
- Faded or damaged ink. Faded handwriting is measured on only a few pages so far.
From photo to text in three steps
Take a photo of the page
Lay the sheet flat, in daylight and without flash. A phone photo of the whole page is enough.
Upload it
“Russian or Ukrainian, Before 1918” is already chosen.
Read it
You get the page as it was written, in modern spelling, and in English. Correct a word you know better yourself.
Rather read it yourself?