80 Percent of Tatars Can Trace Their Ancestry Back 7 to 12 Generations, Researcher Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 8 – According to Ramil Gaptrakhimov, an archivist who has founded a genealogical research firm, 80 percent of Tatars can trace their ancestries back seven to 12 generations, often discovering complexities in their biographies many were not aware of (business-gazeta.ru/article/558352).

            The majority who apply to his firm for help and pay several thousand dollars or more for its assistance hoped to learn that their ancestors were members of the nobility, “but 95 percent” of them find out that they are “descendants of peasants” and often of ethnic groups other than the Tatars they identify as.

            Others have pointed out that genealogical research can be problematic for Tatars (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/06/genealogy-can-be-problematic-for-tatars.html). But despite that, several hundred people have already requested his assistance in the past year, Gaptrakhimov says. And he argues that work in this area is sure to be a growth industry.

            His suggestion that a majority of Tatars can trace their ancestry back seven or more generations is interesting because few ethnic Russians can do the same. Most of them can go back no further than three or four generations, a reflection of the differences in record keeping between Muslim communities and Orthodox Christian ones.