Armenian Census

This information is straight from wiki.familysearch.org:

In 1867 the Turkish Council of State assumed jurisdiction over all population matters in Turkey (Armenian people currently under their rule).

In 1874 the Council introduced a law regarding census taking and the establishment of an accurate, permanent registration system covering men, women, and children. This new system merged the headcounts and population registration into a single system. The new system was based on three types of registers; the basic register [esas defter ] listing all males with a second column listing the family members; the summary [icmal ] listing the total number of people living in each town village or town quarter based on data from the town registers; and the daily events register [yevmiye vukuat ] which was to include records of births, marriages, deaths, and migrations into or out of each district.

Various political problems delayed the execution of this system although Turkey published estimated population figures for 1876/1878. Regulations of 1881 and 1878 and the law of 1874 were finally implemented in a census which started in 1881 and was completed in 1883.

The 1881/1883 census used several ethnic-religious categories for the Christian population, but all the Muslims continued to be counted as one homogeneous group despite the ethnic and linguistic differences among them.

Possible Films Available (listed in the FHLC)

All films are listed in the Armenian language (frustrating for me). The title details include the available civil registration years as between 1865 and 1930. However, when clicking on “View Film Notes,” everything is listed in Armenian. Title: "Անձնական հաշվառման քարտեր կենսագրական տվյալներով," and I can’t make out which of the 45 possible films would be the correct ones pertaining to the time that our family was living in Zara, Sivas, Armenia/Turkey.

But if the film notes are the correct ones, these are the ones available:

-VAULT INTL Film 2289757-2289763 All Item 1
-VAULT INTL Film 2291078-2291084
-VAULT INTL Film 2291089
-VAULT INTL Film 2286824-2286825

What is frustrating for me, is that even if I finally located these films, the fact that they are in Armenian is a HUGE obstacle for me--because not only do I not know the Armenian language/characters, but I don't even know what the names "Sheranian/Sherinian" or "Sivas" look like in Armenian script.

Other information that can be used to find birth/death records (or christening/burial records is more likely) are the Parish records that could be available. Considering Armenians were Christian, they probably had parish records which listed that information. Too bad (again), I can't read/write/speak Armenian.