Slovenia Beginning Research

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Parish registers, 1564-present (mostly start in 17th century). In the early 1780s, Emperor Joseph II restructured the parishes, creating new parishes and moving some villages from one parish to another. He wished to limit the time required to get to the parish church and reduce the size of larger parishes. A tabular format for the registers was adopted in 1770 and modified in 1784. The earliest registers are Roman Catholic. Evangelical registers were mandated in 1782, Jewish in 1779, Orthodox in 1864, Old Catholic in 1877, Baptist in 1905, and Muslim in 1927. Transcripts (duplicate registers) for civil authorities were mandated in 1828. In general, the parish or the local civil registry office retain more current original records while duplicates are preserved in the respective archdiocesan or diocesan archive. There is a small collection of minority church parish registers in the Archive of Slovenia.

Status animarum, 1750-present (mostly for the 19th century). The term status animarum translates as “the state of souls.” They contain names and information about baptism, marriage, burial, and relationship to head of household for everyone living in a parish and includes information on the house name (usually the Christian name of the person who built the house) by which the residents were sometimes known. They were kept by parish priests for internal purposes. Printed forms were introduced in the 19th century. They are located in ecclesiastical archives.

Civil registers, 1812-1814, 1868-present. There are a few civil registers from the period of the French occupation, 1812-1814. Civil registration begins in 1868 for the Istrian Peninsula (western edge of Slovenia), in 1895 for Prekmurje (western edge of Slovenia), and in 1924-1943 for the Julian region of Carniola (northwestern Slovenia). Civil registration of deaths was instituted for part of Slovenia by the Germans during World War II. The Prekmurje registers are in the Maribor Regional Archive. The 1812-1814 registers and German registers during World War II are in the Archive of Slovenia. Modern civil registration began only after World War II and is located in civil registry offices, Maribor regional archives, and possibly archives outside of Slovenia located in Hungary, Austria and Italy.

Censuses. There are censuses in historical archives and their affiliates. For example, in the Ljubljana Historical Archive, there are censuses for Ljubljana from 1830-1931.

Population registration cards, 1850-1941. These identify family groups with their vital statistics, filed alphabetically. They are located in historical and regional archives.

Conscription, 1879-1921. These contain the name of a recruit or conscript, year and place of birth, religion, marital status, literacy, father’s name, place of residence, height, date service began, name of regiment. They are located in historical and regional archives.

The Family History Library has approximately 1500 microfilm rolls containing parish register transcripts for eastern Slovenia, population registration cards for Ljubljana and Maribor; census and conscription records for Ljubljana and vicinity; and German World War II filming of parish registers, land, and tax records. The major source not included is the parish registers held by ecclesiastical archives.

To identify the jurisdictions and localities in Slovenia refer to: Imenik mesta u Jugoslaviji (Place names in Yugoslavia). Beograd: Novinska Ustanova Službeni List SFRJ, 1973. (949.7 E5u; film 874,462 item 2.

Ecclesiastical archives. There is a web site where contact information can be found that may be more current that what is listed below. Click here. Be aware that some parish registers are still in the parishes.


 * The Archdiocesan Archive of Ljubljana has the parish registers of central Slovenia (Krekov trg 1, 1000 Ljubljana, tel 386-1-443-70-44, fax 386-1-439-64-35, open 8:00-1:30, Monday 8:00-3:30, closed in August). An appointment must be made several weeks in advance as only 12 researchers are permitted into the archive daily. A researcher can use five books per day. They can be ordered by non-genealogists who are present, such as a daughter. It appears that most of the books in Ljubljana are originals. An inventory of the records has been published: Vodnik po fondih in zbirkah (Guide to Fonds and Collections) (949.73 J53v 1999).


 * The Diocesan Archive of Maribor has the parish registers of eastern Slovenia (Koroška c. 1, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia, tel 386-2-25-11-542, fax 386-2-22-23-092, email , open 8:00-2:00, closed in August). One must make an appointment 7-10 days in advance. The transcripts are in open stacks. Transcripts are not bound and are folded vertically, four pages per sheet, the ordinances are listed separately. There is about thirty years of transcripts in each box. The originals are in a separate room and must be ordered. Normally, one does not need to use the originals. In summary, it is very convenient to work in Maribor. An inventory of the records has been published: Vodnik po matičnih knjigah Škofijskega arhiva Maribor (FHL CD-ROM no. 3833; FHL Book 949.73/M1 A3s v. 1).

Parish registers for western Slovenia are in Koper and in two archives located in Italy: Gorizia and Trieste.
 * The Diocese of Koper (Trg Brolo 11, 6001 Koper, tel 386-5-62-71-887, fax 386-5-62-71-05, web (as a Ljubljana), open 9:00-5:00 Monday-Wednesday, has some parish registers.


 * Archdiocese of Gorizia (Curia Arcivescovile, Via Arcivescovado 2, I-31470 Gorizia, tel 39-481-597-611, fax 39-481-596-66, email , open 9:00-12:00) has transcripts, 1835-1941, for 100 parishes in NW Slovenia.


 * The Diocese of Trieste in Italy (Curia Vescovile, Via Cavana 16, I-34124 Trieste, tel 39-40-31-85-411, fax 39-40-31-85-430, email , open 10:00-12:00 MWF) has registers for the period 1835-1942 for some parishes in SW Slovenia. Appointment required.

Civil archives. Other record types such as census, population registration cards, and conscription records are found in civil archives.


 * The Ljubljana Historical Archive is at Mestni trg 27, 1001 Ljubljana, tel 386-61-306-1307, fax 386-61-126-4303, email  website http://www.zal-lj.si/index.php, open 8:00-2:00, Wednesdays 8:00-3:00. This archive has records for these areas.


 * The Regional Archive of Maribor is at Glavni trg 7, 2000 Maribor, tel 386-2-22-85-021 search room, fax 386-2-25-22-564, email , website http://www.pokarh-mb.si/, open 8:00-2:00.


 * The Archive of Slovenia is at Zvezdarska 1, 1127 Ljubljana, tel 386-61-241-4200, fax 386-61-241-4269, email , website http://www.arhiv.gov.si/en/, open 8:00-3:00.

Slovenian Genealogy Web Sites. A good one is found here. It includes an important collection of papers on Slovenian genealogy, translated into English, and is found athere. The site advertises a recently published manual (in Slovenian) on genealogical research in Slovenian records entitled Rodoslovje (Ancestry), that can be purchased from this web site. The web site of the Slovenian Genealogical Society International is directed to a U.S. audience.

Early records are in Latin, later records until 1880 in German, and thereafter in Slovenian.