Dalmatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire Genealogy

Guide to Dalmatia ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Historical Geography
Dalmatia is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, stretching from island of Rab in the north to the Bay of Kotor in the south. The hinterland (Dalmatian Zagora) ranges in width from fifty kilometres in the north, to just a few kilometres in the south. The largest city is Split, followed by Zadar, Dubrovnik, and Šibenik. The Kingdom of Dalmatia was a crown land of the Austrian Empire (1815–1867) and the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). It encompassed the entirety of the region of Dalmatia with its capital at Zadar.

Based on the 1857 census, the Kingdom of Dalmatia had 415,628 inhabitants. According to an analysis of the 1857 census, 318,500 (76.5%) inhabitants were Croats, 77,500 (18.5%) were Serbs, and ca. 20,000 were Italian-speakers (5%). According to the 1900 census, there were 496,966 Catholics, 96,279 Eastern Orthodox, and 539 Others.

Maps of Historic Dalmatia and the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia Today
Extent of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, superimposed on the modern-day internal borders of Croatia:

For Austria-Hungary Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Town

 * To begin using the records of the countries formerly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, just knowing that your family came from the country will not be enough. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know the town they lived in.
 * Details about the town will also help:
 * the county of that town,
 * where the closest Evangelical Lutheran, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc. parish church was (depending on their religion),
 * where the civil registration office was, and
 * if you have only a village name, you will need the name of the larger town it was part of.

Research to Find the Town
If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.
 * Use Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin as a guide in exhausting every possible record to find what you need. It was written for Germany, but the same methods apply.

If You Know the Town, Find the Church Record Information in This Gazetteer

 * Gemeindelexicon von Dalmatien (Gazetteer of Dalmatia) Online

Gazetteer Instructions
1. A typical page of the gazetteer looks like this. Each location, ranging in size from estate, village, town, city is listed on the left, but footnoted on the right.

Research Help
For help with genealogy in this region, see Croatia Genealogy.

Online Records

 * 1516-1994 -, indexed to 1900, images for complete time period.

Microfilm Copies of Records at a Family History Center
If the locality and time period you need are not included in the online records, the next step is to check for them in the microfilm collection of the Family History Library. These microfilms may be ordered for viewing at Family History Centers around the world. To find a microfilm:
 * a. Click on "Places within Austria, Dalmatien" (Dalmatia) and/or "Places within Croatia"
 * b. Select your record type: Church records and civil registration are the most important.
 * b. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * c. Choose the correct record type and time period for your ancestor.
 * d. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the microfilm. Clicking on the microfilm reel will lead to information on how to rent the film. Family History Center staff will assist you in ordering the film.