Romania Land and Property

Land Parceling records
Introduction: Land parceling records (protocoale devisorale) are records of land partitioning and tenancy, meaning they are records of who owned and who was assigned to cultivate a specific area of land. They were kept beginning in 1573 in areas under Ottoman occupation and ended after the Revolution of 1848, when agrarian reform was implemented and serfdom abolished. Land parceling records can be used to locate names of tenant farmers and residents during the Ottoman time period. They can be used to establish an ancestor's area of residence.

Coverage: 10-20% of the population can be found in land records.

Content: Names of tenants, dates of residence, fees paid and collected, and names of property owners can be found in these records.

Accessing the Records: Regional archives hold these land records. Archives usually do not do research, so a researcher must be hired. The Family History Library has a small selection of these records.