Austro-Hungarian Empire Genealogy

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, Next Use the GenTeam Gazetteer
GenTeam is an online gazetteer that covers the current countries of Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia (most of the area belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire). It gives former (German) and current names of locations, the name of the parish, the beginning year of the records, and the archive that holds the records. It will also give details on earlier parishes the locality belonged to. It then links to the website of that archive.
 * Tutorial: GenTeam Gazetteer Online - [[Media:1-Genteam_Gazetteer-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Genteam_Gazetteer-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Genteam_Gazetteer-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]

Illustrations
1. After registering (free), choose "Gazetteer" in the left sidebar. '''You can type just a portion of the name and the drop-down menu will suggest possible names. This helps when you have American clues to a place that you are uncertain of.''' '''2. After you select a place from the drop-down menu, you will get a list of several possible records. Here you will sort out different locations with the same name. You will also find the larger parish that a small village belonged to. Click on the page icon under "Details" to select a record:''' 3. This is an example of a parish record entry that you will next see:

Research Help
The chart and map below are clickable and will lead to instructional articles for each region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.



Other Geographic Names
Some of these regions temporarily were known by other names:
 * Illyria: existed from1816-1849, split into Carniola, Carinthia and the Austrian Littoral.
 * Istria: the Istrian Peninsula within Croatia.
 * Sudetenland: in the first half of the 20th century, Bohemia, Moravia, and part of Silesia.
 * Lodomeria: Galicia was referred to as Galicia and Lodmeria, although Lodemeria was not a separategeographic region, just part of the name.
 * Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca: a part of Austrian Littoral
 * Trieste: a small city-state in Austrian Littoral
 * Burgenland: a section of Hungary

History
The Holy Roman Empire was the major political entity in the heart of Europe between 1500 and 1806. Austrian Empire begin in 1814 and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or the Dual Monarchy, after 1867. The Empire lasted until the end of World War I in 1918.


 * abt 1,000 A.D.: Iron plow invented in Lower Rhine region. Resultant increase in food production leads to population growth and German emigration to the east - Bohemia and Hungary - and to the Crusades.
 * 1130s: Zipser and Transylvania Saxon colonies founded by Germans (Upper Hungary - Slovakia and Transylvania).
 * 1241: Mongol raid devastates Hungary, Slovakia.
 * 1335-1350: Black Death (Bubonic plague) begins in Constantinople, spreads to Mediterranean seaports, then to Central and Western Europe. 50-75 % of Europe's population is wiped out. Emigration to the east ceases for a long time.
 * 1526: Battle of Mohacs - The Turks defeat Hungary and the Hungarian King dies on the battlefield. The Turks are repulsed in Vienna and the Habsburg monarchy takes over rule of Hungary.
 * 1545-1547: Council of Trent - Reform of the Roman Catholic church, beginning of church registers of baptism, marriage, death.
 * 1620-1650: Thirty Years' War - Germany and Bohemia are devastated by warring factions - Many church registers lost.
 * 1683: Second siege of Vienna by Turks - Turks are turned back and gradually retreat from Hungary; 1686 Budapest liberated; 1688 Belgrade liberated.
 * 1700s and early 1800s: Re-settlement of Hungary in the wake of 150 years of Turkish rule. The Banat and Backa are two main areas of 'Danube Swabian' settlements. (New settlers are actually from Alsace-Lorraine, Swabia, Slovakia, Bohemia, Galicia, Sub-Carpathian Rus, etc.).
 * 1848: Nationalist revolutions in Western and Central Europe. Vestiges of serfdom finally abolished. Beginning of Hungarian independence from Austria; Czechs and other nationalities gain small measures of cultural independence.
 * 1867: The compromise which institutes a dual monarchy. Two independent states which shared a common ruler, as emperor in Austria, as king in Hungary.
 * 1914-1918: Austria-Hungary defeated in First World War, split into separate entities based on nationality: Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia created; Galicia goes to Poland; Transylvania goes to Romania.

East European Map Sets
East Europe 1:250,000 [Series N501]. United States. Army Maps Service, 1956-1959. 219 maps available on microfilm #1183629. Indexed in: Index to Names on AMS 1:250,000 Maps of Eastern Europe (Series N501). Available on microfiche #6001727-8.

The University of Texas offers AMS Topographic Maps, ''Eastern Europe, Series N501, United States. Army Map Service, 1954 (scale 1:250,000), online for free''.

Generalkarte von Mitteleuropa. Bundesamt für Eich-und Vermessungswesen, 1889-1967 (scale 1:100,000). 249 maps available on microfilm #1181580. To use this set, determine the grid number of the sheet you desire from the overview chart (Ubersichtsblatt). The grid number consists of the top/bottom followed by the side number. As an example, the grid number for Temesvár is 39-46. The maps on the microfilm are in numerical order by their grid numbers.

Eötvös University's Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics offers the 3rd Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary which contains an index sheet of the general map of Central Europe (scale 1:200,000). The original sheets were published in "about 1910". As of 13 Jun 2015, there are currently 267 sheets available (935 MB) online for free.

Karte des europäischen Rußland. Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme, 1939. 121 maps available on microfilm #1344079.

Militär-Landesaufname und Spezialkarte der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie. Österreich. Militärgeographisches Institut, 1879-1928. ca. 600 maps available on microfilm #1045395.

Voenno-topograficheskoĭkarta Rossiī. Rossiia. Armiia, 1869-1945. Available on microfilm #1344037-8.

Religions

 * Roman Catholic
 * Orthodox
 * Greek Catholic
 * Protestant, including Evangelical/Lutheran, Evangelical/Reformed, Mennonite, and Baptist
 * Jewish
 * Islamic

Jewish Research
When Poland was partitioned among its neighbors at the end of the 18th century, the Austrian Empire (later, the Austro-Hungarian Empire) received the heavily Jewish southeastern portion of the country, which it named Galicia. Since internal boundaries did not exist within the Austrian Empire, many impoverished Galician Jews migrated to the capital, Vienna - often with an intermediate stop along the way. By the end of the 19th century, Vienna had become a major center of European Jewry. On the eve of World War II, it had the third largest Jewish population in Europe (after Warsaw and Budapest).

Jewish genealogists with roots in Galicia should look for family branches in Vienna, especially if the family name was relatively uncommon - and many were. This task is made easier by two large collections of records available at the Family History Library, the Jewish birth, marriage and death records up to 1939 and the invaluable collection of residency books (Meldezettel).

Military Records
The military played a significant role in the lives of the citizens of the Empire. Prior to 1802 a soldier's term of service was for life, although he was not necessarily on active duty the entire time. Those exempt from military service included the clergy, the nobility, certain government officials, and workers employed in mining, iron production, and necessary agricultural occupations.

After 1802 the term of service was reduced to ten years, but many were still exempt from military service. In 1868 a universal conscription went into effect. Every male citizen was obligated to serve three years of active duty with the military. This was modified in 1912 to a two-year term of active service.

The Military Archives in Vienna contain documents relating to the Austrian military from the sixteenth century until the end of WWI. The earlier records contain less genealogically relevant information. Some of the most recent records have been claimed by modem successor nations, notably Hungary and Yugoslavia.

The major collections in the Vienna War Archives have been microfilmed. Indexes to many of the records are available, especially if you ancestor happens to be an officer, staff member or official. In addition to indexes of soldier's names, indexes of regiments and recruitment places are available. Enlisted men can be located when the name of the regiment or military unit, or place of recruitment can be discovered. If the regiment is not known then place and regimental indexes must be consulted.

For more detailed information go to Austria Military Records.