Slovenia Church Records

Europe Slovenia  Church Records

In 1995 there were 798 Roman Catholic parishes in Slovenia supervised by the Archdiocese of Ljubljana, the Diocese of Maribor, and the Diocese of Koper. Koper covers the western part of the country, Maribor the eastern part, and Ljubljana the center.

Parish Registers
An inventory of all parish registers was published 1972-1974. However, the disposition of records has changed significantly with records being transferred from governmental archives and local churches into diocesan and archdiocesan archives.


 * In the early 1780s, Emperor Joseph II structured the parishes. 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.
 * Evangelical registers were mandated in 1782, Jewish in 1779, Orthodox in 1864, Old Catholic in 1877, Baptist in1905, and Muslim in 1927.
 * Transcripts (duplicate registers) for civil authorities were mandated in 1828.

Status Animarum

 * 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.
 * Includes information on the house name (usually the Christian name of the person who built the house) by which the residents were sometimes known.

Church Archives
Church Archive in Ljubljana Nadškofijski arhiv Krekov trg 1 1000 Ljubljana SLOVENIA email: arhiv.lj@rkc.si

Church Archive in Maribor Nadškofijski arhiv Maribor Koroška cesta 1 2000 MARIBOR SLOVENIA email: skofijski.arhiv@slomsek.net