Austria, Upper Austria, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Record
Österreich, Oberösterrreich, Katholische Kirchenurkunden

What is in This Collection?
This Collection will include records from 1581 to 1919

Event types were often compiled in separate volumes. For instance, baptisms would be in one volume and marriages in another. In some parishes, however, event types were intermixed and grouped into a volume according to year range. When this is the case, the baptisms, marriages, and burials for one year (e.g. 1785) were grouped together before the baptisms, marriages, and burials for the next year (e.g. 1786), and so on. Entries are usually recorded in chronological order, though some entries may be out of order. Entries before the mid-1700s were often in free text paragraphs; sometimes the priest created columns to record the information.

After the mid-1700s, a pre-printed form with column headings in Gothic fraktur typeface became common (though not always used). On these forms, the entries were handwritten in Gothic script; as time progressed, handwriting in these entries began to resemble more the Romanized handwriting that we use today. In Austria, a parish was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction consisting of many villages and hamlets, with one of the villages designated as the main parish town.

Austrian church records are typically written in German or Latin. Regional dialect affects the spelling of some German words, for example: “Maÿ” is recorded instead of the German “Mai” for the month of May, and “Aeltern” instead of “Eltern” for the word parents.

Church priests and pastors began keeping records long before the Austrian government. Catholic Church records began as early as the mid to late 1500s; most church records, however, began in the late 1600s. In 1784, the Austrian Empire required that all births, marriages, and deaths be recorded in civil records. Church records were also affected by this civil registration requirement: because the Catholic Church kept records for everyone regardless of religion, the Austrian government implemented a specific format for vital records that the Catholic Church duplicated for the civil record offices. This uniformed record-keeping system, however, did not commence at the same time throughout the empire. These church books cover a majority of the population for Upper Austria, the Northern portion of the country.

Catholic Church records in this collection start with the year 1581 through the present day, but because of privacy laws, these records are available online only through 1905.

Church records were created to record church sacraments associated with the life events (e.g. baptism after birth, burial after death) of parishioners.

Austrian church books are one of the most reliable and accurate family history sources. Accuracy in the records is, however, dependent upon the accuracy of the informant’s knowledge coupled with the priest recording the information correctly. Ages, birth dates, and birth places recorded in marriage and death entries have a higher probability of being inaccurate.

These records are written in German.

How Do I Search This Collection?
When searching: It is helpful to know:
 * Your ancestor's name
 * Age and or residence
 * An estimated event year
 * A parent's name

Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information in the list to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct family or person. You may need to compare several persons in the list before you find your ancestor.

Search by name by visiting the Collection page:

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page:

⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the "Town or Parish" ⇒Select "Record Type and Date Range" which takes you to the images



What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the age in the record to find an approximate birth year, which will help you find their other records
 * Use the information to find your ancestors in Censuses. These can help you find additional family members
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found to find more generations of the family

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well

For Help Reading the Records
These records are in German. For help reading the records, see the following wiki articles:


 * German Word List
 * German Language and Languages
 * Germany Handwriting
 * Germany Resources

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.


 * Collection Citation:

"Austria, Upper Austria, Catholic Church Records, 1581-1919." Database with Images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2017. Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Linz. (Upper Austrian State Archives, Linz).

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