Croatia Genealogy

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

Country Information
Croatia is a country in Central and Southeast Europe bordered by Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Slovenia. The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. The official language is Croatian.

Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Croatia

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town were your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, ACroatia Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

Croatia Map
Croatia is a country situated in Southeastern Europe, bordering Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Adriatic Sea, and the Gulf of Trieste.



Regions

 * Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia. It is a lowland bounded, in part, by the Drava river in the north, the Sava river in the south, and the Danube river in the east.


 * Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and is situated in Croatia. It spreads between the island of Rab in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor, in Montenegro, in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south.


 * Istria the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner. It is shared by three countries: Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.

More Croatia Research Strategies
Research strategies give guidance on how to research or what records to search for first. Below are additional research strategy Wiki articles for Croatia.
 * Beginner's Guide to Croatian Research by Thomas K. Edlund with Kahlile B. Mehr
 * Beginner's Guide to Croatian Research/Croatian Microfilming List by Thomas K. Edlund with Kahlile B. Mehr
 * Finding your ancestor in the records

Reading Croatian Records

 * Croatia Language and Languages
 * Serbo-Croation Word List
 * Croatian Glagolitic Script

More Croatia Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools for Croatia.
 * ARHiNET Croatia Central National Register of Archival Fonds and Collections of the Republic of Croatia. Includes vital registers. Click here for instructions.
 * Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1949
 * Croatia, Delnice Roman Catholic Church Books (Family Search Historical Records) Presently being indexed.
 * Croatian vital registers are slowly becoming available online through FamilySearch and through the Croatian Digital Archives.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map