Bulgaria Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in Bulgaria, go to the Religious Records page.

Church records were recorded by church clergymen and include baptism, marriage, and burial registers. Bulganian church records are primarily from the Bulgarian Orthodox and Roman Catholic religions and date back usually to 1850 but some Catholic books back to at least 1797. They contain names of the principal and parents, residence, dates and places of birth and baptism, marriage, death and burial; as well as ages in entries for marriage and death. Baptisms include names of the godparents. Deaths sometimes include the cause of death. Entries sometimes identify residence for those not of the parish.

Administratively, Bulgaria is divided into twenty eight districts. Each has an archive where civil registration and some church records are preserved. A few parish registers have been gathered into state archives or the national museum. Most church records are still located at the churches and may also be in monasteries. There are no vital records in the National Historical Archive in Sofia. Some pre-1872 registers are in Greece because during this period the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was subordinate to the Patriarchate in Greece.

Records at the Family History Library
The Family History Library does not have church records from Bulgaria.