North Macedonia Civil Registration

Introduction
Civil registration is the civil recording of births, marriages, and deaths. Civil registration can be used to uniquely identify individuals and connect generations.

Ottoman population registers functioned in the role of civil registration from 1831 to 1913, when Macedonia became part of Serbia. Only males were counted before 1881, but everyone was counted thereafter. These registers noted sex, birth date, residence, age, religion, craft or occupation, marital status, marriage date, health, and military status. Civil registration began in 1946.

Birth records list: name; date of birth (including time of day); parents; residence, occupation, and religious preference of parents; and informant. Marriage records list: date of marriage, names of bride and groom, residences, parents, and witnesses. Death records list: date of death, name, age, cause of death, and place of burial.

How to Access the Records
Some Ottoman population registers may be located in state and provincial archives, but most are likely at the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul, Turkey.

Civil registration records are located at civil registration offices. The system is under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and is separate from the archive system.