Slovenia Church Records

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

Introduction
Parish registers are church records of baptisms, marriages, and burials kept by the parish priest. They provide information to help uniquely identify individuals and link generations.

The Catholic Church mandated the keeping of parish registers in the mid-1500s. 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 in 1905, and Muslim in 1927. Duplicate registers for civil authorities was mandated in 1835 for Roman Catholic and 1829 for Evangelical registers.

Parish registers include: the names, family members, residence, relationships, and dates and place of birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial. Marriage and burial registers include ages; baptismal registers include the names of the godparents. Entries sometimes identify residence for those not in the parish. Mother’s maiden names were not included in baptismal entries until about 1770 and in marriage entries until about 1820.

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.

How to Access the Records
The parish or the local civil registry office retain original records from the 1880s to the present. Earlier originals and transcripts are preserved in archdiocesan or diocesan archives. Some non-Catholic originals are in the Archive of Slovenia.

Introduction
Status animarum are records of parish residents compiled by household or address. The term status animarum is Latin and translates as “the state of souls.” They were kept by parish priests for internal purposes. Printed forms were introduced in the 19th century. They exist from 1750 to the present. They provide information to help uniquely identify individuals and link generations.

Status animarum may contain: names and information about baptisms, marriages, burials, and relationships for everyone living in a parish. They can be used to track information on those who married outside the parish or who moved away. Additionally, they are valuable sources of information for those who died in the military and for illegitimate children. May include information on the house name by which the residents were sometimes known (usually the Christian name of the person who built the house).

How to Access the Records
Status animarum can be ecclesiastical archives and parish churches.

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