Styria, Austria Genealogy

Guide to Styria (Steiermark), Austria ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

For Austria Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Town

 * To begin using the records Austria, just knowing that your family came from the country will not be enough. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know the town they lived in.
 * Details about the town will also help:
 * the county of that town,
 * where the closest Evangelical Lutheran, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc. parish church was (depending on their religion),
 * where the civil registration office was, and
 * if you have only a village name, you will need the name of the larger town it was part of.

Research to Find the Town
If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.
 * Use Gathering Information to Locate Place of Origin as a guide in exhausting every possible record to find what you need. It was written for Germany, but the same methods apply.

If You Know the Town, Next Use the GenTeam Gazetteer
GenTeam is an online gazetteer that covers the current countries of Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia (most of the area belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire). It gives former (German) and current names of locations, the name of the parish, the beginning year of the records, and the archive that holds the records. It will also give details on earlier parishes the locality belonged to. It then links to the website of that archive.
 * Tutorial: GenTeam Gazetteer Online - [[Media:1-Genteam_Gazetteer-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Genteam_Gazetteer-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Genteam_Gazetteer-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]

This is an example of a typical parish record entry that you will see:'''

Research Help
For help with genealogy in this region, see Austria Genealogy.

Online Records

 * Online digitized records for Steiermark, Diocese of Graz-Seckau



Microfilm Copies of Records at a Family History Center
If the locality and time period you need are not included in the online records, the next step is to check for them in the microfilm collection of the Family History Library. These microfilms may be ordered for viewing at Family History Centers around the world. To find a microfilm:
 * a. Click on "Places within Austria, Steiermark" (Styria)
 * b. Select your record type: Church records and civil registration are the most important.
 * b. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * c. Choose the correct record type and time period for your ancestor.
 * d. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the microfilm. Clicking on the microfilm reel will lead to information on how to rent the film. Family History Center staff will assist you in ordering the film.

Research Tools

 * Wiki Diocese of Graz-Seckau
 * Diocese Styria (Steiermark) - Contact Information
 * Town archive Graz
 * Online digitized records for Steiermark

Diozese of Styria
The Archive from the diozese of Styria, exact called Diozese Graz-Seckau, has all Register (burth, marriage and burial) from each parish in his region digitized.

You can access the Register online since 20th of December 2013: http://matriken.graz-seckau.at.

If you want visit the Archive personally you have to arrange an appointment (2 till 3 weeks waiting time) to get one of 6 work stations reserved. If you are not able to read all of the old "Kurrent" writing, the employee will give you reading Support.

From Special interest is also, that you will find there also digitized the books from the Diozese Marburg (Maribor) in Slovenia. The Register from the Diozese Maribor are still not online available.

An overview about the File inventory you find here. The register catalog you can download from here.

Town archive Graz
The town archive takes over, maps and lists the documents that are no longer needed for current business transactions resulting in the municipal offices and from legal, historical, cultural or other reasons must be kept. The construction file building plans of Graz (1825-1993) and the former municipalities of environment (1890-1993) with the plans of almost all Graz houses are kept in the construction file archive.

The town archives preserve the written records of the town magistrates from 1820 to 1849 and the town of Graz from 1850 to today. The town archiv answers questions about the various areas of the Graz cultural, economic, social, and time history. The city archives supports the person and family research through search and presentation of personal documents and distributes the historical year book of the city of Graz.

The town Archive also stores documents from the population Register about 1900.