Moldova Civil Registration

Offices to Contact
Location: Civil registration offices exist at the local and regional levels. Copies of local registrations are sent to regional offices.

Historical Background
General: The Bureau of Civil Status Acts (ZAGS) creates and maintains civil registration. The bureau is subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and is separate from the national archive system. Registration of births must be done within two months of birth and deaths within three days. Registration offices are collocated with "marriage palaces" permitting the registration and performance of weddings to occur at the same place and time.

Time period: 1920-present.

Coverage and Compliance
Coverage was low for the first decade of registration, then 85% thereafter. The civil war of the early Soviet period inhibited registration. For two years it was not enforced. The system was established first in urban and later in rural areas. Gaps persisted through 1926. Civil registration broke down in the occupied areas during World War II, and some registers were burned.

Birth Records

 * Date
 * Name of child
 * Names of parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Name of informant
 * Place of residence for parents

Marriage Records

 * Date
 * Names of bride and groom
 * Names of parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Names of witnesses
 * Residences of the groom and bride

Death Records

 * Date
 * Name of deceased
 * Names of parents
 * Occupation and religious preference of parents
 * Residence of the deceased
 * Age at death
 * Cause of death
 * Place of burial in death records