Austria Gazetteers

Once you have found out the name of the place where your ancestor came from, you are ready to look for records that may have been kept for that town. All towns didn't keep their own records. The residents of each town were assigned to a particular Catholic or Protestant parish in the area. Depending on the religion of your ancestor, the events of baptism, marriage, or burial for his family members should have been recorded in the town where the appropriate parish was located.

The Gemeindelexikon gazetteer of Austria will show the Catholic church jurisdictions for every place in the Austrian portion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as of 1900. The volume for each province is arranged by political district, each divided into court districts, with an index to both German and local place names at the end of the book. To use, find the village in the index, which gives the page number in the gazetteer. If you do not find the village on the page listed in the index, check the footnotes. The names of the political and court district are given at the top of the page. The parish or synagogue is not listed in the main index but is given in an appendix, located between the main text and the index of each volume. The appendix is arranged alphabetically by political district and court district. In the appendix section, using the name of the districts and the village, determine the parish town where the church records were kept for your village. The parish and synagogue is given in the last column.

Church jurisdictions are shown in the following:

''Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Konigreiche und Lander, bearbeitet auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszahlung vom 31. Dezember 1900''. 14 volumes. (Gazetteer of the states of the Austrian Empire. Each state has its own volume with index and appendix showing Catholic parish jurisdictions for each town). This set is online using the following links:


 * Allgemeines Verzeichnis (Overall index to all 14 volumes)
 * Volume 1: Niederösterreich
 * Volume 2: Oberösterreich
 * Volume 3: Salzburg
 * Volume 4: Steiermark
 * Volume 5: Kärnten
 * Volume 6: Krain
 * Volume 7: Österreichish-Illyrisches Küstenland
 * Volume 8: Tirol und Vorarlberg
 * Volume 9: Böhmen
 * Volume 10: Mähren, Moravia (Czech version of the volume)
 * Volume 11: Schlesien
 * Volume 12: Galizien
 * Volume 13: Bukowina (appendix, index)
 * Volume 14: Dalmatien (appendix, index)

Jews, Protestants and Catholics are included in the following:

Hans Mayerhofer, Oesterreich-ungarisches Orts-Lexikon enthaltend die Pfarrorte, Cultusgemeinden und Filialen aller Confessionen Oesterreich-Ungarns, Bosniens, und der Herzegowina.''Wien: Carl Fromme, 1896. 906 p. (Gazetteer of Austria-Hungary with jurisdictions of all confessions). Film number 1256324 item 4.''

The following gazetteers are also useful for the time periods in which they were published:

Franz Raffelsperger, Allgemeines geographisch-statistisches Lexikon aller osterreichischen Staaten.''Wien: KK Typo-geographischen Kunstanstalt, 1845-1853. 9 volumes. (Alphabetical gazetteer of the Austrian Empire showing which towns had parishes and other data. Includes Hungary). Film number 1187928 item 4 - 1187933. Book number 943.6 E5r.''

''Ortsverzeichnis von Osterreich, bearbeitet auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszahlung vom 21. Marz 1961.'' Wien: Osterreichisches Statistisches Zentralamt, 1965. 565 p. (Standard gazetteer of modern Austria). Film number 1181555 item 7. Book number 943.6 E50 1965.

For a description of the available parish registers for modem Austria see:

Austria sacra. II Bd. Quellen und Literaturkunde zur osterreichischen Kirchengeschichte. 1960- 12 volumes. (Includes the following volumes: 1. General; 2. Erzdiozese Wien; 3. Diozese St. Polten; 4. Diozese Linz; 5. Diozese Eisenstadt/Burgenland; 6. Erzdiozese Salzburg; 7. Diozese Gurk; 8. Diozese Graz-Seckau; 9. Diozese Brixen/Innsbruck-Feldkirch; 10. Orden, Kloster; und Spitaler; 11.1. Ev. Kirche A. und H.B.; 11.2. Die Andere staatlich anerkannten christlichen Gemeinschaften; 12. Register. Book number 943.6 B4a.

Places in the Austrian Empire

 * Bohemia and Moravia are now part of Czechia.
 * Bukowina, Austria was an Austrian crownland (royal domain) 1774-1918 and part of Romania 1918-1945. The northern portion was annexed to Ukraine as the Chernovtsy Oblast and the southern portion remained in Romania as the Suceava Judeţul.
 * Galicia is now split between Poland and Ukraine.