Vienna, Austria Genealogy

Vienna is the capital city of Austria. Since 1922, it has been one of the nine federal provinces (Bundesländer) that consitute the federal Rupublic of Austria.

The Celtic settlement of Vindomina situated on the River Danube became an important Roman town, Vindobona, fortified from early in the first century of the modern era. When the Romans withdrew in the 5th century, it fell to a series of eastern European invaders. The Habsburg dynasty began its connection to Vienna in 1276 when they transferred the power base there. The city was called Wenia and Wienis before taking its present German name of Wien. It was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire (1558–1806), of the Austrian Empire (1806–67), of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918) (called Bécs in Hungarian), and of the Republic of Austria since 1918. Joint Western-Russian forces occupied the city from 1945 to 1955. Vienna is the world's third-largest German-speaking city after Berlin and Hamburg.

Getting Started
The Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna has published Tracing your Ancestors in Vienna - Some Guidelines with an overview of its records, links to other sites to further your research and a series of short "how to find" various categories of records.

Family History Center
Find a Family History Center


 * Vienna Austria Family History Center

Cemeteries
The Central Vienna Cemetery (Friedhöfe Wien) has an online database and some information in English.

Population Registers
A population register is a system of record keeping used especially in northwestern Europe whereby household heads report changes in status of members of their household.


 * Vienna Population Registers
 * Austria Vienna Population Cards (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Lehmann
The Lehmann directories were produced irregularly from 1859 to 1870 then annually until 1942 with the exception of a single edition for 1921-1922. Work began on updating an edition in the August or September preceding the year of publication which occurred at the beginning of the calendar year. So, for example, the upheavals of 1938 are reflected in the 1939 edition.

Generally speaking, the directory is divided into five parts:


 * names of residents in alphabetical order. Only household heads who own or rent a dwelling; does not include sub-tenants or servants so many working class families and individuals will not be found. An entry will typically give the surname, given name, occupation rank or status, Vienna district, street name and number.
 * street register
 * company
 * industry
 * government directory.

Jewish Community of Vienna
The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (IKG) (Jewish Community of Vienna) is the body that represents Vienna’s Orthodox Jewish community.

Mailing Lists

 * Rootsweb AUT-VIENNA A bilingual English-German mailing list for anyone with a genealogical, cultural or historical interest in the City of Vienna (Wien in German).
 * Vienna Province Rootsweb Message Board