Austria, Upper Austria, Catholic Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Title in the Language of the Record
Österreich, Oberösterrreich, Katholische Kirchenurkunden

Record Description
This Collection will include records from 1581 to 1910.

Event types were often compiled in separate volumes. For instance, baptisms would be in one volume and marriages in another. In some parishes, however, event types were intermixed and grouped into a volume according to year range. When this is the case, the baptisms, marriages, and burials for one year (e.g. 1785) were grouped together before the baptisms, marriages, and burials for the next year (e.g. 1786), and so on. Entries are usually recorded in chronological order, though some entries may be out of order. Entries before the mid-1700s were often in free text paragraphs; sometimes the priest created columns to record the information.

After the mid-1700s, a pre-printed form with column headings in Gothic fraktur typeface became common (though not always used). On these forms, the entries were handwritten in Gothic script; as time progressed, handwriting in these entries began to resemble more the Romanized handwriting that we use today. In Austria, a parish was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction consisting of many villages and hamlets, with one of the villages designated as the main parish town.

Austrian church records are typically written in German or Latin. Regional dialect affects the spelling of some German words, for example: “Maÿ” is recorded instead of the German “Mai” for the month of May, and “Aeltern” instead of “Eltern” for the word parents.

Church priests and pastors began keeping records long before the Austrian government. Catholic Church records began as early as the mid to late 1500s; most church records, however, began in the late 1600s. In 1784, the Austrian Empire required that all births, marriages, and deaths be recorded in civil records. Church records were also affected by this civil registration requirement: because the Catholic Church kept records for everyone regardless of religion, the Austrian government implemented a specific format for vital records that the Catholic Church duplicated for the civil record offices. This uniformed record-keeping system, however, did not commence at the same time throughout the empire. These church books cover a majority of the population for Upper Austria, the Northern portion of the country.

Catholic Church records in this collection start with the year 1581 through the present day, but because of privacy laws, these records are available online only through 1905.

Church records were created to record church sacraments associated with the life events (e.g. baptism after birth, burial after death) of parishioners.

Austrian church books are one of the most reliable and accurate family history sources. Accuracy in the records is, however, dependent upon the accuracy of the informant’s knowledge coupled with the priest recording the information correctly. Ages, birth dates, and birth places recorded in marriage and death entries have a higher probability of being inaccurate.

For a list of localities currently published in this collection, select the Browse link from the collection landing page.

Record Content
Baptismal records usually include the following information:


 * Child's given name
 * Baptism date
 * Location and house number
 * Gender
 * Marital status
 * Parents' names
 * Names and occupations of witnesses

Marriage records usually include the following information:


 * Date of event
 * Place of event with house number
 * Groom's name, age, marital status and religion
 * Groom's parents' names
 * Bride's name and age
 * Bride's parents' names
 * Names and occupations of witnesses

Death records usually include the following information:


 * Names of the deceased (sometimes names of deceased’s spouse and/or deceased’s parents were included)


 * Date of event
 * Place of event with house number
 * Name of deceased, gender and age
 * Cause of death
 * Religion

How to Use the Record
To search this collection using the index:

Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

Be sure and view the image to see the actual record.

To browse this collection you will need to follow this series of links:

⇒Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒Select the “Place” category ⇒Select the “Event” category ⇒Select the “Year range” category which takes you to the images.

Look at the images one by one comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination. Keep in mind:
 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

Use these Austrian church records to identify ancestors (individuals, their parents, and their spouses) and make family connections in pedigrees.

Related Websites
Austria Kindred Trails

Related Wiki Articles

 * Austria
 * Austrian Church Records online

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
Citations for individual image records are available for this collection. Browse through images in this collection and click on the “Show Citation” box: Austria, Upper Austria, Catholic Church Records, 1581-1910

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Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.