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

What is in This Collection?
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 was used, and the entries were handwritten in Gothic script. As time progressed, handwriting in these entries began to resemble the Romanized handwriting that we use today. 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.

Reading These Records
These records are written in German. For help reading them see:
 * German Language and Languages
 * German Genealogical Word List
 * Germany Handwriting
 * FamilySearch Learning Center videos:
 * German Paleography Seminar

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

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

Marriage
 * 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
 * Name of deceased (sometimes names of deceased’s spouse and/or parents were included)
 * Date of event
 * Place of event with house number
 * Name of deceased, gender and age
 * Cause of death
 * Religion

How Do I Search This Collection?
When searching: It is helpful to know:
 * Your ancestor's name
 * Age and or residence
 * An estimated event year
 * A parent's name

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Use the age in the record to find an approximate birth year, which will help you find their other records
 * Use the information to find your ancestors in Censuses. These can help you find additional family members
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found to find more generations of the family

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Consult the Austria Record Finder to find other records
 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in Austria.
 * Austria Research Tips and Strategies
 * Austria Record Finder

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.

es:Austria, Alta Austria, registros parroquiales (Registros históricos de FamilySearch) [[pt:Áustria, Alta Áustria, Registros da Igreja Católica (Registros Históricos do FamilySearch)