Bulgaria Beginners Corner Finding Your Ancestor in the Records

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Before finding your ancestor in the records, you will need to know:


 * The actual name of an ancestor
 * The date of birth, marriage, and death (can be estimated)
 * The place of origin
 * The religion of an ancestor

Click here if you are missing any of the above listed information.

Find your ancestor in the records

The best sources of genealogical information in Bulgaria are the church records kept by the local parishes and vital records kept by the local civil registration offices. The Family History Library holds very few Bulgarian vital records. The Library has microfilms of civil registration for the districts of Sofia and Plovdiv only that usually cover 1893-1912 time period. The Library has some history and genealogy books from the following districts: Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Khaskovo, Lovech, Mikhaĭlovgrad, Razgrad, and Varna. Use the FamilySearch Catalog to determine what records are available for the locality.

Research by mail

If the records you want are not available through the Family History Library they may be available through the individual Bulgarian archives. Please refer to the Quick Start Guide published by the BulgariaGenWeb Project for detailed information.