Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbian Orthodox Church Books - FamilySearch Historical Records

Bosnia and Herzegovina



Title in the Language of the Records
Босна и Херцеговина, Сръбската православна църква Книги

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of Images and of baptisms/births, marriages, and deaths that occurred in the Serbian Orthodox Church in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These images are of original parish records created by local priests of each parish. This collection covers the years 1700-1945.

Collection Contents
Birth Registers may include the following information:


 * Full Name of child
 * Date and place of birth
 * Occupation of father
 * Names of parents
 * Gender of child

Marriage Registers may include the following information:


 * Name of bride and groom
 * Date and place of marriage
 * Maiden name of bride
 * Names of parents
 * Names of witnesses

Death Registers may include the following information:


 * Full name of deceased
 * Date and place of death
 * Sex
 * Legitimacy
 * Parents’ names
 * Godparents’ names

How Do I Search the Collection?
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes to baptisms, marriages, and death or burials make it possible to access a specific record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

When searching the index it is helpful to know the following:


 * The approximate date and place of the event
 * The name and surname of the person
 * Other identifying information such as the name of the parents or spouse

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. For example:


 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the parents' birth records.
 * Use the parents' birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family. *Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom; this is especially helpful if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the marriage records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify.

Keep in mind:


 * The information in church records is usually reliable.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the mid 1800s.
 * There is also some variation in the information given from one record to another.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for check for variant spellings of the names or search the records of nearby localities.

Related Websites

 * Serbian Orthodox Church
 * Serbian Orthodox Church on Wikipedia.org

Related Wiki Articles

 * Bosnia and Herzegovina Beginner's Corner What's the Next Step?
 * Serbia Church Records

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image. Collection Citation:

Image Citation: