Croatia, Delnice Deanery Catholic Church Books - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
This collection of church records covers the years 1725-1926.

This collection includes a name index to the records in Catholic Church books from the Delnice Deanery located in Western Croatia. The books contain the records of baptisms, marriages, and death. Records were written in Latin, Hungarian, and Croatian.

Church registers were created to record important events--such as baptism, marriage, and death-—in the life of parishioners. This documentation would later officially prove the validity of such events.

Church records are some of the most reliable sources of information available in Croatia for genealogical research before the civil registration implementation.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the data and images published on FamilySearch.org. It may include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.

Suggested citation format for a record in this collection.

Record Content
The key genealogical facts found in most baptism records include the following:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Infant’s name
 * Sometimes the birth date
 * Names of the father and mother
 * Names of the godparents
 * Sometimes the names of the grandparents
 * Residence

The key genealogical facts found in most marriage records include the following:


 * Date and place of marriage
 * Names of bride and groom
 * Names of bride and groom's parents
 * Groom's age and birth date
 * Bride's age and birth date
 * Witnesses' names

The key genealogical facts found in most marriage records include the following:


 * Name of deceased
 * Date and place of death
 * Cause of death
 * Burial location &amp; date
 * Parent or spouse's name

How to Use the Record
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes to baptisms, marriages, and deaths or burials make it possible to access a specific record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings or misinterpretations. If the information was scanned, there may also be optical character recognition errors.

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


 * The place where the event occurred
 * The name of the person
 * The approximate date of the event
 * The names of the parents or spouse

Use the locator information found in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to find your ancestors in the records. Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine whether you have found the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination. When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

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.


 * Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information.
 * Use the parents’ birthplaces to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family.

Looking in the same collection, you may be able to identify other members of the family:


 * Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom; this is especially helpful in rural areas or 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.

If you want to find more information about the family, the pieces of information may give biographical details that can lead you to other records.

For example:


 * 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 family in census records.
 * Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to other types of records such as employment or military records.
 * The name of the officiator is a clue to the family’s religion or area of residence in the county. You may be able to find other church or local records. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties.
 * Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages.

Keep in mind:


 * The information in church records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant.
 * Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1800s.
 * There may be some variation in the information given from one record to another.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following:


 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Check for a different index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby places.

Record History
This collection of church records from Delnice dates to a period when Croatia was not yet an independent country, so it includes records created under different governments, such as Hungary and the former Yugoslavia.

A patent, ruled by Emperor Joseph II in 1784, mandated the inclusion of certain sections in all parish record books maintained by the clergy. These register records were later used also as civil vital records. The contents were as follows:

Baptism records had to contain separate sections for the date and place of birth. Some pastors, however, frequently recorded only the following in this section: date of baptism, baptism date, name, religion, gender, legitimacy of child, first and last names of the parents (including mother's maiden name), parents' occupations, as well as the first and last names of the godparents and their occupations. In 1812, a special decree ordered that the date of birth be recorded separately and always before the date of baptism. In reality, both of these dates, birth and baptism, were listed in the same section until the emergence of new templates for vital records, which contained predetermined places for each separate fact.

Marital records had to contain information about the year, month and day of marriage, place of residency with the street number of the groom, first and last names of the groom, religion, age and marital status (single or widower), first and last names of the bride, her religion, age, and marital status (single or widow), the first and last names of the best man and bridesmaid, as well as their occupations.

Death records had to contain the following sections: the year, month, and day of death, residence place and street number, first and last names, religion, gender, and age of the deceased. Later, through a decree from the Imperial office in 1788, the cause of death was added if it was known.

As of 1868, the Ministry of Internal Affairs took over the right to supervise the maintenance of these records.

Related Websites

 * Croatian Parish Records

Related Wiki Articles

 * Croatia

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.