Slovakia Genealogy

Guide to Slovakia ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Country Information
Slovakia is a sovereign state in Central Europe bordered by the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary. The area had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of the First World War when, in October 1918, the Czech lands of Austria (Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia) joined with the Slovak and Ruthenian (Ukrainian) counties of Hungary to create the sovereign Republic of Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on January 1, 1993 when Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The official language is Slovak.

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Finding Your Ancestors' Town in Slovakia

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, Slovakia Finding Town of Origin to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

Regions

 * Since 2002, Slovakia is divided into 8 autonomous regions (region = kraj):
 * These links and the clickable map above lead to detailed instructions and links for genealogy research in each region:

Districts (Counties)
Several districts form a "Region" (Slovak "kraj"). One district (Slovak okres) consists of several "municipalities" (Slovak "obec"). Districts have been units of state administration in Slovakia since the time of the Habsburg monarchy, except for the period from 2004 to late 2013. Today, each district is administered by a "district office" (okresný úrad). In the FamilySearch Catalog, records are listed by district and then municipality, not by region.
 * To find the district for your town, click on Municipalities and Towns *(Click on "Show".)
 * Clicking on your town will take you to a Wikipedia article. It will give you the name of the district for that town.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map
 * Reference Aids Overview at the Family History Library
 * Slovakia Church and Synagogue Books Coverage Table--shows which records are indexed. It is organized by district, then municipality.

More Research Tools

 * Czech Genealogical Word List
 * German Genealogical Word List
 * Hungarian Genealogical Word List
 * Latin Genealogical Word List
 * Polish Genealogical Word List
 * Reading German Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: Kurrent Letters
 * Lesson 2: Making Words in Kurrent
 * Lesson 3: Reading Kurrent Documents
 * Old German Script
 * Part 1
 * Part 2
 * Reading Polish Handwritten Records
 * Lesson 1: Polish Letters
 * Lesson 2: Polish Words and Dates