Indonesia Genealogy

Guide to Indonesia, family history and genealogy parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

Country Information
Indonesia is the world’s 4th most populous country with over 264 million people, as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. All Muslim countries combined are still smaller than the Muslim population in Indonesia. With more than seventeen thousand islands, Indonesia is also the world’s largest archipelagic country. Java, the world’s most populous Island contains over 60% of the country’s population. There 737 languages spoken in Indonesia, with Bahasa Indonesia as the national language and Javanese as the most spoken traditional language.

Indonesia is a very multi-cultural country. There were multiple foreign countries fighting to draw natural resources in Indonesia, at least since the 7th century. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious, and political models from these countries, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms developed. Islam was brought by the Muslim traders and Sufi scholars, while European brought Christianity during the Age of Discovery. Indonesia experienced the Dutch colonialism for a long period of time. During World War II, Japan interrupted the colonialism by the Dutch and occupied Indonesia for a little over three years. In August 17, 1945 Indonesia declared their independence, but achieved its full independent in 1949 after an armed and diplomatic conflict with the Netherlands.

Even after being independent, the influence of the Dutch is still affecting the country. Due to very minimal education system in Indonesia, illiteracy was quite common among the society. Only Dutch companies’ employees’ family can get a decent education, and the rest of the people only received very basic education, which will give benefits to the Dutch. For this reason, many native Indonesians did not have any understandings about keeping family records.

Indonesia Map
Genealogy records are kept on the local level in Indonesia.

Provinces
Indonesian name is in parentheses if different from English. An asterisk (*) in the list below indicates a locality with special status (Daerah Istimewa or Daerah Khusus Ibukota).
 * Indonesian provinces and their capitals, listed by region

Sumatra Java Lesser Sunda Islands
 * Aceh (Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam) * – Banda Aceh
 * North Sumatra (Sumatera Utara) – Medan
 * West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) – Padang
 * Riau – Pekanbaru
 * Riau Islands (Kepulauan Riau) – Tanjung Pinang
 * Jambi – Jambi City
 * South Sumatra (Sumatera Selatan) – Palembang
 * Bangka-Belitung Islands (Kepulauan Bangka-Belitung) – Pangkal Pinang
 * Bengkulu – Bengkulu City
 * Lampung – Bandar Lampung
 * Special Capital Region of Jakarta* (Daerah Khusus Ibu Kota Jakarta) – Jakarta
 * Banten – Serang
 * West Java (Jawa Barat)– Bandung
 * Central Java (Jawa Tengah) – Semarang
 * Yogyakarta Special Region* (Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta) – Yogyakarta (city)
 * East Java (Jawa Timur) – Surabaya
 * Bali – Denpasar
 * West Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Barat) – Mataram
 * East Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Timur) – Kupang

Kalimantan
 * West Kalimantan (Kalimantan Barat) – Pontianak
 * Central Kalimantan (Kalimantan Tengah) – Palangkaraya
 * South Kalimantan (Kalimantan Selatan) – Banjarmasin
 * East Kalimantan (Kalimantan Timur) – Samarinda
 * North Kalimantan (Kalimantan Utara) – Tanjung Selor

Sulawesi Maluku Islands Western New Guinea
 * North Sulawesi (Sulawesi Utara) – Manado
 * Gorontalo – Gorontalo City
 * Central Sulawesi (Sulawesi Tengah) – Palu
 * West Sulawesi (Sulawesi Barat) – Mamuju
 * South Sulawesi (Sulawesi Selatan) – Makassar
 * Southeast Sulawesi (Sulawesi Tenggara) – Kendari
 * Maluku – Ambon
 * North Maluku (Maluku Utara) – Sofifi
 * West Papua* (Papua Barat) – Manokwari
 * Papua* – Jayapura

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map

In other languages: Bahasa Indonesia | English