Croatia Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in Croatia, go to the Religious Records page.

Overview

 * Croatia has no official religion and Freedom of religion is a right defined by the Constitution of Croatia, which also defines all religious communities as equal in front of the law and separate from the state.
 * The most predominant religion in Croatia is Christianity and a large majority of the Croatian population declares themselves as members of the Roman Catholic Church (86.28%). The other main religions of Croatia are Eastern Orthodoxy (4.44%), Protestantism (0.34%), other Christianity (0.30%), and Islam (1.47%). 4.57% of the population describes themselves as non-religious.
 * The language of the records is either Latin, Croatian, Hungarian, or Italian. Glagolitic and Cyrillic as well as Roman script occur in the records.

Time Period

 * Roman Catholic parishes kept registers earlier than Orthodox parishes which were required to keep them only after 1777. Croats are almost exclusively Roman Catholic and Serbs are Orthodox. 
 * Civil transcripts of registers were mandated during the 19th century.
 * A tabular format was adopted after 1848.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Birth records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Name of infant
 * Gender and date of birth
 * Legitimacy
 * Religion
 * Parents' names, residence, and place of origin
 * Names of witnesses or godparents

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of the event
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Their civil statuses (widowed, single, divorced) at the time of the event
 * Places of origin and residence of the bride and groom
 * Names of parents
 * Name of witnesses

Burial records usually contain the following information:


 * Place and date of the event
 * Place and date of death
 * Name of the principal (deceased)
 * Civil status of principal at time of death
 * Civil status and name of spouse, if married at time of death
 * Parents' names
 * Sometimes, place of burial

Catholic Parish List
Go to Appendix B. for a Croatian Catholic Parish List

Online Databases: FamilySearch Historical Records

 * Roman Catholic (Rimokatolička crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994 (Roman Catholic), images.
 * Orthodox (Pravoslavna crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Orthodox, images.
 * Greek Catholic (Grkokatolička crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Greek Catholic, images.
 * Evangelical (Evangelička crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Evangelical, images.
 * Reformed Christian (Reformska crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Reformed Christian, images.
 * Jewish (Židovska): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Jewish, images.
 * Military (Vojni): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Military, images.
 * Civil (Građanski): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Civil, images.

FamilySearch Microfilming

 * Various church books from the Croatian State Archives
 * Orthodox church records of the Blaski eparchy (Blaski is not a geographic place, but the name of a patriarch. The eparchy covered all of the Orthodox parishes in Dalmatia)
 * Documents from district church archives throughout Croatia
 * Church records from the Osijek State Archives
 * Material from the Varaždin State Archives
 * Catholic church books from the Zadar and Split State Archives
 * Orthodox church books from the Zadar and Split State Archives
 * Church books from the Dubrovnik State Archives
 * Records from the Rijeka State Archives
 * Records from the Pazin State Archives

Websites

 * ARHiNET Croatia 355 vital registers, mostly from the Zagreb area, expected to grow. See Croatia How to Use Croatian Digital Archives.