Austria Occupations

Guild and apprenticeship records (Zunft- und Lehrlingsbücher)
Research use: Names of parents and sometimes spouses and children are listed. Useful linkage source.

Record type: Records of merchants, craftsmen, tradesmen, skilled laborers, and persons bound by indenture to serve others for a prescribed period to learn an art or trade.

Time Period: 1400-1850.

Content: Names of skilled laborers, craftsmen and apprentices, dates of birth or ages, places of origin and residence, family relationships, occupations. Some guild records list their members' families with marriage dates of couples and complete birth dates of their children.

Location: City and state archives.

Population coverage: 5-10%.

Burgher rolls (Bürgerbücher)
Research use: Often a very useful linkage tool, sometimes several generations are listed; town of origin of an ancestor often also given.

Record type: Citizen lists and inhabitants of a given town; lists of persons entitled to the rights, privileges, and protection of a town or community.

Time Period: 1133-1853.

Content: Name, age, sometimes social and economic status of citizen, town of origin, date when citizenship rights in a town were acquired, family relationships, sometimes two or more generations or genealogies are listed.

Location: Local city and state archives.

Population coverage: 20%.