Vienna, Austria Genealogy

Guide to Vienna Capital City and State ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Online Records

 * 1600-1960 - Vienna, Austria, Catholic Church Registers, 1600-1960 - ($), at Ancestry, images
 * 1784-1911 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1848-1900 -, browsable images.
 * 1850-1896 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * ANNO - Austrian publications Online - Fulltext search for persons and deceased
 * Burial calendar - deceased since 1999 with date of birth
 * DÖW databases - Shoah and Gestapo Victims 1938-1945
 * Court Marriages - Marriage proceedings from the 16th to the 19th century
 * Familia Austria - Deceased in Vienna (1703-1844)
 * Find book for victims of national socialism
 * Cemetery database of the IKG - Jewish deceased
 * Lehmanns Allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger - Personen- und Gewerberegister - Personal and Commercial Register
 * - Jewish synagogue records
 * Vashem - Holocaust victims
 * Turkish Community of Vienna, Austria, 1845-1938, Births Register
 * Turkish Community of Vienna, Austria, 1845-1938, Weddings Register


 * Austrian Biographical Dictionary

Digitized FamilySearch Films

 * Vienna population register cards (Einwohnermeldezettel), 1850-1920. Indexed online.
 * Includes names, birth date and place, residence, sometimes parents', spouse and children's names. Arranged alphabetically with males listed first, then females.


 * '''Vienna population registers (Einwohnerkartei), 1850-1896
 * Includes names, birth date and place, parents, residence, spouse and children's names.


 * Vienna death records (Sterberegister), 1648-1920.
 * Includes name, date and place of death, residence, age, spouse's name, sometimes parent's names. Alphabetical by death year.


 * Vienna hospital deaths (Totenverzeichnis), 1868-1942,
 * Includes name, date and place of death, residence, age, spouse's name, sometimes parent's names. Arranged by death date.


 * Vienna cemetery records (Friedhofsprotokolle), 1600-1930.
 * Records for over 40 different cemeteries in Vienna have been filmed. ::Includes name, date and place of death, age, sometimes names of relatives. Arranged by death date.


 * Vienna Registry of Jewish births, marriage, and deaths (Matrikel), 1826-1943
 * Register of Jewish births, marriages, deaths, and indexes for Wien, Niederösterreich, Austria. Includes Leopoldstadt, Ottakring, Hernals, Währing, Fünfhaus and Sechshaus.


 * Vienna circumcision and births of Jews (Matrikel), 1870-1914
 * Circumcision and births of Jews in Wien, Niederösterreich, Austria.


 * Vienna Military conscription registers of male births (Militär-Stammrollen), 1858-1901
 * Registers of male births for military conscription. Also includes death dates and towns where individuals relocated.


 * Austria, Vienna, Jewish registers of births, marriages, and deaths, 1784-1911
 * Registers of births, marriages, deaths, and some burials for the Jewish Community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien).


 * Vienna Passports of citizens (Paßregister), 1792-1918
 * Passports of citizens recorded at Vienna, Niederösterreich, Austria.

Lehmann Directories
The Lehmann directories were produced irregularly from 1859 to 1870 then annually until 1942 with the exception of a single edition for 1921-1922. Whilst the reliability of the data is considered to be generally high, complete accuracy can not be assumed. The editorial regularly complained about the tardiness and poor legibility of letters received. Moreover, the publishers decided that with the rapid expansion of the city, they could no longer aspire to be complete, especially in the personal directory.
 * 1859-1942 Lehmann Online in German.
 * Alphabetical sorting order: the Lehmann uses some sorting rules which would not be found today. For example, in some editions the letters "I" and "J" are treated as the same letter; the street name "Kleine Pfarrgasse" is found under the letter "P" and not "K".
 * Generally speaking, the directory has five parts of genealogical interest although the order and naming of the parts change over the course of publication:
 * names of residents in alphabetical order. Only household heads who own or rent a dwelling; does not include sub-tenants or servants so many working class families and individuals will not be found. An entry will typically give the surname, given name, occupation rank or status, Vienna district, street name and number.
 * street register. In the early years, the naming and numbering of streets was neither stable nor consistent and this is reflected in the Lehmanns. It can be even more confusing to find that housenumbering was not continuous. The 1859 first edition divides Vienna into three parts: the inner city, the 34 :Vorstädte (inner suburbs outside the old city wall but within the Linienwall) and the 36 Vororte (outer suburbs). Over editions one can see the effects of reforms in the naming of streets and the numbering of houses (for example, from 1862-1864), urban expansion (in 1874 the creation of Favoriten as the 10th district, the first outside the city limits, then set by the Gürtel ring road; the decision in 1890 to integrate the Vororte into the city proper; in 1904 the creation of the 21st district from villages on the left bank of the Danube) and the changes following the great political upheavals (1918, 1934, 1938). Post war developments mean that it can be difficult to map old Vienna addresses using modern mapping tools such as Google Maps. For the editions of 1925, 1926, 1932-36 and 1938-42 the street directory is expanded into a home listing which adds to the alphabetical listing of Vienna streets by listing the dwellings in that section with the details of the householder.
 * Company.
 * Industry.
 * Authorities. The content of this section varies over time but includes government offices, infrastructure, educational institutions, health care institutions, associations, newspapers. Some groupings moved into and out of this section according to the times; for example: landlords, banks, doctors and lawyers. There are details of embassies and lists of elected officials.

Additional Important Microfilm Collections
As of August 2021, these important collections are only available on microfilm. See Catalog: Austria, Niederösterreich, Vienna for more records.


 * Births, marriages and deaths of Austrian Jewish military personnel (Matrikel), 1914-1918
 * Births, marriages and deaths of Austrian Jewish military personnel in Wien, Niederösterreich, Austria. Text in German.


 * Vienna Household Registration Cards (Meldekartei Familien), 1940-1948
 * Household Registration Cards for families living in the city of Vienna, Austria. The cards contain the name of the head of the household, spouse and children and include birth dates and places, occupation, religion, dates and places of former and current residence.


 * Vienna Population Registers (Meldezettel), 1930-1940
 * Population Registers for individual residents of the city of Vienna, Austria. The cards include name, birth date and place, marital status, old and new places of residence, dates of arrival and departure.

Microfilm Copies of Records at a Family History Center
If the locality and time period you need are not included in the online records, the next step is to check for them in the microfilm collection of the Family History Library. Some microfilms may be available for viewing at Family History Centers around the world. To find a microfilm:
 * a. Click on "Places within Austria, Niederösterreich"(Vienna province was part of Niederösterreich during the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The catalog is organized by Austro-Hungarian Empire place names.)
 * b. Select your record type: Church records and civil registration are the most important.
 * c. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * d. Choose the correct record type and time period for your ancestor.
 * e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the microfilm.

For Austria Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Town

 * To begin using the records Austria, just knowing that your family came from Vienna will probably not be enough. Vienna was made up of many different parishes. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know the town they lived in. It will also be helpful to know where the closest Evangelical Lutheran, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc. parish church was (depending on their religion).

If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.
 * Use Austria Finding Town of Origin for help with accessing sources that could help.
 * Also, search the many databases listed under Online Records. Many of them cover all of Vienna and are indexed, and if your ancestor is listed in them, there might be information that narrows down the search.

If You Know the Town, Next Use the GenTeam Gazetteer
GenTeam is an online gazetteer that covers the current countries of Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia (most of the area belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire). It gives former (German) and current names of locations, the name of the parish, the beginning year of the records, and the archive that holds the records. It will also give details on earlier parishes the locality belonged to. It then links to the website of that archive.
 * Tutorial: GenTeam Gazetteer Online - [[Media:1-Genteam_Gazetteer-Instruction.pdf|Instruction]], [[Media:2-Genteam_Gazetteer-Activity.pdf|Activity]], [[Media:3-Genteam_Gazetteer-Answer_Key.pdf|Answer Key]]

This is an example of a typical parish record entry that you will see:'''

Research Help

 * For help with genealogy in this region, see Austria Genealogy.
 * The Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna has published Tracing your Ancestors in Vienna - Some Guidelines with an overview of its records, links to other sites to further your research and a series of short "how to find" various categories of records.
 * Vienna Population Registers

Writing for Records
See German Letter Writing Guide for help and translations.

Civil Registration
Civil registration, the government records of births, marriages, and deaths, began in Austria on 1 January 1939. The office that keeps these records is the Standesamt.
 * List of Standesamt addresses in Austria

Archives
Diocesan Archives Vienna (Catholic, see map.) Wollzeile 2 (Archbishop's Palace) A-1010 Vienna, Austria Tel .: 0043/1/51 552-3239 Fax: 0043/1/51 552-3240 E-mail: daw@edw.or.at www.erzdioezese-wien.at/pages / Inst / 14428073
 * Digitized parish registers at Matricula

Archive of the Evangelical Church in Austria (Lutheran) Evangelical Church in Austria Church Severin Schreiber-Gasse 3 Dept. of Matriculation, Archives, Library A-1180 Vienna, Austria Tel .: +43/1/4791523/519 Fax: +43/1/4791523/440 E-Mail: archiv @ Evang.at Magistratsabteilung 8, Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (State) Guglgasse 14, 5th floor, Top 508 1110 Vienna, Austria E-Mail: post@ma08.wien.gv.at Phone: +43 1 4000 84808 Fax: +43 1 4000 84809
 * Website
 * Holdings

Local Churches

 * Archdiocese of Vienna parish address list
 * Evangelical (Lutheran) parish address list

Reading the Records

 * It's easier than you think! You do not have to be fluent in French and German to use these records, as there is only a limited vocabulary used in them. By learning a few key phrases, you will be able to read them adequately.  Here are some resources for learning to read German records.
 * German Genealogical Word List
 * German Handwriting


 * These video webinars will teach you to read German handwriting:
 * Old German Script Part 1
 * Old German Script Part 2
 * Old German Script (German Church and Civil Records) Part 3


 * Also online interactive slideshow lessons are available to help you learn to read these records:
 * . In this lesson, you will explore several types of German genealogical records, including birth, baptismal, marriage, and death records.
 * German Script Tutorial
 * . In this lesson, you will explore several types of German genealogical records, including birth, baptismal, marriage, and death records.
 * German Script Tutorial

This converter will show you how any phrase or name might look in German script:
 * Kurrentschrift Converter (enter German genealogical word, click on "convert", view your word in Kurrentschrift (Gothic handwriting)

Latin Records
Records of the Catholic church will usually be written in Latin:
 * Latin Genealogical Word List

Search Strategy

 * Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth record, search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
 * Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents.
 * You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
 * Search the death registers for all known family members.
 * Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
 * If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.