Bulgaria Genealogy

Europe Bulgaria 

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

Getting started with Bulgarian research
Welcome to the Bulgaria Page!

Because of its proximity to Asia Minor, Bulgaria was the first of the European states to succumb to the Ottoman Turks and one of the last to be liberated from them. During five centuries of Ottoman rule (1396-1878), the country stagnated, untouched by any of the cultural, social, or political movements of Europe. The Russian army liberated Bulgarians from the Ottomans. Eastern Rumelia, the southeastern portion of Bulgaria, was added to the country in 1885 and additional territory was added to the southern end of the country during the Balkan wars in 1912-1913. Bulgaria allied itself with Germany in World Wars I and II. In 1944 the Red Army entered Bulgaria and installed a communist satellite regime. The communist regime lasted until 1990 when Bulgaria re-emerged as an independent nation.

Research Tools
To see what records exist in the Family History Library for the country of Bulgaria click here

Featured Content


Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country situated in south-eastern Europe, bordering Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea. Bulgaria ranks as the third largest country in Southeast Europe. Its landscape is defined by several mountains and mountain ranges. In contrast, the plains represent Bulgaria's lowest and most fertile regions. The 378-kilometer Black Sea coastline covers the entire eastern bound of the country. To read more about Bulgaria see The World Factbook and Wikipedia.

Did you know?

 * Bulgaria is one of the oldest European countries and is the only one that hasn't changed its namе ever since it was founded.
 * According to the statistics, Bulgaria ranks third in Europe only after Greece and Italy for the number of its valuable archeological monuments.
 * The recognition of the Bulgarian Patriarchate by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 927 AD makes the Bulgarian Orthodox Church the oldest Slavic Orthodox Church in the world.
 * The Bulgarians were the first people to use the Cyrillic alphabet immediately after its inception in the 9th century.
 * With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on January 1, 2007, Cyrillic became the third official alphabet of the EU.

Jurisdictions


Administratively, Bulgaria is divided into 28 districts (or provinces). All take their names from their respective capital cities. The provinces subdivide into 264 municipalities. Sofia, with 1.4 million people, is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 15th largest city by population in the European Union. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha.

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