Vojvodina and Banat, Austro-Hungarian Empire Genealogy

Guide to Vojvodina and Banat ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, and military records.

Historical Geography
The Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar or Serbian Voivodeship and the Banate of Temes (Woiwodschaft Serbien und des Temescher Banates), known simply as the Serbian Voivodeship, was a province (duchy) of the Austrian Empire that existed between 1849 and 1860. It was a separate crown land named after two former provinces: Serbian Vojvodina and Banat of Temes. Its former area is now divided between Serbia, Romania and Hungary. (Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar, Wikipedia) The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe that is currently divided among three countries: The region of Banat is populated by ethnic Romanians, Serbs, Hungarians, Romani, Germans, Krashovani, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Czechs, Croats, Jews and other ethnicities. (Banat, Wikipedia)
 * the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of Timiș, Caraș-Severin, Arad south of the Mureș, the western part of Mehedinți);
 * the western part in northeastern Serbia (mostly included in Vojvodina, except for a small part included in the Belgrade Region);
 * and a small northern part lies within southeastern Hungary (Csongrád county).

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. These microfilms may be viewed digitally at Family History Centers around the world. To find a film:
 * a. Click on "Places within Austria, Banat"
 * 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.

zichydorfonline.org
The website sells CDs and DVDs with church book photographs. You may want to check that they are not also available at the FamilySearch catalogue already before buying them.

About the Banat

 * BANAT HOMEPAGE
 * History of German Settlements in Southern Hungary by Sue Clarkson, with bibliography

Villages

 * Banat Village Index
 * Donauschwaben Village List
 * finding parishes a village belonged to
 * Banat Villages with German Inhabitants
 * list of villages, parishes and available church books
 * Microfilms of banat parish records
 * more verbose printed version
 * finding literature about villages
 * Donauschwäbische Ortsmonographien (in German)
 * GenWiki - banat related family books (in German)

Emigration and Immigration

 * Familienbuch Mettlach und Umgebung (southwest part of Germany). Many settlers came from the area around the city of Mettlach, Saarland, Germany.
 * Passenger lists of Bremen harbour
 * Anton Tressel: Auswanderer aus den Diözesen Mainz, Speyer und Trier in die Gegend von Tata/Totis im 18. Jahrhundert
 * Anton Krämer: Luxemburgische Ansiedlerfamilien in Banater Ortschaften (1763-1788)
 * Werner Hacker collected a lot of sources and put them into books. In order to find the relevant books, try a Google Books search for family names

Maps

 * Maps of counties in the Kingdom of Hungary (Wikimedia Commons)
 * (currently offline) Maps of Hungary, 1910 in Maygar language of Hungary

Mailing lists

 * Donauschwaben Villages Mailing List at Rootsweb, with browse and search capacity. Topic: A bilingual English-German mailing for anyone with an interest in the former Danube Swabian (ethnic German) villages situated in the six regions which were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918: Banat, Batschka, Hungarian Highlands, Sathmar, Swabian Turkey, Syrmia &amp; Slavonia. We help researchers discover their Danube Swabian ancestral roots, history, environs, culture and lifestyle. We encourage our list members to ask questions and share discoveries. This mailing list is associated with The Donauschwaben Villages' Helping Hands (DVHH) website below: DVHH is a volunteer project for researchers of Danube Swabian Heritage.
 * Banat Mailing List at Rootsweb, with browse and search capacity Topic: A bilingual English-German mailing list for information on people who migrated eastward, primarily in the 1700s, from various former German States and settled lands in the Danube Basin of South-central Europe. These settlers, later referred to as Danube Swabians (in German Donauschwaben), lived in communities which are located today in Hungary, Romania, and countries of the former Federation of Yugoslavia. The focus of the list is genealogy, and history as it relates to the language, food, customs, culture, and lives of these unique peoples circa 1700 to the present. All historical areas of Danube Swabian habitation and culture are discussed on the list, and include former Austrian and Hungarian administrative regions known as Batschka, Bosnia, Sathmar, Schwaubische Turkei (Hungary), Slavonia, Syrmia, Vojvodina, and others.

Organizations

 * DONAUSCHWABEN VILLAGES Helping Hands, a Nonprofit Donauschwaben Villages Helping Hands (DVHH) consist of all volunteers, whose desire is to help descendants of the German ethnic group "Danube Swabian" discover their ancestral roots, history, environs, culture and lifestyles. Our Mission is to collect and provide historical and genealogical information for the former Danube Swabian (DS) villages situated in the six regions which were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918: Banat, Batschka, Slavonia - Syrmia, Swabian Turkey, Hungarian Highlands, and Sathmar. Our website is chock-full of data, having been developed using input from this very forum of volunteers to flesh out all the aspects of the Danube Swabian people. The DVHH Village Coordinators hope to bring you closer to your ancestral village.
 * Donauschwaben Heritage Society Preserves the Donauschwaben heritage and the Donauschwaben communities around the world
 * The Working Group of Danube-Swabian Researchers (AKdFF) The "Working Group of Danube Swabian Family Researchers" or in German, "Arbeitskreis donauschwaebischer Familienforscher" is a society of over 700 members with headquarters in Sindelfingen, Germany, and specializing in Donauschwaben genealogy research. The goal of most researchers is to find the ancestors who were the original settlers in southern Hungary, and to find out where they lived in the old German states prior to migration
 * The Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS) Serves all ethnic groups, religious groups and genealogists with East European ancestors
 * GenealogyRO Group is a Genealogical Research &amp; Probate Investigations Group with full research capabilities for Romanian Banat, Transylvania, and Romania. Our belief is that genealogical research must be stimulated in this corner of the World. In these Web pages everybody is invited to check our contributions in achieving this purpose.
 * Homeland association of the Banaters (in German)
 * Institut für donauschwäbische Geschichte und Landeskunde (IDGL) (in German)
 * Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum (in German)

Weblink lists

 * Less Frequently used Sources in Banat, Batchka and Syrmia of today's Serbia

currently offline

 * Genealogy Resources for the Donauschwaben in the Banat, including the Arader Land
 * Donauschwaben Genealogical Data Index
 * David Dreyer’s Ship Extraction Database of the Banat Emigration from Banat including name extractions