Bulgaria Jewish Records

Back to Bulgaria Page►

Records in Bulgaria
Administratively, Bulgaria is divided into twenty eight districts. Each district has an archive where civil registration records are preserved. For civil registration records, see the "Civil Registration" section.

Most of the archival material of the Sofia Jewish community was burned by the community itself before Jews were deported from the capital during World War II. However, death registers that cover a period of at least 100 years (the first registration date unknown) are held in the synagogue and in the Jewish Plot Office of the Municipal Cemetery.

Vital records for Sofia from 1878 are kept in the Municipal Distict Council. There are no vital records in the National Historical Archive in Sofia.

Records in Israel
The Central Archives for the history of the Jewish People Jerusalem (CAHJP) hold microfilmed group passports of the immigrants who arrived in Israel from all Jewish-Bulgarian communities between October 1948 and May 1949. The archives also have lists of immigrant surnames by ships and various records for different time periods from a number of communities in Bulgaria.

Records at the Family History Library
The Family History Library has microfilms of civil registration for the districts of Sofia and Plovdiv. In the FamilySearch Catalog, look in the Place Search under:

BULGARIA, [DISTRICT], [LOCALITY] - CIVIL REGISTRATION.

Sources in Print
Tagger, Mathilde A. "A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames in Bulgaria: A Window on Its History." In: Avotaynu Volume XXV, No. 4 (Winter 2009), pp. 12-17. [FHL INTL. 296.05 Av79 v. 24].