Albania Church Records

Introduction
For information about records for non-Christian religions in Albania not discussed in this article, go to the Religious Records page.

Church records were recorded by church clergymen and include baptism, marriage, and burial registers. These parish registers include Roman-Catholic and Greek-Orthodox congregations. Church books are a primary source of birth, marriage, and death information for Christian ancestors from Albania. They identify names of parents, prove relationships, and are very useful for linking generations. It is important to remember that historically only about 30% of the Albania's population was Christian.

In the 2011 census, about 10.03% of Albania's population declared Roman Catholic Christianity as of 2011 census.Albania once numbered eighteen episcopal Sees, some of them having uninterrupted activity from the dawn of the Catholicism until today. The country has been a Roman Catholic bridgehead in the Balkans, with Catholic Albanians playing a role not unlike the Croats in the former Yugoslavia. However, Ottoman rule ultimately vastly decreased the number of Catholics in Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans, with waves of conversions to Islam and to a lesser extent Orthodoxy occurring especially in the 17th century after a series of failed rebellions and punitive measures which involved drastic raises in the taxes of the Catholic population.

Coverage
The earliest church records date from about 1700; many date from the late 1800s. Most churches continued to keep records until the latter 1940s. Many continued until 1950 when ruthless persecution of clergy and religion brought an end to the keeping of these records. A few churches kept records as late as 1967. Only 30% of the population was Christian, so the majority of Albanians will not be found in these records.

Content

 * Baptisms – name of individual, date of birth and baptism, names of parents (including mother's maiden name), names of godparents.
 * Marriages – names of the groom and bride, ages, date and place of marriage; sometimes birthplaces and parents of groom and bride; names and residences of witnesses; other pertinent facts.
 * Deaths and Burials – name of the deceased, date and place of death and burial, age at time of death, marital status, cause of death, name of spouse; for children often also parents’ names.
 * Other Lists – confirmations, nuptials and proclamations, church census, chronologies, masses observed, bestowal of property, leases, church correspondence, visitations, statistics, etc. Some of these additional lists date from as early as 1600.

Accessing the Records
Some Church records may be with local parishes or Dioceses. Responsibility for keeping these records lies with the Central State Archives of Albania in Tiranë which has many of the older church records. These archives are accessible to scholars. Some records may also be in other storage facilities. Additionally, some church records may have been acquired by civil registration offices or kept by the church. Unfortunately there has been considerable loss of church records in Albania.

The Family History Library has microfilmed 30% of Albania's church records, including most of the existing records of the district of Shkodër.

Digital Copies of Church Records in the FamilySearch Catalog
Watch for digitized copies of church records to be added to the collection of the FamilySearch Library. Some records might have viewing restrictions, and can only be viewed at a Family History Center near you, and/or by members of supporting organizations. To find records:
 * a. Click on the records of Albania.
 * b. Click on Places within Albania and a list of towns will appear.
 * c. Click on your town if it appears, or the location which you believe was the parish which served your town or village.
 * d. Click on the "Church records" topic. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the listing for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the record 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 records.

Writing for Records
You will probably need to write to or email the national archives, the diocese, or local parish priests to find records. Use Letter Writing Guide for Genealogy for help with composing letters. Then, use an Albanian translation service.
 * Maps.me Church Listings for Albania
 * Google Maps search results for churches in Albania