Croatia Church Records

For information about records for non-Christian religions in Croatia, go to the Religious Records page.

Overview

 * Croatia has no official religion and Freedom of religion is a right defined by the Constitution of Croatia, which also defines all religious communities as equal in front of the law and separate from the state.
 * The most predominant religion in Croatia is Christianity and a large majority of the Croatian population declares themselves as members of the Roman Catholic Church (86.28%). The other main religions of Croatia are Eastern Orthodoxy (4.44%), Protestantism (0.34%), other Christianity (0.30%), and Islam (1.47%). 4.57% of the population describes themselves as non-religious.
 * Croats are almost exclusively Roman Catholic and Serbs are Orthodox. 
 * The language of the records is either Latin, Croatian, Hungarian, or Italian. Glagolitic and Cyrillic as well as Roman script occur in the records.

Time Period

 * Roman Catholic parishes kept registers earlier than Orthodox parishes which were required to keep them only after 1777.
 * Civil transcripts of registers were mandated during the 19th century.
 * A tabular format was adopted after 1848.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
Birth records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of baptism
 * Name of infant
 * Gender and date of birth
 * Legitimacy
 * Religion
 * Parents' names, residence, and place of origin
 * Names of witnesses or godparents

Marriage records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of the event
 * Names of the bride and groom
 * Their civil statuses (widowed, single, divorced) at the time of the event
 * Places of origin and residence of the bride and groom
 * Names of parents
 * Name of witnesses

Burial records usually contain the following information:


 * Place and date of the event
 * Place and date of death
 * Name of the principal (deceased)
 * Civil status of principal at time of death
 * Civil status and name of spouse, if married at time of death
 * Parents' names
 * Sometimes, place of burial

Accessing the Records
Older parish registers have been and continue to be transferred to the district historical archives or the Croatia State Archive.

Catholic Parish List
Go to Appendix B. for a Croatian Catholic Parish List

Online Databases: FamilySearch Historical Records

 * Roman Catholic (Rimokatolička crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994 (Roman Catholic), images.
 * Orthodox (Pravoslavna crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Orthodox, images.
 * Greek Catholic (Grkokatolička crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Greek Catholic, images.
 * Evangelical (Evangelička crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Evangelical, images.
 * Reformed Christian (Reformska crkva): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Reformed Christian, images.
 * Jewish (Židovska): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Jewish, images.
 * Military (Vojni): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Military, images.
 * Civil (Građanski): Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994, Civil, images.

FamilySearch Microfilming

 * Various church books from the Croatian State Archives
 * Orthodox church records of the Blaski eparchy (Blaski is not a geographic place, but the name of a patriarch. The eparchy covered all of the Orthodox parishes in Dalmatia)
 * Documents from district church archives throughout Croatia
 * Church records from the Osijek State Archives
 * Material from the Varaždin State Archives
 * Catholic church books from the Zadar and Split State Archives
 * Orthodox church books from the Zadar and Split State Archives
 * Church books from the Dubrovnik State Archives
 * Records from the Rijeka State Archives
 * Records from the Pazin State Archives

Websites

 * ARHiNET Croatia 355 vital registers, mostly from the Zagreb area, expected to grow. See Croatia How to Use Croatian Digital Archives.

Writing for Records
Use the Croatia Letter Writing Guide to write for records not available online.