Embedded Files
Austria, Croatia, Czech & Slovak,
Hungary, Poland, Switzerland
Note: A concise definition of what states are in central vs. eastern Europe is unavailable and contested. On this page, the areas are combined.
The Federation for East European Family History Studies offers links to resources for each Eastern European Country.
Note: With Central and Eastern European countries, you may have problems tracking down surnames. The Polish, Czech, and Slovak languages have letters that are not in the English alphabet. When searching these names, try multiple variants or research the development of surnames in those countries.
Austria
Austria
Austrian newspaper database ANNO: Austrian Newspapers Online.
A Family Search Wiki on Austrian genealogy can be found here.
Croatia
Croatia
The challenge in Croatia is changing jurisdictions and multiple languages.
Some areas may have records in Italian, Latin, Croatian, Hungarian or Glagolitic (Croatian dialect).
Czech & Slovak Research
Czech & Slovak Research
Since 2000, the Czech Republic has consisted of 13 regions plus the capital city of Prague. These regions encompass 76 districts, which are divided into municipalities.
Slovakia is divided into 8 regions, including the capital city of Bratislava.
Slovakian Civil Records up to 100 years old are housed in the registrars’ offices of individual adminsitrative districts.
Slovakia did not exist independently in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Prior to that time, it was Austria-Hungary.
Czech and Slovak Heritage contains links to heritage, folklore, genealogy, travel, and history.
National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library contains resources for Czech and Slovak genealogy
W Johnston’s is a useful guide for finding Czech records.
Hungary
Hungary
Hungarians commonly put their family names before their given names. A woman often won’t appear in records by her own name, but by adding the suffix -né
Contains the Hungarian Marriage Project, an index of marriages in over 70 parishes in Europe and the United States
Visit the Surnames Database to connect with others researching the same surnames.
Poland
Poland
Poland is particularly difficult to research because of its its multiple border changes.
Partitions in 1772, 1793 and 1795 saw Poland carved up and its land distributed to Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Historically, powiaty (counties) were the basic geographic divisions. In 1975 the government also introduced wojewodztwa (provinces). In 1999 its 49 provinces were consolidated into 16.
Note: Polish children were often named after a saint whose feast day was near the child’s birth or baptismal date.
AGAD; The Central Arhives of Historical Records in Warsaw – online registry and parish records from the Eastern areas of Poland (now in Ukraine)
Metryki – vital records indexes
Poland Gen Web Project is a good resource to sort out the boundary changes.
For a map of contemporary Poland visit here
Poznan Project – digitized parish marrigae records
Wielkopolka Genealogical Society – BaSIA; Archival Database Indexing System – focus on the 18th – 20th centuries
Switzerland
Switzerland
Records are generaly kept at the individual municipality “canton” level rather than at a national level. Family Search has a Wiki for Switzeland Archives and Libraries which has contact information about the different cantons.
The registers of Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches often date to the 1500’s. Church records include baptismal records, confirmation records, marriage records, and burial records.
A FamilySearch wiki for Switzerland Genealogy can be found here.
Register of Swiss Surnames lists the surnames for families that held citizenship in each canton
The Swiss Center of North America contains tips and information for Swiss genealogical research.
Swiss newspaper database Neue Zurcher Zeitung
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