Purpose of this page

According the Act of the National Council of the Slovak Republic No. 180/1995 Z.z. adopted in 1995, the Slovak government had to recover the national land register in Slovakia until 1st September 2005.

In May 2005 the General Prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court, if the Act is consistent with the Slovak Constitution (His opinion was, that the rights of the landowners are breached by that law). The Constitutional Court suspended the  implementation of the law. It means, that the possibility to claim is still open.

In order to facilitate the identification of the owners of the abandoned land (aka "unclaimed land" or "land of undetermined owners") the Slovak government launched a free search portal "Zoznam nezistených vlastníkov"  (A list of unknown land owners). In July 2005 the English version was also launched. Unfortunately, in Autumn 2007 the operation of this portal was stopped. This portal was replaced by the free online Slovak plot register called Katastrálny portál. This database includes the present land ownership data of all land in Slovakia.

The purpose of the Section 1 is to give a short tutorial, how to utilize the available free search portal for the genealogy research.
In the Section 2 we present also more detailed description of the land record systems in Slovakia in last 100 years, examples of real historical and present documents and hints how Slovak expatriates can claim their land possessions in Slovakia.

Important remark: Usually the ancestors, who emigrated from the old country were not wealthy. The real estate they left home was not valuable, therefore in most cases the value of estate is less that the cost of the claim. Bill Tarkulich explains it as follows....

Table of contents

• Terminology related to the land records used in Slovakia
• How to search the owners
• Professional assistance
  

Terminology related to the land records used in Slovakia

In Hungary all the descendants were eligible heirs. It means, that if the owner had 12 children, all the children inherited a small portion of the estate. At the beginning the plots were divided to smaller in kind, so there were created a plots like long noodles of land. Later when it was even not possible to split such "noodles" any more, the plots were no longer divided and the subsequent heirs became joint owners. The heirs inherited only ideal arithmetic shares of the plots. As the result in present a typical Slovak parcel has many co-owners who shares the joint ownership. According an article in the Slovak Spectator, the average land in rural areas covers 0.45 hectares and belongs to 12 to 15 co-owners. This is the most common form of ownership in Slovakia. See also the historical explanation in the Section 2.

The legal document (hard copy) attesting land ownership is called Vypis z listu vlastnictva, in bureaucratic jargon called simply List vlastnictva (property sheet), the acronym is LV. The structure is

• Part A - description of the property and inventory of the parcels;
• Part B - list of the present joint owners, there are listed both known owners (i.e. owners who are alive and who updated their contact data recently) and undetermined owners (i.e. former owners who are dead and the heirs are unknown or owners who moved and have residence on unknown place);
• Part C - liabilities (if any);

The examples and interpretation of the LVs are described below.

A glossary of the basic expression is:

Slovak expression	Explanation
List vlastnictva (LV)	Property sheet, a document listing one or more property parcels (plots of land) all having the same owner or owners (joint owners)
Vypis z listu vlastníctva	Extract from the LV
Cislo listu vlastnictva	ID number identifying the List vlastnictva (in each village there are many LVs)
Porad. č. spoluvlastníka na liste vlastníctva	ID number allocated to each of the joint owners, usually there are many co-owners
Katastrálne územie	Settlement or its part (former independent village). In last 100 years many villages were merged together, but the land records are still organized according the old villages

How to search the land owners online

The detailed serch guidelines are presented in the toolbox.

The plot details are included in the Vypis z listu vlastnictva described here.


Bill Tarkulich proposed the following dictionary of frequently used terms and abbreviations. There are various abbreviations used in different historical periods

Technical abbreviations

Slovak expression	English translation/description
c.d. 334/1952	c. is abbreviation for "číslo" (number), d. is abbreviation for "doklad" (document, file), the interpretation of this note is: Ownership by means of inheritance in the year 1952. The "334" is refers to the file number.
Titul nadobudnutia	Legal reason for acquiring ownership
D 807/68	D is abbreviation for "dedičstvo" (inheritance). The interpretation of this note is: Ownership by means of inheritance in the year 1968. The "807" is refers to the inheritance protocol number.
PVZ 6/79	Purchase of land in 1979
SPF	Slovenský pozemkový fond = The Slovak Land Fund, an agency administering temporarily the land of unknown owners, the users of that land pay a rent to the SPF
LSR	Lesy Slovenskej Republiky = The Slovak state forest administration,  a state owned company cultivating both the forests in state ownership as well as the forest owned by unknown owners
PKV	Abbreviation for the "Pozemkovo knižná vložka" = historical land record file, used until circa 1960

Description of the individuals

Slovak expression	English translation/description
Grof	Count
Hluchonemy(a)	Deaf-mute
Malolety	Minor (a child less than 15 years). If they are recorded as heirs, they were probably orphans, otherwise their father/mother would be heirs
Manžel/Manželka	Husband/Wife
Mladší	Junior (to distinguish more individuals with the same name)
Muz	Husband
r.	acronym for "rodená" = born as, it is actually the maiden name
Slabomyselný	Mentally deficient
Starší	Senior (to distinguish more individuals with the same name)
Syn	Son
Vdova/Vdovec	Widow/Widower
ženatý	married with
z.	Acronym for "ženatý" = married with
Zomrelý(á)	Death
Nebohý	Late /death)
Zom.	Acronym for "zomrelý" = death

Property words

Slovak expression	English translation/description
Orná pôda	Acreage, cultivated farmland
Ostatné plochy	Others
Trvalý trávny porast	Meadow
Vinica	Vineyard
Záhrada	Garden, usually connected to a house

I would appreciate to receive other examples of strategies and glossary updates from other database users sent to:

Professional assistance

CentroConsult offers professional assistance in:

1. Mining of the data included in the Slovak land records for genealogy purposes;
2. Identification of the unclaimed land left in Slovakia by ancestors;
3. Assessment, if it is worthwhile to submit a claim (according the Slovak law, also foreigner are eligible, the question is, if the value of the estate is not less than the fees);
   
4. Submitting land claims in Slovakia. This is a rather complex proceeding and there are no standard forms.
   

Credit to Bill Tarkulich for proofreading corrections and comments
Last update: 4 January 2011

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