Vital records

The basic genealogy resources include vital documents such as birth, marriage and death records.  In conducting research of family members with connections to Hungary, Austria and even parts of present day Romania as well as parts of former Yugoslavia - formerly Austro-Hungarian Empire - one needs to be sensitive to legislation which was enacted in 1895. Essentially, this legislation assured continuity of the state registry information from 1895 to the present. More info about the system of vital records in Slovakia you may find here.

Vital records before 1895

Different churches recorded births, marriages and deaths in parish registers. Slovak registers up to 1895 are stored in the Archives of Bratislava and seven State Archives. These archives are open to the public. Parts of the records have been microfilmed and are available by the Family History Centers of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Church. The similar system is in Croatia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine. In Hungary the churches kept the historical records.

Vital records after 1895

Civil records are stored in the registrar's offices. Data of living persons has been imaged for ease of retrieval. Data of deceased individuals who died before the imaging scanning commenced are stored in books. These books are located in respective registrar's offices. Birth, marriage and death certificates are only available to relatives. In addition, relatives may gain further insight into their family background by studying remarks which appear in the register books. Note taking is permissible. Other persons (e.g. professional researchers) are required to have written authorization from corresponding relatives. Such authorization must be executed (written) in the official language.

Other resources in Slovak archives

• Plot records and urbarial files (e.g. files related to the first plot reform ordered by empress Maria Therezia)
• Census data, the most detailed is the 1869 census, where the individual census sheets are available for some former Hungarian counties
• Fiscal censuses (lists of taxpayers)
• Jewish census conducted in 1848
• "Nobilitaria" - files related to noble families

Online databases

Ellis Island immigration database is a valuable free tool for checking the origin of the immigrants. The other excellent tool is the 1891 Hungarian Trade and Industry Directory digitized by Janos Bogardi (Radix) and other online Radix databases, where some features are accessible free of charge. A supplementary online resource is also the 1900 Budapest directory. It is worthwhile to mention, that in 1910 in Budapest lived following ethnic nationalities of Hungarian Kingdom: Hungarians (756,000), Germans (78,000), Slovaks (20,000), Romanians (27,000), Croatians (3,000), Serbians (4,000), Czechs (15,000). In such sense, Budapest was in that time the largest "Slovak town" (Slovak population of Bratislava was only 11,600, Banska Bystrica 10,700 total, etc.).

The publishing house Arcanum started recently in cooperation with the Hungarian National Archives a project of online publishing of various archival funds online (only in Hungarian). CentroConsult developed with permission of Arcanum an unofficial guide in English.

For Slovak online databases click here.

Genealogy forums

There are may discussion boards and forums, where the researcher can post their queries and ask for help. Here are some of them:

• Genealogy - Czech and Slovak Republic - a Delphi forum established by Greg Kopchak
• Slovak Genealogy Forum and other forums provided by genealogy.com
• RootsWeb Message Boards [ Slovakia ] and other forums provided by RootsWeb.com
• RadixForum  provided by Janos Bogardi (Radix)
• Slovak Genealogy Forum provided  by Slovakia Document Store
• Slovensko.com Forum - Genealogy (Ancestors and Relatives) provided by Slovensko.com