Upper Austria, Austria Genealogy

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Guide to Upper Austria State ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

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History[edit | edit source]

In 1490, the area was given a measure of independence within the Holy Roman Empire, with the status of a principality. By 1550, there was a Protestant majority. In 1564, Upper Austria, together with Lower Austria and the Bohemian territories, fell under Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. At the start of the 17th century, the counter-reformation was instituted under Emperor Rudolf II and his successor Matthias. After a military campaign, the area was under the control of Bavaria for some years in the early 17th century. During the Napoleonic Wars, Upper Austria was occupied by the French army on more than one occasion.
In 1918, after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the name Oberösterreich was used to describe the province of the new Austria. After Austria was annexed by Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator who had been born in the Upper Austrian town of Braunau am Inn and raised in Upper Austria, Upper Austria became Reichsgau Oberdonau, although this also included the southern part of the Sudetenland, annexed from Czechoslovakia, and a small part of Styria. In 1945, Upper Austria was partitioned between the American zone to the south and the Soviet zone to the north.[1]

For Austria Research, You Must Know Your Ancestors' Town[edit | edit source]

  • To begin using the records Austria, just knowing that your family came from the country will not be enough. Records are kept on the local level, so you will have to know the town they lived in.
  • Details about the town will also help:
    • the county of that town,
    • where the closest Evangelical Lutheran, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, etc. parish church was (depending on their religion),
    • where the civil registration office was, and
    • if you have only a village name, you will need the name of the larger town it was part of.

Research to Find the Town[edit | edit source]

If you do not yet know the name of the town of your ancestor's birth, there are well-known strategies for a thorough hunt for it.

If You Know the Town, Next Use the GenTeam Gazetteer[edit | edit source]

GenTeam is an online gazetteer that covers the current countries of Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovenia (most of the area belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire). It gives former (German) and current names of locations, the name of the parish, the beginning year of the records, and the archive that holds the records. It will also give details on earlier parishes the locality belonged to. It then links to the website of that archive.

This is an example of a typical parish record entry that you will see:

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Research Help[edit | edit source]

For help with genealogy in this region, see Austria Genealogy.

Online Records[edit | edit source]

Microfilm Copies of Records at a Family History Center[edit | edit source]

If the locality and time period you need are not included in the online records, the next step is to check for them in the microfilm collection of the Family History Library. These microfilms may be ordered for viewing at Family History Centers around the world. To find a microfilm:

a. Click on "Places within Austria, Oberösterreich" (Upper Austria)
b. Select your record type: Church records and civil registration are the most important.
c. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
d. Choose the correct record type and time period for your ancestor.
e. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm 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 microfilm.


Writing for Records[edit | edit source]

See German Letter Writing Guide for help and translations.

Civil Registration[edit | edit source]

Civil registration, the government records of births, marriages, and deaths, began in Austria on 1 January 1939. The office that keeps these records is the Standesamt.

Archives[edit | edit source]

Diocesan Archives Linz (Catholic)
Harrachstraße 7
A-4020 Linz, Austria

Tel .: 0043/732/77 12 05-8608
Fax: 0043/732/77 12 05-8100
E-mail: archiv@dioezese-linz.at



Archive of the Evangelical Church in Austria (Lutheran)
Evangelical Church in Austria Church
Severin Schreiber-Gasse 3
Dept. of Matriculation, Archives, Library
A-1180 Vienna, Austria

Tel .: +43/1/4791523/519
Fax: +43/1/4791523/440
E-Mail: archiv @ Evang.at


Upper Austrian Provincial Archives (State)
Anzengruberstraße 19
4020 Linz, Austria

Phone: (+43 732) 7720-146 01
Fax: (+43 732) 7720-2146 19
E-Mail: landesarchiv@ooe.gv.at

Local Churches[edit | edit source]

Reading the Records[edit | edit source]

  • It's easier than you think! You do not have to be fluent in French and German to use these records, as there is only a limited vocabulary used in them. By learning a few key phrases, you will be able to read them adequately. Here are some resources for learning to read German records.
German Genealogical Word List
German Handwriting
  • These video webinars will teach you to read German handwriting:
  • Also online interactive slideshow lessons are available to help you learn to read these records:

This converter will show you how any phrase or name might look in German script:

  • Kurrentschrift Converter (enter German genealogical word, click on "convert", view your word in Kurrentschrift (Gothic handwriting)

Latin Records[edit | edit source]

Records of the Catholic church will usually be written in Latin:

Search Strategy[edit | edit source]

  • Search for the relative or ancestor you selected. When you find his birth record, search for the births of his brothers and sisters.
  • Next, search for the marriage of his parents. The marriage record will have information that will often help you find the birth records of the parents.
  • You can estimate the ages of the parents and determine a birth year to search for their birth records.
  • Search the death registers for all known family members.
  • Repeat this process for both the father and the mother, starting with their birth records, then their siblings' births, then their parents' marriages, and so on.
  • If earlier generations (parents, grandparents, etc.) do not appear in the records, search neighboring parishes.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Wikipedia collaborators, "Upper Austria," Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Austria (accessed December 5, 2017)
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